Is Mike Young on the hot seat at Virginia Tech? Maybe.
No one doubts his coaching chops. Young built Wofford into a program robust enough to nearly knock Kentucky out of the NCAA tournament in 2019. He won 30 games that season and 28 in 2014-15 and if you think that’s easy to do at a school like Wofford, think again.
His best teams have been brilliant offensively, but he hasn’t had very much success since winning the ACC Tournament in 2021-22, beating Duke and freshman sensation Paolo Banchero.
Since
that season, Young’s teams have finished 19-15, 19-15 and 13-19.
Since we accept that he’s a superior coach, that can’t really be the problem. Cassell is a wonderful home court when things are going well. So what’s the problem been?
Well, in a nutshell, it’s been money.
Like some other schools, notably Syracuse, Virginia Tech has adapted slowly to the new environment in college basketball. The school is beginning to address that, but we haven’t seen the results on the court so far.
From last year, the Hokies lose Mylyjael Poteat (9.5 PPG), Jaydon Young (8.1 PPG), Ben Burnham (7.5 PPG), Brandon Rechsteiner (7.0 PPG), Rodney Brown Jr. (4.1 PPG), Patrick Wessler (3.9 PPG), Ryan Jones Jr. (1.2 PPG) and Connor Serven (0.3 PPG)
Burnham and Poteat graduated. Young chose High Point (but bailed after coach Alan Huss returned to Creighton as an assistant) and is now a Tar Heel. Rechsteiner is at Colorado State, Brown is at Loyola Marymount, Wessler is now at UNC-Wilmington, Ryan Jones moved down the road a bit to Liberty and we’re not really sure what happened to Serven.
The Hokies return 6-8 junior Tobi Lawal (12.4 ppg/7.0 rpg), 6-5 sophomore Tyler Johnson (6.7 ppg/4.8 rpg/1.0 apg), 5-11 sophomore Ben Hammond, who attended Paul VI with Duke’s Patrick Ngongba and Darren Harris (5.6 ppg/1.7 rpg/2.1 apg) and last but not least 6-4 junior and former Blue Devil Jayden Schutt (7.7 ppg/2.8 rpg/1.5 apg).
Lawal got a look-see from the NBA but he was realistic about it, saying he didn’t expect much to come of it but that he felt obliged to try. Why wouldn’t he?
The portal taketh but also giveth, if you can pay anyway, and the Hokies get Izaiah Pasha, a 6-4 freshman from Delaware, Jailen Bedford, a 6-4 senior from UNLV and Amani Hansberry, a 6-8/240 sophomore from West Virginia.
Pasha was the CAA Rookie of the Year last year and also got serious interest from Gonzaga and Texas Tech. He put up 13.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 5.8 apg with the Blue Hens. At a minimum, he should help with depth, but he could emerge as a much better player than that. At one point he had ‘70’s style Fat Elvis style sideburns, but he appears to have left those behind. Too bad.
Bedford has been a grinder to date. He left high school with very minimal interest and went to JUCO, where he shot 44% from behind the line. From there, he went to Oral Roberts, where, in a couple of his better games, he racked up 26 against Texas Tech and 23 against Kansas State.
At UNLV, he didn’t start but played in all 31 games and still was hitting 39% from behind the line. You can kind of see why Young is interested, given his fascination with the long shot. He’s experienced and clearly doesn’t mind working hard, so he should help.
Hansberry may be the best portal acquisition. A Baltimore kid, which suggests toughness, he was a Top 75 recruit
He left West Virginia when Darian DeVries took the Indiana job after starting off at Illinois and at 6-8 and 240, he should give Young a nice, experienced physical presence around the basket. He’ll need to step his game up, but Young’s passion for the three pointer should open things up for him inside. At West Virginia, he averaged 9.8 ppg and 6.5 boards. Fortunately for Tech, Young has some big freshmen too.
That freshman class consists of Christian Gurdak (6-10/260), Sin’Cere Jones(6-7), Solomon Davis (6-11/225), Brett Freeman (6-5), Shamarius Peterkin (6-3), Antonio Dorn (7-0/230/Germany) and Neoklis Avdalas (6-9/215/Greece).
Gurdak is well regarded for his skill level but he’s apparently not overly talented. Big deal. Guys like Larry Bird, Bill Laimbeer, Charles Oakley and others have carved out tremendous careers despite not being overly athletic. How do you measure the athleticism of Bird’s hand/eye coordination or the toughness Laimbeer and Oakley brought to their teams? Much less the confidence they displayed?
Gurdak is a big, thick presence and like Hammond, he was at Paul VI before transferring to D.C.’s Gonzaga. He’s got work to do and he’s reportedly kind of heavy-footed, but he can maximize his skills and he’s smart. He might not be a huge factor next season, but they said some of the same things about Drew Timme. Keep an eye on that guy.
Jones is not a highly rated player but if you’ve been reading here for any time, you know what we think about ratings – big whoop. Young says that he’s “just scratching the surface of what he can become. His versatility will impact both ends of the court for us.” Young, remember, is a master of finding underappreciated talent.
He might take a year or two to emerge, or maybe he’s ahead of schedule. Guess we’ll know soon.
Davis is a guy we just can’t get a feel for yet. He played at DeMatha, but today’s DeMatha is not the DeMatha of Morgan Wooten. It’s still good, but that guy was an all-timer and DeMatha was an incredible program in his day.
Odds are we won’t see Davis much this year, but like Jones, it’s hard to say. We might be surprised.
If you want to pick a guy from another ACC school to pull for, try Freeman. That kid broke both of his legs in a car accident several years ago and has had to go through a really serious rehab. How good is he? No one really knows yet, but he averaged over 24 points last season at Charlotte’s Ardrey Kell. He might still have some work to do to catch up but clearly, this guy wants it. It’s hard not to pull for someone like that.
Peterkin plans to play both football and basketball, so unless he’s the new Charlie Ward, who started at quarterback and point guard for Florida State back in the day, odds are he’ll be coming off the bench. However, we could imagine him developing an early role as a pitbull defender.
Young brought in two international players and both are very interesting.
Dorn is from Germany and unlike most freshmen, he’s 22. The NCAA gave him three years, but Virginia Tech still lists him as a freshman. He also has a five-year window to play those three seasons. We don’t know where his game is now, but at 22, he’s got some obvious advantages. At a minimum, he’s good depth and the maximum could be really exciting for Tech.
As for Avdalas, he’s from Greece and he should make an immediate impact. He has real versatility and could play point guard, though he’s more likely to be a point forward. He’s reportedly quite quick and athletic and while his three point shooting may need some work, he can fix that.
He was reportedly projected as a second-round pick this past draft so obviously we’d expect him to start.
Young has put together an intriguing group. He’s got seven players who are at least 6-7, four guys who are at least 6-9, some potential power players and some three point shooters. He’s got depth at point guard with Hammond, Pasha and Avdalas, and Avdalas, could emerge as the queen on the Hokie chessboard.
It’s going to be fun for Young to get in under the hood and tinker with this roster and the Hokies should be significantly better than they have been lately.
The problem is that a lot of ACC schools should also be better and like some other schools, the Hokies might be much more competitive and still not able to move up much.
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