Hubman

I am glad TSL is still around and doing its thing. If there has been one example of sustained quality that has come out of Blacksburg over the last few decades, it has been TSL. Keet it up!

It’s obvious. It’s not something to even be debated. It’s just not going to happen. Basketball has been hard to watch/follow under Mike Young. There is no actual hope for a winner. People talk around here like Young is the second coming of Beamer or something. He is not. Buzz was a much better coach and we wouldn’t debate this had Cattoor not lost his mind in an ACC Tourney a few years back. The Franklin move was the biggest move since Buzz. It also signaled that we aren’t going to be focusing on basketball moving forward. It also probably signals that Mike Young will likely die on the sidelines here at VT because, well, he at least can keep us over .500 and competitive.

VT has been toast in this football environment. It literally has zero path to success, especially because we have such a conservative view on everything. Cash is king in this environment, but so is risk and forward-thinking. The powers that be at VT have balked on risk and forward-thinking to focus on simply keeping the best interests of the academic institution first. That’s not a bad move of course, but it’s waiving the white flag for revenue sport success. About six years ago I said that VT’s ONLY pathway to success was through basketball but they did the exact opposite. Instead of stacking the deck and building a powerful basketball program, it decided to sustain the football program to keep butts in the seats. That is largely a local economic decision. Again, fine, but VT isn’t competing in football again until we come up with a lot more money and implement a non-conservative approach to hiring/fundraising/recruiting/scheduling/etc. The fact that we hired Brent Pry and never even gave Deion Sanders a phone call is the narrow thinking this place still has… ** Edited by Hubman at 1/4/2025, 11:12:11 AM

...he played well in the ACC Tourney. He was borderline unplayable for most of the ACC season last year...

…but we could not take it. It was a tough loss and likely the last straw for MY and Maddox. Maddox has had a really tough year. He has been a net negative in ACC play and has struggled, immensely, on both ends of the court. He put up a goose egg against a Clemson team that played one of their worst games of the season, and I think MY figured it was time to switch things up. He did the same thing last year with Alleyne and Storm. They were both underperforming and a lot of their minutes were replaced by Pedulla and, ironically, Maddox. It is what it is. As a coach, you have to get the best out of your players, but if it doesn’t work, you have to make changes. Coaching is about W’s. You need them to keep coaching.

Come on, man. This is not a good argument. Then again, I am not going to argue the situation. Alleyne decided what was best for him (or maybe it was his parents). Great. I hope he is in a more peaceful situation for himself.

...but that was not the case at all last year. If Maddox was not on the squad last year, we would have been lucky to reach the NIT. Lucky. By all accounts, Maddox is a super talented basketball player; however, he has not played that way on the court this season. That sucks for us, and I am sure it sucks for his mindset. All of that said, Alleyne left. He did not leave because the fans pushed him out. That's not the way it works.

The original poster is soft because he said Maddox likely lost his starting role? Maddox is having a really rough year, a lot like Alleyne had last year. Alleyne however, contributed more on the other end of the floor. Alleyne had a lot of his minutes sucked up by, ironically, Maddox at the end of last year because Maddox could put the ball in the hoop. This year, he can't. He consistently can't. Our issue this year is that Collins would be the clear replacement for Maddox; however, he is a frosh that cannot be expected to do too much on the defensive end in ACC play, and his offense has yet to really come around. Maddox is playing so much simply because there aren't really other options, not because he has earned all of these minutes per se. So yeah, I guess I don't understand the soft comment, but maybe there is some other context I did not see.

…and the “poor” hungry to dominate.

** Edited by Hubman at 9/5/2022, 2:02:49 PM

That said, the OK pitcher is absolutely dealing…

…hitting this many. Most of these are cans of corn with a wooden/composite bat.