Rev.Zeke Vodka

at video that pretty much all players are lights out shooters. Whether it is on the men’s side or women’s side, they can shoot the ball extremely well. Continental or International, it does not matter. Shooting sure has improved over the past 5-10 years without question. These players are money. Wet, even.

Some people mistake 6-6- 6-8 players that can shoot C&S threes, maybe dribble it a little means they can play the point. For me, it always is about what position you can guard. If you are a 6-7 wing can you guard a 6-0 point with tons of wiggle to their game? Can you stop a 6-1 point from getting around you as much as he wants with his dribble? Can you handle 40 mins of 94’ ball pressure from a lightning quick 5-10 point that his essence is the ability to defend relentlessly the entire game and wear down much taller points with extreme pressure. If you can’t handle that 40 mins of pressure, if you can’t stop the opposing point from consistently getting around you with the dribble then you aren’t a point guard.

6-8 wing from Sunrise Christian in Kansas

And not going into details because there are many there, but I personally know of no other basketball coach that I have met in all my years that equals Wade as far as not ever wanting to talk to or be in his orbit ever again. I throw up in my mouth when he walks into the same gym as myself ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 5/21/2026, 4:58:04 PM

Agreed. That is one of the priorities. You want a low turnover player with good decision making capabilities. But if you can’t get around people with the dribble as a point guard you simply can’t function at that position. Defensive-minded points will eat you alive if they know you can’t beat them off the dribble and will harass you relentlessly, while turning you into a very high turnover player.

Spotting up C&S guys have value, especially if they aren’t wildly inconsistent. Niche guy to me, don’t see him getting any run at 1 as there would be serious questions as to whether he can get around anyone

underestimate the incredible pettiness that many individuals in grassroots basketball can display. Whether coaches, CEO’s, lieutenants or what have you, there can be some crazy examples of pettiness displayed by many different people. This was the start of the fracture but was certainly not the sole reason and other things have occurred that have stamped out any chance of repairs.

As GC stated. Team Loaded kids just aren’t coming to Tech except for very unusual circumstances. Ty White and Tech actually had a good relationship at one time in the beginning, when Ty got into the AAU scene. But things turned shortly after that and it has just not improved at all. The original issue was Erick Green. White wanted James Johnson to direct Green to his program for the AAU season. James did not do so and Erik remained on the Winchester team coached by Erick’s father. James understandably wasn’t going to pull a player off an AAU team coached by the father. That’s how you lose a player who had committed to you.I would make that same decision that James made every time. But White got ticked and the incident started the fracture and things never recovered. And more recently it has been about it being the wrong shoe sponsor

Where I have said I want “VT athletics burn just to get better basketball.” I will wait..Making up crap rarely advances any cogent discussion. And then there is this quote of yours, “ the responsible approach is very clearly to support football as much as possible. “ Very clearly perhaps in your opinion, but there are often multiple avenues to a satisfactory solution where various, invested parties are concerned. That is your opinion. Fine. Doesn’t mean it is the opinion of everyone. But you have zero idea of my thoughts on football. You have zero knowledge of my thoughts on Softball. Or Baseball. Or Women's basketball. Or any other VT athletic program. My posts recently have not been attacking posts directed at football. Rather, they have been the poor support for basketball. And by far the issue that bothers me more than anything are the broken promises made. Football is getting more money. We all know that is happening and was going to happen. I personally have always known that was going to occur and don’t have strong feelings about Football receiving the lion’s share. But here is the rub for me…This is where I get chapped. Football was told they are getting X number of dollars. Other programs were told they were getting X number of dollars. My problem is broken promises. If you say the basketball program is getting a specific amount of money then they should get that money. It shouldn’t disappear. Just vanish. Then end up elsewhere. That is an integrity problem. Doing that becomes a trust issue. I don’t know where that money that was promised ended up going. I don’t know for a fact. But I have pretty strong feelings where it went and that bothers me. Not because someone else got the money but the manner in which this money disappeared from its intended and promised recipient. THAT is the issue I have.

Well done

From unquestionably the highest rated player by far from either the portal or high school ranks. This looks like a difference maker for the basketball program. 6-5 wing from the Northeast and it’s believed we had to go pretty big with our NIL dollars to snatch him away from some heavyweights seriously involved in his recruitment. Gotta love snatching guys right out of the hands of others. That’s a skill. Anyway, let’s welcome….Apologies for not recalling his name. Starts with a B or R or maybe P. I need to go find the correct spelling.

He is a true rim protector and that is the value he presents. But he very much needs to get stronger to battle posts. His offense is limited. When he gets stronger, then he will have a chance to earn some minutes. Although he lacks strength, I like his competitive streak. He is not soft. He might need strength to better compete but I like the competitive temperament he brings and he doesn’t run from the fight

With GC, our starting 5 I believe is still to be added. It’s possible Heide starts and we add a defensive-minded 5 who will pretty much split time at the 5 with Heide but something tells me our final big add is a starting 5 with Heide coming off the bench. I see another wing added, especially a 6-6 or 6-7 type wing. We might have to settle for another 6-4, 6-5 wing if the money is tight but ideally I would think we want a 6-6 wing. Then one high school late (cheap) signing. Maybe a point but more likely just a budget-minded addition guy that we can bring in with some development upside. Could even see two high school additions if we find a pg. I wouldn’t think we would bring in two HS guys unless one of them was a point.

is if a player is listed at 6’ then he definitely is smaller. No doubt. If a player is legitimately 6’ then he will be listed at 6-1 or 6-2 because otherwise everyone will assume he is shorter than 6-0 because that is how 5-10 and 5-11 guys are listed. So Curry is at least 6-0 tall. From my experience

Before or after the bank got robbed?

a Trailblazer. Gene Corrigan, John Swofford, Jim Phillips. Nothing about them screams ‘cutting edge’

But resources for NIL is a separate and distinctly different expenditure. Women’s basketball budget is upper third in the conference. NIL money? not so much

over Schutt

Break those contracts routinely if they find larger paydays. Coaches have freedom of movement, so should players. And the mess that is college basketball now is not the fault of the players. It is squarely on the backs of the NCAA and grossly overpaid Head Coaches. But coaches aren’t giving any of that money back. So donors and fans dig deeper and many complain about player movement being too much. Yet the NCAA abdicated their oversight. They could have stopped this merely by accepting players should get paid and doing their job. Their job being instituting guard rails and restrictions along with accepting players should be paid. Instead, they unwisely decided to try and squishy players like a bug and totally deny even paying players. And they were wrong in court. Wrong at the Supreme Court to the tune of a 9-0 decision. Do you realize how grotesquely wrong you have to be to have a unanimous 9-0 decision against you in this polarized political climate? Supreme Court never rules in favor of anything these days by a 9-0 decision. So in losing, the NCAA lost the ability to now put into place any guardrails or restrictions because it is now against the law. A colossal and stupefying mistake on their part and here we are with the mess that they and the coaches created. If I was an AD at a power 4 program I would hire coaches on 1year contracts. They expire the day after the National Championship game. I’m coachless 2 days after the Championship. But I hire the best, most savvy, most astute General Manager and take my 12 mil in NIL money and let him go find me a team for the following season. Only then-after my roster has been completed- do I go out and hire a new Head Coach. Scores of coaches want to coach a possible Final Four roster. And if my GM does their job and evaluates incoming players correctly, then I will have an excellent roster for the next season. And then that means many coaches will want the job. That means I don’t need to pay someone 5-7 million. I find the coach that will work for less money because they are excited about the roster. Let the interested coaches pac-man themselves. Then I end up paying 1 million because there is steep competition to coach the team. Then rinse and repeat the following season. This won’t happen of course but there must be a significant course correction in the amount of money paid to head coaches.

“There is another solution that doesn’t impact coaches by giving players more opportunity to transfer.” ..She conveniently forgets about the impact when coaches leave players to go to another school. Or this quote from Muffet, “Recruiting is no longer about where I can get the best education, the best fit or how my degree will help me get a good job, now it is a transaction.” But coaches leave schools for better paying jobs all the time. Coaches transact and have been transacting for many years yet she doesn’t mention that aspect. Let’s stop villafying players. Yes, coaches aren’t leaving with the frequency of players but they have led the way on chasing the dollars and going to the highest bidder. It can’t be just the players fault when they are only going down the same path as coaches have shown them to travel. The players are the product, NOT the coaches. The players are the product. The adults in the room have botched this process 100%. And by adults, I mean coaches and NCAA. The players are now simply doing what coaches do after the NCAA totally abdicated their oversight responsibility and make a colossal mess of things. That is not on the players, that is on the adults in the room

Ridiculous off season enterprise than top 25 rankings when rosters are in full construction and mostly are incomplete.

This emeritus money for our NIL this year.

to get into coaches’ pockets. I have advocated for that for some time. The players are the product. The players are the product. Not the coaches. It makes no sense to see coaching salaries continue to escalate. Stop paying them these crazy sums of money. Dusty May is a good basketball coach, no doubt about that point. But do you think he is the only coach that could have led Michigan to the title? I sure don’t. There are many outstanding coaches. The landscape has shifted and it is more about having the resources to bring high caliber talent into a program. Once you accomplish that feat, many coaches can do a good job when they have outstanding talent. Many coaches can win a national championship when given the talent. Now do I think this will happen? I don’t know. More than likely, probably not since it constitutes a huge inversion of the way things are done currently. But lowering coaching salaries sure can be a difference maker. I am a bit surprised we haven’t already seen some talk about doing so but it has been crickets pretty much.

Going to throw his AD or administration under the bus. That is what he would be doing and that isn’t his style or personality. I would be personally shocked if he took that approach

names and I think technically that might still be an NCAA violation. Yeah, I know, the NCAA is totally neutered and impotent but it’s still an NCAA violation as far as I know and I’m throwing nobody under the bus

Last portal season… used 500k of his money

Stanford Big that Tech was fooling with some.

Given what we offered Gurdak and what his agent said he would need to stay, I would be very surprised. Granted, dollars are highly inflated for Bigs but that seems hard to believe

grandfathered in and it takes effect very soon as in this current portal landscape, this would very much change the market. These are big ifs and don’t know where this ultimately ends up as the NCAA has an extremely poor recent record in state, federal and the Supreme Courts. But essentially you will be adding an entire class of seniors into the portal immediately, thus suppressing value as there will be much more supply. A long way from seeing this but it would be an instant and dramatic change to the portal. And if it was decided to grandfather players in for the 5th year you would have to allow them to instantly become portal-eligible due to the change occurring after the portal entry deadline. It could be a fascinating disruption. Possibly beneficial for Virginia Tech and I wonder if we don’t see some programs start really slow playing some things as far as new signings while they try to get clarification. Timing of this is ridiculous but so on point for the NCAA. Who knows how, when and if this even transpires. ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/23/2026, 4:54:32 PM

Wake is one of the few ACC schools that might be poorer than Tech. They saw in-person Dorn’s best game of the year in the ACC tournament against Wake. I know they like him because a close scouting friend of mine is tight with their staff and he recently reached out to me about their interest in Dorn. Put those two things together and it makes some sense for Wake. ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/22/2026, 8:40:39 PM

Shelor Motor Mile is offering 10% discount on new 2026 cars, along with 3 free oil changes. Mission BBQ is kicking in free barbecue for a year. It’s a level playing field ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/20/2026, 3:43:16 PM

Few days back

at Miller School in Charlottesville in the summer before my sophomore year in High School. Most of the camp was on several outdoor asphalt surface baskets since the camp was held in mid summer. But the indoor gym was used to gather campers and listen to his talks to the campers. We had 1 hour of free time between 1-2 pm to do whatever we wanted. Most every camper went to a creek or body of water nearby or some other activity. One day myself and another camper were the only 2 campers in the indoor gym shooting at different ends of the court. Jerry came walking through and gave each of us individual instruction and taught us each separately a couple dribble moves of his. First, the other guy for a couple minutes and then came to my end. I remember it like it happened last week. Many years ago it was however. Growing up my first 9 years in West Va he was my athletic hero throughout my youth and beyond. ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/19/2026, 1:34:22 PM

** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/17/2026, 12:43:28 PM

Tamaje Izuagbe, 6-6 wing from Oklahoma Wesleyan, which is an NAIA school. He was named a 1st Team NAIA All-American this past season and would have two seasons. Tech has supposedly been in contact with Izuagbe.

that, just merely that there is a clear distinction between the two entities. Or three if you wish to separate revenue sharing and NIL.

From the revenue sharing and NIL monies that are for player acquisition, player NIL and player retention. The operational budget would be for staff salaries, program expenses, team travel, recruiting travel money (coaches expenses on the road when recruiting) etc… A team can have a good operational budget while having a substandard NIL so it is important to be clear on the distinction between the two.

Neo and his people did an exhaustive study to find the conference and individual school that the officials most loved and were in the back pocket of and it was clearly UNC. I applaud Neo and those around him for eschewing the money and picking the best school to get extremely favorable calls game in and game out. That’s some serious chess moves on their part. Bravo!

Will require more money than Kapke, but that is just a guess. STL might be in the best position and they have more money than many people think. We shall see where it goes

I’m not sure he has visited Nebraska, that visit was supposed to be happening imminently. Not sure if imminently has arrived and passed or standing patiently at the front door knocking

and good luck to him

At this time at least, St Looie and Nebraska the other two schools. Not aware of any commitment yet

Will look until all portal entries are complete. But I see a 4 who has a skill in his ability to shoot the three. Assuming we bring in a legitimate (or maybe even 2) 5 that has the capability of starting then we are looking at Atak as a backup to Hansberry next season at the four. Who happens to be able to shoot the ball well. A nice commodity coming off the bench. There is a lot of work to do in the portal to fill out this roster. We need at least two starters but we also need several bench players that will be in the rotation. I wouldn’t be surprised in the end to see 4-5 portal guys added and maybe even a spring high school player or perhaps two. You might be able to find an unsigned, upside high school player that is still out there and won’t be prohibitively costly. Those guys are tough to find in April but not as tough as they were to find before the portal Bigfooted itself over high school players starting a few years back ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/12/2026, 3:53:11 PM

4 in a row, has put me in a great mood so I’m spreading my happiness..

Jalik Dunkley, 6-6 out of Nicholls St. Dynamic type athlete and player, fast twitch dude. Has two years remaining and has some grit and feistiness to his game. So quick off the floor, smallish type frame. Handle can get a little loose but an exciting talent. Gets himself in the middle of a lot of plays and not afraid to get his nose dirty on the glass. A nice ball of clay here.

Interesting new portal name, avgd over 19 pts this year at Long Beach St as a freshman. Shot around 38% behind arc. 6-4 wing and Tech has reached out already

One of at least two Bigs. More 4 than 5 as he lacks the sand in his pants to consistently guard ACC Bigs in the paint. There will be additional Bigs brought in that are true 5’s. This is just one of 4-5 portal pieces. Body frame is similar to that of Philip McCandies, going back some years ago

Watched him in Cassell and he torched us. Strong inside back to basket post moves, stepped out and knocked down a couple threes as well as I recall. He’s not the type guy who you will have to run off the 3 pt line but can shoot it well enough that you can’t just let him shoot uncontested catch and shoot threes. Ok rebounder, not a big time glass cleaner. But the lasting impression I had of him at that game was he played very hard and he competed right through the very last possession. I liked that and told the people I was sitting with at the game, ‘this is a perfect type Big for Coach’s system and he would be a pretty nice portal pickup.’ Not saying he is coming here but just that he is a solid Big who can score and is a little rugged ** Edited by Rev.Zeke Vodka at 4/12/2026, 11:15:26 AM

Never to be seen or heard from again. They just totally disappear

We know we need Bigs pretty severely. You can’t get any until you reach out to them. If for no other reason than to check on what they need financially. Don’t start finalizing tier 2 or tier 3 targets until you at least check in on tier 1 types. It’s due diligence. And being strapped for money doesn’t mean you are completely hand tied. The need is such that you might just have to use a higher percentage of your available money to find a quality Big. Walking away entirely really isn’t an option is it? Signing a cheap SoCon guy that avgd 5.2 pts and 3.3 rebs and you know at the time is risky-not to mention you don’t love him- because you can afford him, thus hoping you are getting a deal could also mean by Christmas time he is riding the bench and your best lineup is Hansberry at 5 and Jones at 4 because you went cheap. Sure, it would be great to have money. We don’t. So you roll your sleeves up and battle. You compete for players. You look at that extra 30 mins of game tape when you are tired and want to go home. You make it work because it is what it is. And yes, you might have to spend more of your budget on a Big than you want. But failure to find one is not an option. But first you have to get in the fight. Then you stay in the fight regardless of anything else as long as you possibly are able.