VTCALS72

about 8 ACC level players and just can't match the money in the end? Are you totally tying effort to final outcome? That may not be a good way to evaluate. Are they just not able to get to the table with 8 more quality players or are they at the table but just don't have the money in the end.

big difference in meeting a standard vs being the best you have.

I trust that our coaches in all sports understand at least somewhat that spinning our wheels accomplishes nothing. So I am trusting that CMD going after these 5 and 4 star guys is a good sign that she believes we have a good shot of at least getting a visit.

I think one comprehensive fund raising machine covering all of reseach, academics and athletics is what is needed. To go forward a separate (and competing) athletic fund raising entity, in this day and time, is problematic. Maybe not for fund raising to VT for scholies etc but for the monies that is paid out, it is a problem.

if our players changed the "should" to could, both mentally and physically. On 2nd thought, naa, we would have made it if by some means we could have prevented the opponents hard drives to the basket. We could not. That and if we could hit layups better.

Isn't it correct to say that to try something you have not mastered is usually a disaster in the making?

team on. If he is surrounded by good players and is the 4th or 5th go to guy, he could be very good. But if a good NCAA defense gets after him as a focus, he looked lost.

cover for the need of two dollars. That is not to say he is doing a good job with his dollar, just that the end result of what most of us want takes two dollars right now and we don't have it to spend. I am dissapointed that athletic fund raising has not been incorporated fully under the University wide fund raising. Until that is done, we will continue to have competing forces after the donors.

we wanted, under the conditions you laid out, would have to be extremely careful in analyzing his opportunities of advancement here? Seems to me if CMY were to call it quits, our position in hiring would be more like what we had when CBP was hired than what we had when either Coach Franklin or Fu were hired. This is not just a VT thing as I am sure some will post that this is just what they see as a "poor little ole VT" post. But taking away this being just VT, how does an average performing ACC team, offering nothing or very little more than they have been doing, hire a good coach? I am not sure that even "backloaded" promises of future support will work at this time.

Yeah, the odds for EV were better than he did. He had been there before and done better. Sasso, wasn't this his 1st one? This was a great education for our younger guys. They are not real tuned in to some guy from Princeton blowing through a number of higher seeds to make the finals.

either much easier to win than they are or VT is just better as an athletic place than we are. This year really showed it. We were told and knew that this was a rebuilding year and it pretty well played out that way. The thing is we did not have that 2 to 3 wrestlers who could be counted on to win against anybody. We did have a good bunch of wrestlers who could win the less than steller tourneys but the big one is an entirely different matter. And it is not just a matter of talent, it is draws and who may bet upset and block conso advancement. What we did have was about 8 guys who are legitimately top 10-12 wrestlers who can get to top 8 under favorable conditions with 2 of them being top 6 most of the time. Unfortunately this was not most of the time for EV. With Seidel seeing the level and intensity of the semis, he will be better prepared next year just as Henson was. Bassett hopefully will just be good enough to not have been there before won't matter. Next year the draws may work better for us and we have 6-8 AAs. This just was not the year.

To do well in this tourney, it takes more than an ACC championship level or talent and experience. I thought EV had a real chance and AS too. But beyond that, we didn't really have anybody who could come in and overcome adversity. I did think at least one of the ones who are out now would make AA

Isn't that exactly how the other guy won? I think it is more correct to say EV is a defensive wrestler and knows even a small mistake on offense can get you beat. So he is not afraid to not trade his solid D for a low chance offensive move. That style gets more championships when equal of nearly equal wrestlers go at it. Now Seidel, well so far it isn't that he takes offensive risk, it is that he can play good D and score points about every way possible.

Gaj was really the only real disappointment and maybe that was not as much as it appears.

how the wrestler does vs the competition he faces. Some #15 seeds may be better wrestlers than those seeded at #4. And sometimes it is simply strenghs and weaknesses. Look at the NCSU 125 guy ,national champion last year with a draw that turned out very favorable and is either in the consos or out already this year.

ahead of them. In fact until proven otherwise I want to see us beat the traditionally strong programs (Duke, UNC, FSU, Clemson) before I get too excited.

Seems there would still be of time that a quick timely delivery of $$$$ without any paper trail is still a strong force. And of course, if you think everyone will just strictly follow the rules, you are dreaming. The situation with the UVA guard who suddenly ditched us and went to UVA before any real consideration or visit shows one. Somewhere money comes and not necessarily through any approved pathway. Seems I heard UVA offered significantly more with a 15 minuute expiration. That is what some reports have said. Think Delane and Chaplin. one day in the portal and within a couple of days announced their destinations. No way all that got done in a couple of days.

Again it is a message board and not a tea party, no apologies needed.

Since I have never mentioned AI in anything I assume your post was misdirected to me. But let me add one thing, real evidence is often incomplete and the day message boards require more than what "appears to be facts" Will will be out of business.

facts as we best identify facts. No apologies necessary. In fact, IMHO, no one should get upset when people disagree, even strongly disagree. The issues come up when posters demand only their view of the facts be accepted. That and of course any personal attacks. I have muted several posters because they fall into one or both of the above. You are not one of them.

in the 1st class talent grouping. When the talent is that close small differences have way more impact. Every team has some Miami football 2024 or some Stanford, Miami etc 2026 bball type games. In fact many really good teams have them every year in the tourney. And yes I beat the drum (correctly) for talent first but all to often the response is that to believe if it is not all talent, then coaching can take average talent and play well above average game in and game out, season in and season out. Talent trumps coaching most of the time. But even going away from talent or coaching, there are just too many little things that can't be coached in or out that determine the final outcome of any one game. Just like Teel said on the podcast when he said he thought FSUs last shot was going in but just barely missed.

And again this post avoids the elephant in the room and it is not the AD nor the MBB coach.

How long several of the Bball players stick around. Anybody tracking outgoing traffic, flight or otherwise? Who is first to bolt?

Or is it you do believe we "deserve" better (which is a dumb statement, sorry but true)? It seems to me with the way NIL has evolved, or better put the way money is delivered to players has evolved, it is much harder to find and get the Alumas, Mutts, Hansburys etc now. Too many schools throwing more and more money at players and still the same number of good to just competent ones. I am sure VT has enough alums everywhere to find out how much the UVAs, Clemsons, Miamis, FSUs are actually spending not to mention UNC and Duke. Find the real number with escalation projections and raise it. It is not really on the across the drillfield powers that be to lead this. It is up to fans and donors that only need for the admin to agree for them to do it.

way more fire and passion or more correctly go berzerk?

wrt too big a playbook. Seems to me one of the fist things a coach does, especially in this NIL 1,2 and done era is to see how well the new players work together. man to man may be much weaker than zone so the coach goes zone. I would think man to man typically wins out in those early evaluations.

be in roster construction? For teams in our spending zip code, it is mostly reactive roster construction or take the best available player when your price range does not buy roster construction.

money. Without a lot more money we can stay right where we are until CMY hangs it up. Then, with no more money comparatively things will get worse. So until we see the money coming, we are small time. IIWII.

place and the main reason we are where we are is the coach. Changing coaches is about like re arranging deck chairs on the Titanic unless something very large changes.

playing field level. We are pretty much, and have in all sports gotten an output equal of a little better than our input. And hey, I am not saying we should be spending more or maybe at all. I am just saying stop blaming the coach or AD when a total big picture change is needed one way or the other.

Or was it that they played exactly like who we are without the injured players?

But you are partially right about only this board seeing VT as a dance tearm, especially after losing Johnson and then Hansbury There was a chance. And maybe all it would have taken is for TJ and Hansbury not to miss games AND for Neo to have averaged 7-8 more points a game with half the turnovers.

In a realistic world it is way too much but this is not a realistic world. The thing no one should think is that it would be a near certainty to get someone better for the 3 mil. If bball goes James Franklin sure but how many of those are out there? Mike Young can go find players who can make the VT team a bubble level tearm year after year. Getting better players is the issue not a young fire in the belly coach. Mike Young has plenty of fire in the belly. He just did not have but one player who was any better than HM all ACC. If more money can turn Tony Elliott into an ACC COTY candidate, then we have to stop with the "old shoes" as if the same money we offer with a new presentation would make any difference. McDonald's money won't get you a seat at a 5 star restaurant. Get the money first. Be sure at team like UVA cant come in at the last minute and double or offer and take a player who was ready to come here but went there without a visit. Until that is done, there is no foundation to work with.

We seem hurried anytime a defender gets close.

3 matches, less energy

so they really went after us with their better players this time.

football or MBB. Based on that mindset rather than the one year rebuild, CMD and the players have done a really good job. This team plays with intensity and attacks way more than they did last year. We just really need a rim protector and a couple of inside bangers that can block out rather than defend but get pushed back under the basket.

dissapointing. In fact I still hold the team is playing better than the sum of the individuals. I doubt our 1st round game will have us matched with a team seeded as high as a Duke, Lville or UNC.

We are just do not have the physical power in the post. Our skinny players get pushed around way too much under the basket.