WildTurkey

Wait for it. Wait until the final entry choice to SEC. The dude has all the reasons.

VT will not win by hiring a new coach. The only way to be a competitive football program in this new era of SEC/BIGTEN dominance is to match money, facilities, fan support, and, finally, athletes from the top high school sources. Otherwise, VT and its like will sink into greater mediocrity. I've come to live with that reality. I watch games of teams with talent. It's easier on my aging spirits.

Against Stanford University. She's really good. ** Edited by WildTurkey at 5/17/2025, 5:06:38 PM

She may be elite. Pitched a 3-htter. Hope she stays at VT next year.

Hopefully both stay at VT and Coach Megan Duffy gets Ramiya in better shape to play, and Maya lives up to her ranking. Rose Micheaux looks in much better shape this year than last year, and she is contributing at a higher level. If Duffy proves to be a great developer of talent, both Ramiya and Maya should be starters next year who fill in the paint for VT women's BB.

He realized he had made a mistake, and he corrected it. Maybe he should be listed as "Corrected the total error and will play for a winner!"

Jaeden Moore had transferred to VT. His commitment came down to Pitt and VT. Damn! Why would a good LB go to Pitt when he could go to VT?

And setting schemes to use VT women's BB talent effectively. To me, it seems women in sports such as BB have a higher ceiling for improvement than men do from, say 18 to 21 or 22. If Duffy works these women to improve on passes that result in turnovers, to sharper, more accurate passing, running plays to create open shots, playing better defense (needed desperately; FSU shot layup after layup), and improving team chemistry, this group could grow from average to very good in 25-26.

Brooks took a load of talent with him to Lexington. Duffy has shown coaching skills early, a trait I hope continues. She is getting some good effort and team play from VT women as much as fans can expect. My hope is that VT women can win against Miami and Florida State, and then win against teams they should beat, with something like a 20-win season, get into NCAAs, and go! GO!

There is some reporting he will be a receiver. With his speed as a 100-meter sprinter in high school and his size--6':2", 222--he has the acceleration and size to be a force at RB or receiver, but I want him coming out of the backfield with 20-plus touches a game. Yet he should be effective out in space receiving the ball and using his speed to get to the endzone. I hope he is in great shape and does not suffer injuries. VT needs a talented OL to block for its RBs. The team also needs the best Virginia high school talent in its lineup. Cam Seldon is one Virginia top-10 talent. We need more like him.

Give the money to athletes in all sports. More studs on football and basketball (men's and women's) teams will reap more interest in VT's money sport and greater funds to invest in facilities. Some colleges--TENN comes to mind--are adding charges to students upon enrollment. Yeah, I know: This is old information.

When you have a great product everyone wants, you put a price on it. Basic econ 101.

ACC coaches know VT players. Coach Duffy must realize this by now. Duffy needs to work on sets, screens, designed plays, cutting and passing. Ekh is good with open 3s.

I watch winning teams in SEC and BIG' TEN. It's much greater enjoyment.

I enjoy dreaming too.

Pry has little skill at recruiting or scheming football players into offense or defense that will succeed. VT is at its level, stuck at mediocre. Learn to live with it or watch other teams in SEC and BIG TEN.

In Roanoke Times today on UVA-HOOS NIL plans.

Hokie women need elite size to compete at top-20 level, as the team was developing under the former coach, who would have had 6'6" and a 6'7" talent on this year's roster. How (where) should Coach Duffy look for future tall talent that she could convince to come to VT? Visit South America as South Carolina's Dawn Staley does, or look in Europe, as several coaches do--Wyoming comes to mind, or perhaps Asia, say China?

SOON! Brooks took VT's starters to UK. Hokie women's team still has some reputation built on Brooks's records. Duffy and her staff should try to build on the history of women's basketball, go after recruits who want to continue the program, be on national TV, and rebuild. To gain tall, talented centers and forwards, Duffy might want to look overseas in Europe and South America. Hell, look in Asia and Hawaii. Whatever it takes. Want to see how good recruits from Europe are. Click below.

Kaelyn Carroll and her mom, Sue, have played countless games of H.O.R.S.E. and P.I.G. in the driveway. But as Carroll grew up, Sue, a former college basketball player at New Hampshire, had to institute a rule. “She wasn’t allowed to do any of the fancy dribbling — between the legs, behind the back, any of the tricks,” Sue said. “That wasn’t fair.” Carroll (Dedham, Mass.) has blown away her mom, and anyone else who watches, with her combination of guard-like handle and sweet shooting. The 6-foot-3 rising senior at Tabor will casually step back and bury 3-pointers, cross over into a hard-charging drive, or spin around opponents for layups. Carroll models much of her game after New York Liberty superstar Breanna Stewart, and at times her versatility evokes shades of the two-time WNBA MVP. Carroll is ranked No. 29 in the Class of 2025 by ESPN, the highest-ranked player in New England, and has more than 40 Division 1 scholarship offers. AND then, there is this: As the fall season approaches, recruiting starts to ramp up in the world of women’s basketball. Kenny Brooks and his staff hosted five-star wing Kaelyn Carroll, one of their top targets in the 2025 class, for an official visit from September 7-8. Carroll shared a photo of her and Brooks to her Instagram on Thursday. HA! Beat on Kenny B! She was in town for the South Carolina football game (what a game, huh?), and she stuck around the next day to get a better look at what Kentucky has to offer. Being 6-foot-2, Carroll has the size and length that Brooks would want from his forwards. The top-30 prospect spoke very highly of Brooks when KSR caught up with her at the Run 4 Roses event in Louisville back in July. “My conversations with Kenny are amazing,” Carroll said. “He’s such a great guy, great coach. I talked to him at both schools. I think he’s just an amazing coach and overall a great person.”

Wait a minute! They are BOTH Emma! Wow! Hope Mazzarone continues to improve as Lemley is already a senior.

And where it should be ranked?

But Brooks took a load of talent from VT to KY. She needs to recruit top 100 talent because ACC is much stronger this year.

And poor coaching, poor recruiting will continue failure to win in ACC or any other conference.

If you see my post below, you may think, as many obviously do, that suffer over Brooks loss too much and do not fancy the coming of Duffy enough. Great success for Duffy would make me a happy Hokie again!

Beamer aged and stayed too long. Whit should have hired Bud Foster instead of Justin Fuente. Fuente was from the wrong area and had no concept for Vt football or skills or contacts/connections for recruiting. There is more, but that is the gist.

He took his best players to Kentucky. And he was recruiting women to VT would have challenged the likes of LSU, Iowa, Notre Dame, NCS, Duke, and maybe South Carolina. And he continues to bring in top recruits.

You covered that Brooks took most of VT's talent with him and many of the issues facing VT's women's Basketball this year and in coming years. Clara Strack looks like a slightly taller and more athletic Kitley. I expect to see Silva and Hassett on the court for significant minutes. Amoore will run the team early, and new recruits like Lexi Blue will get time at point guard. Kentucky will be talented and deep at every position. I will watch KY BB and know how good VT could have been. Meanwhile, VT's football remains mediocre with Babcock and Pry walking the old familiar sleepwalk. "We need to get better," will be the familiar motto.

Hits 2 HRs a game. . . Well, maybe 2 in several games.

When the women's basketball season develops and progresses. KY women's team will challenge all in SEC but USC-East women. Kenny Brooks’ women’s basketball team is ranked 25th in the most recent ESPN Way-Too-Early Top 25 and is projected as s six-seed in Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology report.

Hokies will get Herd-ed by the Thunder of a hurry-up, giddyup offense. Brent Pry is old school. Time for imagination in football. Marshall will cover the 3-TD spread. And more. Whit and Brent will go on alert.

Not this--uh--team. Not this year. The Thundering Herd will ramble rough-shod over the squawking feather-birds. Marshall coaches will spread the field and run the RPO game, against which VT coaches will have no answer. After really opening up the field with a quick-shot passing game, Herd will go to runs with VT stunned and overreacting to inability to defend passing game. Runs over 20 yards will be plentiful. By the time Hokie defense makes some adjustments and shows it can learn on the run during the game, Herd will have a comfortable margin of points. What did coaches do all week during practices to prepare team? We will have no idea. Head scratching time, folks. Pry will again admit he did not prepare his team. Uh . . . DUH! Players will say they will try to clean up this mess. And so it goes. Time to find a place for VT football in a crumbling future.

If VT ever wants to make Blacksburg a place for a fun Saturday in Lane Stadium or build a team fans want to watch.

Stony Brook W, 45-3 Aug 31 (Sat) Marshall has athletic, better-prepared, larger, faster players, that will jump out to comfortable lead and glide into a victory on the eve of October 7, 2024. Hokie players have prepared on hype and wasted the year living on laurels and praise.

I too follow women's basketball and the women on the softball diamond. It's great fun to watch the competition from talented athletes.

John Grisham has provided Cavaliers substantial support. About two decades ago, as UVa contemplated eliminating baseball as a varsity sport for budget reasons, Grisham quietly helped the Cavaliers build Davenport Field, which opened in 2002, with lights, six skyboxes and an on-site locker room. By 2009, the Cavs had made their first College World Series. In 2015, they won it. Back in the 1990s, Grisham made similar contributions to the baseball program at his alma mater, Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs since have made six CWS appearances.

Beep-beep!

2023 Record W31 L22 T2 Conference 10-14 . . . 2024 Record W30 L22 Conference 8-16 Rachel Lawson-- Coach since 2007. Facilities $9.5 million John Cropp Stadium.

And I don't know how he will choose to leave VT for another rebuild of a program. Women will be playing in Rupp Arena after 2024. Well, that's going out on a big projection, but VT could increase WBB game attendance IF VT made the investment to replace Cassell. And it is past time to replace Cassell.

22 Kenny Brooks Virginia Tech $890,000 ACC $890,000 — $185,000 $5,475,000* 27 Kyra Elzy Kentucky $775,000* SEC $775,000 — $625,000 $0 — Across left-to-right is total salary, followed by total bonus, and total pay. *(That $5,475,000 is Kenny's buyout. It is significant.) Kentucky will likely increase its offer to Kenny to at least $1.5 million base salary annually, plus significant bonuses based on wins and successes in tournaments. Look for an offer to place him in top 10. Will Babcock match KY offer of around $1.5, plus bonuses. He should. With sellout crowds in Cassell, VT women BB annual earnings on ticket sells would cover coach's salary. The greatest draw of KY BB, however, will be Rupp Arena, which holds over 20,000 fans. In 2 to 3 years, Brooks will likely fill Rupp for all SEC games (imagine South Carolina v. KY) and most games against D1 opponents. I think it will be a tough decision because of coliseum size and competition. Brooks's choice may come down to his ties with the state of Virginia and to VT. One other note, he has a top 10 recruiting class coming this year. How many recruits . . . and current players will follow him to KY, should he accept that job? 22 Kenny Brooks Virginia Tech $890,000 ACC $890,000 — $185,000 $100,000 $5,475,000 27 Kyra Elzy Kentucky $775,000* SEC $775,000 — $625,000 $0 — 1 Kim Mulkey LSU $3,264,000 SEC $3,150,000 $114,000 $750,000 $443,000 $2,000,000 2 Geno Auriemma UConn $3,100,000 Big East $3,100,000 — $375,000 $150,000 $3,500,000 3 Dawn Staley South Carolina $3,100,000 SEC $3,100,000 — $680,000 $430,000 $2,000,000 4 Vic Schaefer Texas $2,300,000 Big 12 $2,300,000 $0 $370,000 $145,000 $4,830,000 5 Brenda Frese Maryland $1,884,085 Big 10 $1,884,085 — $427,500 $205,000 $11,015,212

My money is on either Molly Miller or Shawn Poppie. Poppie has a history with Kenny at VT. Tomekia Reed For the fifth straight season, Reed has coached Jackson State to the top of the SWAC standings and will have the No. 1 seed entering the conference tournament this week — riding an 18-game win streak. She’s accumulated a record of 122-51 there and twice taken the Tigers to the NCAA tournament. In 2022, they gave their first-round opponent, LSU, a really tough game, losing by just six points. Molly Miller Ncaa Womens Basketball Asu Women S Basketball At Grand Canyon University Asu At Gcu A 37-year-old native of Missouri, Miller is wrapping up her fourth season at Grand Canyon and hoping to lead the Lopes to their first-ever Division I NCAA tournament appearance this season. Miller is 85-34 overall at Grand Canyon has twice previously led the Lopes to the WAC Tournament final. Last season, she was the WAC Coach of the Year. Kim Caldwell In her first season with Marshall, Caldwell has guided the Herd to a 26-6 record — and a 17-1 mark in Sun Belt play — and a conference tournament championship, giving Marshall its first NCAA tournament bid since 1997. Caldwell has won wherever she has been. Before she made the jump to Division I last year, the West Virginia native coached Division II Glenville State to a record of 191-24 in seven seasons. She won a Division II national championship in 2022 — and was named the WBCA Coach of the Year — and went back to the Final Four in 2023. Shawn Poppie Poppie is finishing up his second season at Chattanooga and he is guiding the Mocs to their second straight NCAA tournament appearance after winning the SoCon tournament again. That feat seems even more impressive when it’s noted that Chattanooga went 7-23 in the season prior to Poppie’s arrival. Before he became a head coach in southeastern Tennessee, Poppie was an assistant at Virginia Tech from 2016 to 2022, helping Kenny Brooks build the program into what it is now. Poppie had moved on to Chattanooga before the Hokies made their Final Four run last season and won the ACC regular-season title this year — obviously — but he had a hand in recruiting players like Aisha Sheppard, Georgia Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley. Poppie served as the Hokies’ associate head coach and defensive coordinator for his final two seasons in Blacksburg, Virginia. Sam Purcell This would be a very big swing for Kentucky to take, but it's not improbable. It's no secret that when it comes to the SEC food chain in terms of money, resources and desirability, Kentucky is near the top and Mississippi State is near the bottom. Purcell is finishing up his second season leading the Bulldogs in Starkville, and for the second straight season they've won more than 20 games and are projected to make the NCAA tournament. Purcell won two tournament games last year, beating Illinois in the First Four, then pulling off an upset win over No. 6 Creighton. Under Purcell, Mississippi State also notched a big upset win earlier this season, beating then-ranked No. 9 LSU on national television.

And ND should be at the top of ACC for years to come. But Coach Brooks has some excellent recruits too. ND for next 5 years" Most of the prospects of the Class of 2024 have already committed and ND's sole -- but very good -- signee is 6'5" post Kateryna "Kate" Koval. ND's other prospect of interest, Makenly Randloph, is still undecided. The Irish announced on Tuesday that 5-star Kateryna "Kate" Koval has inked her national letter of intent to play for the Fighting Irish. Koval is a 6-5 post player who ranks as the No. 5 overall player and the No. 1 post player in the 2024 class per the ESPN HoopGurlz Rankings.

That means VT has to play a 5-woman game, not a 2-woman game, as this team played against UVA. Strack can be effective at center if she receives passes from Amoore and other teammates. She's shown skills at scoring in close and on short jump shots. Ekh, King, Summiel, Wenzel, and Baker must take shots--with confidence and careful technique. VT will win if each player scores between 8 and 30 points, and if each player executes a tough defense. The team, every woman, must step up and take responsibility and use skills they have to win the ACC Tournament Championship. Liz will approve and be proud of her teammates.

"Thank you for your support of Virginia Tech's Women's Basketball. Wear Maroon, and we'll see all you Hokie folks on Sunday in UVA's JP Arena to watch Queens of the Castle and the JP Arena win the game!"

Hope those ladies are as exceptional as I believe they will be.