#1 the players you're mentioning, in reality, chose VT over every other school, including GW and ODU...they came to VT. It isn't as though VT is losing recruiting battles for a Top 100 kid to GW. #2 there is a difference between "VT is losing kids to GW and ODU" and "Player X decides he does not want to be at VT and THEN decides where their next stop should be"...when you decide to leave a school you are opening yourself up back to the market. If you don't have any game film to go off of and you were highly underrated in HS (Buchanan) then of course your options are going to be limited. He chose GW from a list of options available to him. It wasn't like Duke was beating down his door and VT was begging him to stay. #3 smaller programs can be more successful than bigger programs when you play in smaller ponds. I have long warned fans that VT has a ceiling when it comes to national success, but that does not mean they can't be more successful than their actual peers (Clemson, Iowa State, Notre Dame, etc). Someone HAS to win the Sun Belt. So if you're ODU and you play 18 Sun Belt teams, and you have some success that does not mean you're going to be better than a 9-11, 10-10 or 11-9 ACC team. Same for JMU in football. If VTs schedule next season were 9 Sun Belt teams, what is VTs final record? The players you're referring to that VT lost: 1) was not available to VT had they not hired a coach he was close with (Rice) 2) was not recruited by any major program when the same coach made a better evaluation and said he was worth a shot When the coach you hired to get those players leaves, you can't possibly be surprised when those players leave as well. And when they leave, it isnt because they find ODU or GW to be a higher caliber program, it is because those choices check some boxes they wanted (location, playing time, being with a trusted coach, etc) and because (and this is important) that's because those schools are what their options were. If Rodney Rice chooses ODU over Maryland, I'm not sure how that's a reflection on a bad evaluation by VT. Rice clearly values his relationship with Mike Jones (as evidenced by his picking VT in the first place). I'm also not sure how going from redshirting at VT to averaging 17ppg at GW makes it a missed evaluation either. Buchanan didn't leave VT because Mike Young told him he was bad at basketball. And he's clearly good at basketball. But Buchanan had a lot of things he needed to work on when he showed up on campus (he still does) but GW NEEDED him. They have to let him play through mistakes. VT simply wanted him. He could absolutely play through mistakes at VT, but VT would go 12-23 and MY would be fired. You simply don't have that kind of room at this level. With regards to VT vs SEC/Big Ten...there are going to be many SEC and Big Ten teams that VT is better than each year. Vanderbilt being in the SEC and getting their money doesn't make them a juggernaut. Missouri either. Michigan is 8-21. Ohio State is next to last in the Big Ten. Indiana is half a game above Ohio State. Is GW/ODU/JMU a better program than them because of 1 season? 2 seasons? Of course not. In most years, those programs and VT would beat GW, ODU and JMU and it wouldn't register much amongst the fan base outside of being thankful they didn't lose. VT is not falling behind GW, ODU or JMU...they simply had a pair of players who came to VT for one big reason and when that reason was no longer there, their tie to the school greatly diminished ** Edited by GCHokie34 at 3/2/2024, 12:03:43 PM