Yes, Mike Young was undoubtedly handicapped by VT's decision to shift NIL resources away from hoops and toward football. Yes, Mike Young had already reached the point of diminishing returns as VT's head coach, and the roster exodus has just shined a brighter spotlight on trends that were already well in motion. Young has proven that, in an era where teams could count on a LOT more roster stability than we will ever see again, he was capable of producing peaks every few years, but those peaks were inevitably preceded by (and succeeded by) seasons either barely above .500 or with some pretty bad records (10 wins in 2006, 13 in 2012, losing records in both 2015 and 2016). That type of every-four-years peak is his demonstrated ceiling. And that was in the old world. The biggest concern about Mike Young when he was hired was recruiting. That was initially solved by having Chester Frazier and Antwon Jackson as assistants. And no coincidence, the core of Young's best VT team was brought in while Frazier was still in Blacksburg. Since Frazier left, player retention issues have mushroomed, and the two best players who signed with VT (Rice and Buchanan) never contributed here. The last ACC-caliber player signed by Young, who lasted more than 1 season at VT, was Pedulla (in 2021). A roster of players who left VT in the last few years (several before the NIL explosion) would absolutely destroy this year's roster. And what's the pitch going forward? In a world where even the blue bloods are experiencing massive roster turnover every season, where kids want an immediate opportunity to showcase their skills, where counting on a core of players to grow together and peak as juniors or seniors is totally impossible, what does Young offer recruits? Come and play in a system that, as he has demonstrated repeatedly, makes it difficult to be effective or see significant PT for the first 1-2 years? Be prepared to play at one of the slowest paces in the nation? Be almost exclusively reliant on perimeter offense and jump shooting, even if that isn't your strength? Do I think this year's VT team would have been better with more NIL dollars to spread around? Absolutely. But even if we had brought back Kidd, Pedulla, and Nickel, that core group was average last season, no reason to think they would make some kind of great leap this year. Yes, VT needs to provide better financial support to men's hoops. I also think they need a coaching reset. The rigidity of Young's system and his weaknesses in roster building are not going to result in consistent success in our brave new portal/NIL world.