1) Since Mike Young is a system’s coach, how is it going to work with all new players from the portal? I recognize that getting folks from the portal is a must, and coach’s system is not a quick fix. His best team had Keve Aluma & Storm Murphy, who were with him multiple years. I don’t see a “glue player” remaining from this year’s poor team. — George Baylor
Given that CMY’s “system” takes a lot of time/practice to perfect, is it outdated in the age of unlimited transfers, money-hungry “student” athletes and the desire to be able to show off your athleticism in a more free-form offense? In other words, no more having players for 4-5 years to develop them. — MDHokie79
Chris Coleman: These two are pretty much the same question, so I decided to lump them into one. I think it’s a very good question. For Mike Young to get the most out of his system, he must do a good job of recruiting good fits for it and must be able to retain his best players.
Recruiting hasn’t been Virginia Tech’s problem. Two former Hokies guards (Sean Pedulla and Rodney Rice) are in the Sweet 16. Tyler Nickel starts for Vanderbilt, an NCAA Tournament team, and MJ Collins is one of the first guys off the Commodores’ bench. David N’Guessan averaged 13.3 points a 7.2 rebounds for Kansas State this year. Lynn Kidd, while not exactly what I’d be looking for from a passing perspective, is a good college player. Darius Maddox has had a solid college career who would have done well at Tech with the right players around him.
Could Virginia Tech make the NCAA Tournament with those players? Absolutely. The narrative that Mike Young can’t recruit is false. Retention is the issue. Unfortunately, players don’t announce why they are leaving, so it’s impossible to know every detail of why they departed. I know that Maddox had a legit family situation and his transfer made sense for him. I’ll never fully understand the Rice transfer, or at least the timing of it. I think Kidd was probably about money. I know that Nickel didn’t get the amount of NIL money that he felt was promised to him.
People wonder about Pedulla, whether that be money or any other issues that have been discussed on the boards, but I think his situation is pretty simple. I think he saw things collapsing around him at Virginia Tech and left to put himself in a better situation. Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. He’ll play in the Sweet 16 on Friday night against Michigan State. Had he stayed, he’d have been the best player on a team that probably would have won 15 games. He would have been forced to try and do too much, which would have resulted in another turnover-plagued season (like last year), and a lot of fans would have blamed him (like last year). But he went to Ole Miss, where he doesn’t have to do too much and can just let the game come to him. That’s my take.
I don’t think all of Virginia Tech’s losses have been money related. That said, I don’t that aspect has helped, either. It has been a net-negative. Former quarterback Jerod Evans admitted on the TSL Podcast earlier this week that, while not wholly in love with his situation at Virginia Tech after the 2016 season, he definitely would have come back in 2017 for the right price. And that’s a guy who turned down a blank check offer from Texas A&M (according to Jerod) to play for the Hokies for free.
While retention is important, it’s also important to retain a certain talent level. You don’t want to retain just to retain. For example, Patrick Wessler. He improved a lot, but as I’ve shown in a few articles in the last month, the Hokies need much better production from that position from a passing perspective that he will likely never be able to provide. I went back and watched the ACC Tournament championship game highlights against Duke yesterday, and Justyn Mutts and Keve Aluma were simply on another planet* in their ability to pass the ball. That passing ability from the post is what takes Young’s offense to another level. That’s why I believed the Hokies needed a complete reset in frontcourt personnel this year. Keep Tobi Lawal, sure, but if you want to bring in three new guys, by all means, do so.
*Aluma had seven assists in that game, and Mutts had four. I’ll insert the highlights below so you can get a look at the type of plays I’m talking about.
Check out this graphic:
That graphic shows each Sweet 16 team (though it does not specify which team is which) and where each starter began his career. It’s easy to spot Purdue and Duke, but some of the others are a lot more difficult.
Matt Painter runs a unique offensive system and has been able to retain his top players. That continuity certainly helps Purdue, and the program is in the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four seasons. The Boilermakers are a basketball-first school, and I imagine their hoops NIL is extremely strong. If anybody is tempted to leave, I expect Painter is in position to make them a strong financial offer to stay. Everybody’s got a price.
Like I said, I don’t think it’s all about the money at Virginia Tech, but a bigger budget will certainly help. I believe the Hokies have the budget now to retain every player that they lost this year, but that must be balanced with a couple of things:
1: What is the market value of each player?
2: Would “re-signing” them prevent Mike Young from hitting the portal to make big improvements?
The Hokies didn’t lose anybody they expected to lose. While I expect they would have liked to retain Jaydon Young and Ryan Jones as bench pieces, at this point in time, it’s more important to improve the talent level, and if letting those players walk helps in that regard, then so be it. Assuming that happens, and the program gets going back in the right direction next year, then retention starts becoming the key piece to the puzzle again next offseason.
2) How could we be so far off in the amount of NIL money Whit Babcock thought Mike Young needed last year? Seventy percent less than Clemson, a true basketball blueblood in the ACC. I jest of course. And why did everyone think all the money went to football when Whit says no? Didn’t even TSL staff imply that it did go to football? — Tech76G
CC: Nobody ever suggested that all of the money went to football. That’s most definitely not the case. What I do know, as I’ve said many times before, is that a few Tech men’s basketball players (who left the program) told people behind the scenes last spring that they did not get all of the NIL money they were promised during the course of the 2023-24 season. There’s no way for any of us to know whether that’s true, but it suggests that (at worst) somebody at Tech lied to them, or (at best) Virginia Tech’s NIL organization and communication is not as well organized as it could be.
Considering the communication issues the athletic department has had over the last five years, dating back to that December 2020 press conference where Babcock announced he was retaining Justin Fuente, I’m guessing the issue is with organization and communication more than anything, with some decision-making issues thrown in for good measure. But there’s no way that we’ll ever know for sure. Numbers aren’t made public, nor are we privy to any of those monetary negotiations.
As far as that 70 percent comment is concerned, that doesn’t surprise me. That’s probably about where I would have put it, though I certainly don’t know exact numbers for either party. But I have heard — about the same time I heard about those VT players complaining that they didn’t get what they were promised — that Young communicated to the powers that be that he wasn’t happy with basketball’s NIL situation. I heard that from multiple sources of various kinds, meaning some sources got it directly from Virginia Tech while others were told through other channels. That’s why the message we’ve preached over the last year has been that Young felt the basketball program was underfunded.
Fast forward to this year’s VT game at Miami. The TV announcers openly stated that Virginia Tech had one of the lowest NIL figures in the ACC this year. The strong bet is that they got that information from Young during their off-camera chat before the contest. That vibes with the message I heard he was sending behind the scenes in March of 2024.
Fast forward again to Babcock’s interview from earlier this week when he said that the number provided to men’s basketball was the number requested by Young. Here’s Andy Bitter’s line on the subject:
“Babcock said head coach Mike Young gave the school a dollar figure he thought would satisfy the team’s NIL needs for retention and acquisition — a figure Virginia Tech met.”
To me, Babcock’s public comments and Young’s behind-the-scenes actions don’t really fit together. But again, I’m not privy to any of those conversations. The only thing we do know with 100 percent certainty is that Virginia Tech got it wrong. At this point, I’m not all that interested in who is at fault; I’m much more concerned about fixing it. We know the Hokies have identified it as a problem, which is the first step. Will it be fixed for this offseason? We’ll see.
I think there are a couple of things that both parties can do that could help alleviate some future issues:
1: It would be beneficial for Virginia Tech to have an NIL fundraiser specifically dedicated to men’s basketball.
2: Young is in the market for a couple of new staff members — both a regular assistant to replace Christian Webster and a recruiting/roster management staffer. It would be ideal if one of those two guys has a keen understanding of the transfer/NIL/market value landscape, as I’m not sure the Hokies are quite firing on all cylinders there right now.
3) What do you understand about the NIL clearinghouse? As much as I don’t like NIL or the portal, does the clearinghouse mean we are back to a bag man model? (Another model where only the rich get richer?) Currently, I really only see the big names at big schools getting “real” NIL. For example, Cooper Flagg. How will fair market value be determined? Will Virginia Tech in a smaller town be at a disadvantage? — GBOHokie
CC: In theory, I think it’s a really good idea. Is it practicable and likely to work? That’s up for debate, and as time has gone on, I find myself thinking more and more that it’s not likely to work, and this is simply another stopping point on the road to wherever the hell it is that college sports are heading.
Will Stewart copied and pasted a good read on the subject on the message boards earlier today, which I’ll link here. Here’s the key passage:
“Consider the pointed commentary from former Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who doesn’t mince words: “Players are making $500,000-$1 million now for basically doing nothing [no NIL activities]. They’re going to take that away?” His skepticism about the clearinghouse’s sustainability is telling. Boeheim suggests that any legal challenges will likely be resolved in favor of the athletes, rendering the enforcement mechanism essentially toothless.”