Buzz Williams has filled the assistant coaching position recently relinquished by Steve Roccaforte, who departed Virginia Tech to take a job at East Carolina. Williams elevated Devin Johnson from his position as Director of Player Personnel. He’ll now be a full-time assistant coach, complete with recruiting responsibilities.
As Director of Player Personnel, Johnson oversaw things such as player scheduling and time management, scouting efforts, summer camps, among other things.
“I am extremely excited to announce this promotion for Devin,” Williams said. “Through the years, he has handled a wide variety of responsibilities for us and has proven to be a rising star in the profession. His thoroughness, intelligence, loyalty and basketball IQ are noticeable every day in everything he does, and he has an uncanny knack for being able to relate to the players. This is a hard-earned and well-deserved promotion.”
Johnson spent two years with Buzz Williams at Marquette in a similar role, and was also with Williams for his one year at the University of New Orleans.
Johnson is a very comfortable hire for Williams, and the two have a very good working relationship. However, all three current assistants have limited recruiting experience at the Power 5 level, and the Hokies are behind in 2019 recruiting. The first signing period begins in November, so the staff has a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.
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I have faith in Buzz. All that smoke billowing out of Cassel is just water vapor!
Buzz had a very inauspicious start to his coaching career, anybody remember or consider that? He was an absolute nobody when he first started!!
Unfortunately, I think it’s a natural reaction by some folks to be overly pessimistic; they can’t help “the sky is falling” syndrome. I say “have faith in Buzz.”
Hope this hire is not just going “down the hall” as Jim Weaver did to our basketball program.
I was just about to type that. I believe it is.
Stop it. Not even close.
I hope he becomes a star recruiter but, this leaves me very worried for our basketball program.
Agree. If you are planning to leave the program at the end of the season, there is no reason to
waste time and energy trying to find a new staff replacement ! Status quo will work just fine in the
short term !
Can’t see a lot of positives in this move quite frankly
Negative Nelly! I think Buzz has a better perspective on the situation!
What can you expect? Roccaforte’s leaving the team comes at a very inopportune time in the off-season. Not a lot of coaches are willing to jump ship with their current teams at this point in mid summer to take a very similar position at another school. Family considerations are without a doubt going play a big part in these type of decisions. As a result, good qualified candidates for the job will be scarce at best. So, at this point I don’t put any negative connotations to CBW’s hire of Johnson. If he is comfortable with it, whose to say he is wrong? After all, Buzz got this program to where it is today in just four years. If in fact Buzz does depart after this up-coming season, then I’ll put my trust in Witt Babcock to make another great hire.
Excellent post, NCNJ.
Imaginary upvote for you 🙂
EXACTLY!!!