Seth Allen transferring to Virginia Tech

By: Will Stewart | Founder
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ESPN’s Jeff Goodman is reporting via Twitter that former Maryland guard Seth Allen, who previously announced that he is transferring from Maryland, has selected Virginia Tech as his destination.

Originally from Fredericksburg Christian in Fredericksburg, VA, Allen visited Virginia Tech this weekend and committed on his visit.

He also considered Virginia and NC State.

Allen, a 6-1 guard with point guard skills and a good outside shot, will have to sit out next year, but will have two years of eligibility remaining afterwards.

Allen missed the Terps’ first 12 games with a fractured foot, then started 15 of their last 20 games. He was Maryland’s second-leading scorer in 2013-14 with 13.4 ppg, and he led the Terps in assists per game (2.95) and three-pointers per game (2.45). He shot 40.6% overall and 38.0% (best on the team) from three-point range.

Allen’s reasons for transferring from Maryland are a bit of a mystery, as detailed in this May 2 Washington post article announcing the transfer and a follow-up May 6 article that quoted Allen himself but didn’t shed a lot of light on his reasons. He was a popular player with Maryland fans and was going to receive a lot of playing time next season.

Keeping track of the comings and goings of Virginia Tech basketball players is difficult these days, but as detailed in our article announcing Marshall Wood’s decision to give up basketball, the Hokies had up to three available scholarships for next year, depending upon if Will Johnston’s scholarship is renewed. Allen’s decision to transfer to Virginia Tech takes one of those scholarship slots.

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  1. Whit made a great call with hiring Buzz. I don’t think the Hokie fan base has been this excited about mens BB since I’ve gone there (02 grad). Excited when we joined the ACC yes, but did we really think we were going to compete in the best bb conference? Not really. Excited when we beat Duke? Yes, but did we think that would last? No, that was more like when JMU beat us or App St beat Michigan. Exciting, but not something you think is going to occur on a regular basis. This however is completely different. I am actually excited for the next few seasons. Recruiting seems to be on the up and up. I’ve never been this exicted for bb season to start and it’s not even fb season yet!

  2. I know it doesn’t matter but does anybody recall how high Allen was rated out of high school? Or if Allen has any kind of a pre-existing relationship with any of our current players or coaches? Tia

    1. From 247 out of high school:
      Allen is a left-handed combo guard with excellent leaping ability and a pure 3-point stroke. Somewhat under the radar due to playing at a little-known school and suffering an ankle injury during the summer prior to his senior season. Committed to Terps coach Mark Turgeon, who’d been recruiting him at Texas A&M, almost immediately after Turgeon’s hiring at Maryland.

      Also this note: Seth Allen scores a career high 21 points on 8-12 shooting in Terps ACC opener vs Virginia Tech.
      He also started some games at pg over some other guys which was apparently a bit of a surprise at some point (I don’t know anything about Maryland’s team/roster)…per a twitter post from about 15 months ago.

      Apparently UVA really wanted him and the fans are slightly bitter about it. Here are 3 consecutive posts I saw on the UVA 247 board:
      ” I say we have no chance.”; “None whatsoever. We’re recruiting against Buzz Williams”; “Williams owns the state of va recruiting.”

    2. And apparently Maryland fans thought very highly of him….”Lol so we lose our best player (yes, he is) in May. Groovy.” -Maryland 247 board post

  3. Seriously? It’s hard keeping up with the players coming and going? Yet you do such a fine job with football players doing the same!

    1. I think his point is simply that there’s an unusual amount of turnover going on with the basketball team right now.

  6. I agree with all of the previous comments. In my own lack of basketball knowledge, I am hoping that TSL gurus follow up this announcement with their greater insight. My two questions:

    1. Why would CBW choose Seth Allen over another transfer that might be able to play immediately? Are there little or no better options this late in the year, and is Seth Allen such a good player that my question is just silly?

    2. Why would Seth Allen choose VT over a better (proven success) school where he might have a better chance to reach his NBA aspirations? The three things I saw out of this were that 1. he wanted to focus more on working solely as a point guard, 2. he also might want to rest / rehabilitate his foot more (not a bad reason to take a year off if he was to transfer anyway, and 3. he wanted to play against ACC schools.

    If he sits out a year, PG Devin is then a Junior, and Malik is a Sophmore. Again- silly question, would all three play PG or would one of those slide to another position? Thanks for your thoughts.

    1. Pure speculation, but 3’s an interesting answer. He’s an ACC guy from Va and MD will no longer be an ACC school. See’s himself playing Dook or UNC or UVA. Iowa? Where’s that?

    2. Re #1, I’d guess it has something to do with balancing classes. You don’t want a situation where every four years you have five scholies available. He might be looking to balance out classes a bit and was happy to get a quality guy. That’s the bottom line — when you have a chance at quality, you take it. It’s like the NFL draft’s “best available player” philosophy. Sometimes you just take quality when you can get it.

  7. Buzz is the man proving once again “you get what you pay for.” Getting pumped over where the BB program is headed. It’s a good day to be a HOKIE!!!!

  8. So I guess even though technically UMD is still in the ACC for another little bit, the “two years if transferring within conference” rule is being waived?

    1. Haven’t seen any official confirmation yet, but it’s being reported that he’ll sit one and then play two, so, yep .. sounds like it.

    2. Yeah, figure he just had to wait until July 1st, with a wink and a nod to Buzz. So yeah, for MD, why fight it?

  9. Holy Crap…this is the tipping point for my belief that VT BBall could be really good.

  12. And once again, VT basketball news trumps football even on draft day. What is the Hokie world coming to!

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