BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams announced Thursday that redshirt junior Joey van Zegeren will leave the Tech men’s basketball team. van Zegeren, a forward from Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, is on track to graduate in May and likely will continue his playing career at another institution or play professionally next season. van Zegeren will remain on scholarship until graduation.
“Joey and I met several times over the past week. Today, we decided that it would be best if he leaves the team to focus on completing his degree and focus on his development as he looks toward the next phase of his basketball career,” said Williams. “He is good young man who continues to grow as a person and a player. I will be proud of him when he walks across the stage in May as a Virginia Tech graduate.”
van Zegeren, a 6-10 forward, was a member of the program for four years and appeared in 79 games, scoring 433 points and averaging 4.1 rebounds per game.
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I understand that Buzz wants his own team…but I just hope that he is not too hard to play for. I would HATE to think that he gets in better talent only to run most off due to some unrealistic expectations. Anyone researched the turnover rate at Marquette while he was there?
I personally am not thrilled with the turnover rate so far….but I am withholding judgement. I just hope there is a method to the madness.
Do you remember the turnover Seth Greenberg and James Johnson had? Short memory!!! Just saying, give Buzz the opportunity to get the job done. Too many of us armchair foul shooters, thinking too much out loud, you thank so. I don’t see any madness if you are referring to turnover.
Is it correct to say JVZ got in the dog house when his free throw percentage dipped below 32%? How do you play a center at the end of a game when you can’t depend on him at crunch time? The answer is, you don’t. Did he develop an “additudinal problem” after riding the pine, and going off in practice? Conjecture of course, but there seems to be a correlation.
And we are paying this guy how much per year? For how many years? Really?
Sorry, not overly impressed so far, but the program can’t sink any lower. Please tell me it can’t……………….
He’s a very good coach. Give him time. Remember none of his guys are playing.
Ahmet Hill and Satchel Pierce are his guys!! He recruited them to Marquette and they followed him here!!
I wish Joey nothing but the best. Buzz’s remarks about Joey’s graduation from Tech and his future, were made in high esteem about Joey as a good person and human being. Buzz Williams is every bit the right coach at the right time for VT. I’ve seem more hustle and desire from this team and players than I have seen in years. Good teams have to be coached up to hustle, scrape, scramble, and want to win games. My family and I look forward to many rewarding and great years here at VT with Buzz Williams as coach.
I must say I am shaken by the turnover, especially by JVZ’s departure. I trust Whitt’s judgment and will not lose heart yet, but I am getting closer to thinking we may have made a mistake. Can anyone work with this guy?
Get over it………Buzz was and is the right hire. Count your blessings!!!!
Advice from obloid coaches sometimes fits spheroid sports situations also.
A couple:
“I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.” – Bear Bryant / Alabama
There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.”
– Woody Hayes / Ohio State
“If lessons are learned in defeat , our team is getting a great education.”
– Murray Warmath / Minnesota
Woody Hayes? Please…
Buzz has a plan and JVZ was probably frustrated with his diminished playing time. If we are to build a program, we need to be replacing deadwood with better talent. Buzz is doing just that.
I wish JVZ nothing but the best as he moves forward.
As I watched the game last night, I couldn’t help but think that the wide margin of defeat was much more satisfying to watch than some of the narrow defeats and even wins of past seasons. I love the way this offense executes. And is doing so with very young players.
Don’t know I would classify JVZ as “deadwood” but we were warned very early on that Buzz is hard on atheletes and there would be a lot of attrition. I like JVZ’s presence in the paint and he seemed to have improved a great deal from the “project” he came in as a freshman. Offensively he was really showing potential, particularly last season. If the rumors of a blowup by JVZ during practice are true, I hope he learns from the experience. I hope he graduates from VT and goes on to a successful career in whatever he pursues.
Disappointing. Although he was short of the magical length border, he had gamegame game.
However, in looking for the above reference (here: http://chat.virginiatech.sportswar.com/message_board/vtbasketball/2014/May/7/5125593.php), I did run across this post by CC (here: http://chat.virginiatech.sportswar.com/message_board/vtbasketball/2014/July/10/5247871.php) where JvZ said he liked Buzz, and felt his toughness was worth it. I wonder when/why that changed.
If you look at JVZ’s playing time, it declined after the Radford game. Click Stats, then click 2014-15 at the link below.
http://www.hokiesports.com/mbasketball/players/vanzegeren_joey.html
He played 30 minutes against Radford and had just 10 points and 5 boards, one of his worst performances of the season to that point.
Things changed after that game. Playing time went down, suspension soon followed, and then the decision to depart.
That’s too bad, because CC talked to Joey one night before the season started, and JVZ seemed to be one of the few guys who had responded well to Buzz.
Maybe Buzz had a man-to-man with him and it didn’t go over very well. Some people respond to a challenge and others don’t. Sad to see him go because he was one of my favorite players to watch.
Lots of Monday morning quarterbacking in many of these comments. You can expect changes with a new coach and along the way people seem to forget we were losing bb games b/4 Buzz arrived thus the change in coaches. We don’t know all the facts and circumstances and it is personnel related we won’t ever know them so everyone has to move on. Everyone needs to just chill out! The only thing I know is without discipline your foundation is weak as water and it is needed in any program.
“people seem to forget we were losing bb games b/4 Buzz arrived thus the change in coaches”
no kidding
It seems to me that Buzz has established his expectations and some players chose not to accept or abide by those expectations. JVZ had a place on the team. He was given the opportunity to meet the expectations placed on him. Seems that he chose a different path. Best of luck to him. That is not a scorched earth policy by Buzz, instead it is a policy of, “I am in charge and this is how we are going to do things.” It’s about leadership, expectations, and establishing who is in charge.
Buzz seems to have implemented a ‘scorched earth’ policy in that he is burning down all of the buildings and starting all over again. Between the men’s and woman’s BB programs, Virginia Tech is right DOWN there once again with Georgia Tech, Boston College, etc. Honestly, when will this long standing NIGHTMARE ever
end ??? Congrats to UVA @ Number 2 – –
Agree that both BB programs are down, but I see a lot of improvement with Buzz’s leadership. Save your questioning about him for 2-3 years from now. And, I’d rather you leave your praises about UVA to yourself.
He couldn’t have used Barksdale, Thompson ,Kirby, Joey this year – I know what he has left is young but I have not been impressed . I am not impressed with him up till now .
Unfortunately I agree. Last night was my first game I have been able to attend and I am no way an expert. I saw no leadership and terrible passing, ball handling and shot selection. Looked undisciplined. Maybe Santa will come next year.
He’s getting ready to graduate, he’s growing as a person and a player, he has the talent to go pro, he’s going to stay on scholarship. What kind of math is this? 1 + 1 + 1 +1 = 0? zilch? nada?
All these positive statement but we can’t use him on the basketball team for the rest of the season – not at all?
Do you really expect a public statement with the truth?
Facts, even hard or embarrassing ones, can be revealed in a mature manner.
Rumor on another board is that JVZ flipped out in practice one day, cursed an assistant coach and threw the ball at him. I suspect that was probably the culmination of a lot of other things.
I fully support Buzz in this decision. He’s trying to rebuild the program here and he wants guys who are going to buy in 100% and do things his way. Anyone who either can’t or won’t do that needs to be shown the door, even if they’re one of the few post players available on this year’s roster.
I also support the coaches decision completely. It looks like my problem is with the way this “article” is written.
JVZ “going pro” is likely a reference to playing overseas. With his size and athletecism, perhaps he has a future in Europe or Asia. As for staying on scholarship, we’re talking the rest of this semester. And “growing as a person and player” is coach speak, doesn’t seem to matter who the coach is. Let’s sweep it all under the rug and just be friends. In other words, we don’t need to know the embarassing details.
Well, Buzz has certainly implemented a scorched- earth policy re: the players he inherited. The last organization doing business in Virginia to suffer an attrition rate like this was the Army of the Potomac (but at least they won). Are we to believe that all the departed players were lazy, insubordinate malcontents?
Look at what happened to Coach Bennett’s first recruting class at HOOVA
Please, you’re interrupting the “experts” with common sense and facts.
Bennett did not “settle in” regarding personnel until year 3/4
Gen. McDowell, caution to leave the analysis to those born AFTER the sport was invented- say someone from the last several decades that actually understands modern college basketball.
UVA is an interesting case to compare, fans were calling for him to go after year 2 and now everyone is waving their wahoo flags. We no doubt will struggle again next year, will we have patience? Can we we have patience with the mounting costs on VT athletics department and a half empty Cassell?