He sees everyone complaining about the fact that Buzz had one foot out the door the whole time he was in Blacksburg. A guy who yearly kept his name in the rumor mill for higher profile coaching vacancies. "Why doesn't Buzz want to retire at VT, like Frank Beamer?," asks the unrealistic fan base.

So Whit goes out and identifies the best possible replacement candidate. A guy who grew up watching Virginia Tech basketball in CASSELL. A guy whose dream job is VT. What a perfect counter to losing Buzz to his dream job, in his home state of Texas. Whit finds a guy who is honored to be hired as the coach of Virginia Tech. A guy who, clearly, embodies the THIS IS HOME mantra, as well as the college loyalty desperately wished by the fanbase. This is what we want (and thanks to Frank Beamer for spoiling us all, in that regard).

Whit replaces a guy who led a team of high quality recruits to a #14 final ranking in the Coaches' Poll with a guy who coached at a school of under 2,000 studentswith a salary that ranked as one of the lowest in Division I tournament teamswith a roster full of guys that essentially nobody else was interested inwho practiced in essentially a high school gymto a #18 final ranking in the Coaches' Poll.

Whit goes out and hires a guy who personifies the pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-and-get-to-work-every-day-despite-the-odds. This guy is sooooo clearly cut from the LUNCHPAIL culture valued by the Hokie fans.

Whit hires a guy who won the Sporting News Coach Of The Year award. Not sure what place Buzz finished for that award, but he definitely lost it to Mike Young. Previous winners include a guy UCLA just paid millions to come west to coach their train wreck of a team who is a "big city guy" that many on this message board coveted, as well as Mark Few, Calipari and Bill Self. Solid company.

Young also finished third in this season's AP Coach of the Year voting behind Texas Tech's Chris Beard and Houston's Kelvin Sampson. Not sure where Buzz finished, despite his great job this year.

I wonder where Mike Young's Wofford team would've finished if he had Ahmed Hill, 5, Outlaw, Blackshear and NAW as his starting five? I mean, they might not have shot the 3-ball % as high (Wofford ranked #2 at 41.4% from downtown, compared to VT's #8 ranking at 39.4%), or maybe they would've definitely finished #1 because of the level of competition in the Southern Conference. I guess we're about to find out what happens when you hand a talented coach the resources he's only dreamed about.

Here's what I know. He can definitely coach kids up. And kids definitely will run through a wall for him. And he certainly knows how to find a diamond in the rough. And he's shown you can win with a bunch of nobodies in Chapel Hill; maybe he can do that again, and soon! He won't overly pontificate on pseudo-philosophical mumbo-jumbo while evading questions, and he won't say "relative to" five times a day, either. And he most certainly ain't gonna fly the state flag of Texas in his front yard.

I'm ready to see what Mike Young can do. Proud to have him aboard. He's got a lot to prove, knows it, and is ready to get to work. He wasn't afraid to take the job. Ask yourself, what would you do if YOU got your dream job?

[hey - I get it. I was surprised by the Mike Young hire, too. I'm definitely nervous about recruiting. But Buzz was a COMPLETE nobody when Marquette gave him a chance, and look what he did. Mike actually has a track record of getting to the NCAAs in a conference where he HAD to win the conference tournament to do it. Love the passionate VT fanbase, finally awakened in basketball again, and wanting to win ALL THE TIME now. We were definitely spoiled by Buzz's success. And I actually liked Buzz. I really did. He cracked me up with his "I'm not smart enough to" do this, that or the other but "I'm sorry I didn't answer your question but this is what I'm telling you now". Looking forward to giving Mike Young a shot, too, though. I'm coming around, and really feel like Whit did his due diligence before this hire; his career hinges on making good decisions so he most certainly didn't casually hire Mike and hope it works out. There is a plan in place, and that plan has been vetted and approved and we're about to see how it works. Can't wait to see the assistant coaches hired to support Mike Young's vision. GO HOKIES!]


[Post edited by MaroonAvenger at 04/10/2019 5:24PM]