Hokie ClubBy Jimmy Robertson
For 20-plus years, his pregame ritual consisted of sitting on the bench, watching both teams warm up, and taking regular bites from a bag of popcorn. The texture of the warm, fluffy kernels, combined with a pinch of salt and a small portion of melted butter, eased his palate and his nerves.
Last season, Mike Young continued his tradition, enjoying the product from Cassell Coliseum's concessionaires, and perhaps fittingly, his youthful inaugural team somewhat resembled a bag of popcorn. The young players started out as a bunch of seeds, but expanded and grew upon heating, particularly from the intense pressure of facing the best competition in the ACC.
Now, looking ahead to this season, Young hopes that his players have popped into a product that everyone loves – a fresh and hot distraction for a Hokie Nation suffering, like most, from COVID fatigue. He expected last year's challenge when he took the job, and it became more of one than perhaps he expected, but he certainly has no regrets about last season, one in which the inexperienced and undersized Hokies went 16-16 overall, beat then-No. 3 Michigan State, and won seven league games.
"That was challenging, but man, were they fun to coach and work with," Young said.
Young and his staff spent the entire offseason reconfiguring the roster. Only six players who played for Tech last season return for the 2020-21 campaign, and this year's roster includes three graduate transfers, along with four freshmen. The staff's offseason haul consisted of size and experience, and the team now features four players at least 6-foot-9 or taller and four players already with college degrees.
So Young expects to be able to play more in the style that he wants, and he expects the Hokies to be more competitive in the ACC, especially against longer, athletic teams such as Florida State, Duke, North Carolina, and Louisville.
"I knew going back a year ago that it was going to take us a bit to get the roster balanced and where we want it," Young said. "We're not there completely, but I do feel a lot better. In a number of areas, we'll be deeper a year from now. We'll be bigger and stronger."
STYLE OF PLAY
A year ago, a perimeter-oriented Tech team relied on the 3-pointer to be successful, and Young knew how to coach a team with 3-point capabilities. One of his players at Wofford – Fletcher Magee – set the NCAA record for 3-pointers in a career, surpassing the likes of notable NBA standouts J.J. Redick and Steph Curry.
The Hokies led the ACC with 315 3-pointers last season, and they finished second with 896 3-point attempts. Tech hit 35.2% of its 3's, which was tied for second in the league.
But Young felt that the Hokies relied too much on the 3-pointer – the byproduct of a lack of post scoring.
"I wasn't comfortable with how we played," Young admitted. "But I thought how we played gave us the best chance to win."
So Young wants to get back to playing a little more of a traditional offense. Yes, he expects the Hokies to be relevant from beyond the arc again, but he wants his team to score more easy baskets, whether in transition or through offensive rebounds, and he wants this group to get to the free-throw line more.
Tech finished 14th in the 15-team ACC both in free throws made (305) and attempted (429). The Hokies struggled to put pressure on defenses and rarely scored without the clock running.
"That makes me sick to my stomach – not getting fouled more," Young said. "We've got to do a better job of putting pressure on people. We didn't really have – Wabissa [Bede] would be the exception – a guy that could get into people and get the ball into the paint and spray it out. Obviously, we didn't have a back-to-the-basket player that we could expect to get four-to-six foul shots from on a given night. I do think that area will be much improved. It needs to be. You can't rely on that bomb night in and night out. Again, I do think that we'll be much farther along offensively in that area."
On the defensive end, the Hokies played well considering their lack of size. Tech held opponents to 41.6% shooting for the floor, which ranked eighth in the ACC, and the Hokies need to continue to improve in this area.
After all, six of the seven teams that finished ahead of the Hokies in defensive field-goal percentage also finished ahead of them in the ACC standings.
"I thought we took some strides defensively," Young said. "Not night in, night out, but I thought our team fought, and we had some really nice outings, and we're going to be better on the defensive end this coming year."
ROSTER ANALYSIS
The perimeter
Last year's leading scorer, Landers Nolley II, decided to transfer in the offseason, but the Hokies return five perimeter players who played extensively last season, including three – Wabissa Bede, Tyrece Radford, and Nahiem Alleyne – who started. Bede started all 32 games, while Radford started 29 and Alleyne 27.
Bede serves as the leader of this team. He led the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.3) a year ago, and his 5.5 assists per game ranked third in the league. He struggled to shoot the ball, but Tech's staff thinks a finger injury affected his shot, and the coaches expect him to be more of a scoring threat this season.
Radford was a breakout candidate last season, averaging 10.2 points per game and leading the team with 6.2 rebounds per game. He also shot 60% from the floor and was one of just three players in the ACC to average 10 points, 6 rebounds, and shoot 60%.
Alleyne averaged 8.8 points per game and nearly shot 40% from beyond the arc. As the season went along, Young referred to him as one of the team's top perimeter defenders.
"I've always thought I had good defense," Alleyne said. "I'm just glad that he thought of me like that. I'm expected to guard big-time players this year again, but I'm ready for it."
Jalen Cone and Hunter Cattoor also return for their sophomore seasons. Cone shot 45% from beyond the arc, and his 64 3-pointers were 11th in the ACC. Cattoor averaged 6.5 points and shot 40% from beyond the arc.
The staff added experience to the backcourt with the arrival of Cartier Diarra, a graduate transfer from Kansas State. A 58-game starter in his career, Diarra averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game for the Wildcats last season, and he gives the Hokies a playmaker in the backcourt.
The rest of the perimeter contingent includes highly recruited guards Joe Bamisile and Darius Maddox. Both are tremendous shooters with some length.
"He's what I refer to as another 'runaway shooter,'" Young said of Bamisile. "He's a kid that can just fly off a screen, catch it, and elevate, and get the thing in the basket. Darius Maddox is a scorer and has some length. He's a long, young man on the perimeter."
The post
The biggest changes to the roster center on the post positions. A year ago, Tech's post presence consisted of P.J. Horne, a 6-6 forward who played mostly on the perimeter and transferred after the season, and 6-10 John Ojiako, a freshman who played sparingly. But Young added height, length, and size to the two post positions in the offseason.
The process to improve this area actually began before the start of last season when Keve Aluma, a 6-9 forward, transferred from Wofford. He sat out last season and now figures to be a day 1 starter.
"I love his game, and he was very good for us in practice last year," Young said. "Chester Frazier [a Tech associate head coach], if I heard him say it once, I heard him say it 50 times, he would make us so much better right now. He had a year in the smokehouse, as I refer to it, and he will be better because of that experience. I'm really excited about what he'll bring to our roster."
Young and his staff also tapped into the transfer market to add two more post players in Cordell Pemsl (6-9, 250) and Justyn Mutts (6-7, 230). Pemsl scored 550 points and grabbed 400 rebounds in 96 career games for Iowa before leaving, and Mutts averaged 12.2 points and 8.4 rebounds for Delaware last season. Mutts has caught the eyes of several who have watched him play.
"That's my roommate. That's my guy," Alleyne said. "He comes to work every day. Hustle guy. He can do it all, really – stretch the floor out, 3, slash, dunk on you. I'm really excited for him."
The other scholarship member of the post contingent is David N'Guessan, a 6-9 forward from the Netherlands who averaged 15 points and seven rebounds for Mt. Zion Prep in Maryland last season. Tech's roster lacks a true "3," or small forward, but N'Guessan – an intriguing talent with skills – could grow into that role.
"David's just a bouncy, athletic young person that can really shoot the ball, and I think he's going to get better and better in that regard," Young said. "He's got some 3 in him at 6-9, 6-10, but we'll start him at the 4 early on and just give us a chance to get longer."
FINAL THOUGHTS
Young and his staff certainly have added the ingredients for success – experience, size, talent, and depth. Depth was an emphasis, as Young wanted more competition in practices – a sore spot for him last season. He adjusted practices a season ago just to keep a depth-shy team healthy.
Added depth creates a bit of a dilemma, though. Can Young find playing time for 10, 11 or 12 players, or do one or two Hokies take redshirt seasons? Young seems open to the possibility.
"I've never redshirted a kid in my 18 years as a head coach and regretted it. Not one," he said. "I think that is such an incredible opportunity to grow physically and have a better understanding of the game.
"I think it's too early to start making those determinations. John Ojiako would have been an ideal candidate to sit a year ago. We just couldn't do it. Those things will work themselves out. Are we going to have the ability to play 11? I don't know the answer to that yet. I do think that I like the character on our roster. I like the basketball abilities of the kids on our roster. They're good basketball players and smart basketball players, we think. We'll have to get further down the road before I've got a better handle on that sort of thing [redshirting]."
At least he'll have options this season, and the additions also create some excitement about the potential ceiling of this team. A year ago, the team probably exceeded expectations. Everyone associated with the program now wants more.
Predicting a ceiling remains difficult without knowing the schedule – as of the deadline of this writing, the ACC had not released a schedule and Tech had not released its nonconference slate. The league figures to be much better, yet the Hokies think they are, too.
"The biggest thing is we've just got to take it one day at a time," Cattoor said. "We can't look too far forward, and we can't look back on what happened last year. It's just take it one day at a time and just try to work hard and get better each and every day."
Young admits the program isn't where he wants it to be. Not yet. But if the Hokies become more balanced on offense, get more out of their post players, and play a little better on defense, they could find themselves in the NCAA Tournament discussion in March.