VT Thoughts... a Shameful Admission

I haven't posted anything since June... that's not great, but honestly I'm finding the reason for this is that I am souring on college football a bit, at least from a writing standpoint. I still like to watch the games and cheer for the Hokies, but I find with college football that my interest wanes significantly after VT puts up a loss. I guess that is the problem with living through the Michael Vick era... I am constantly expecting Virginia Tech to be in the mix for a national title. It's not a fair expectation, but it's not helped by the fact that VT has frequently won the ACC, a BCS auto-bid conference. In my mind, that makes us a legitimate contender for the title. But when you set your expectations at that level and the Hokies put up a loss, you realize that you are out of the hunt for the national title already. That completely sucks... one loss, one bad game and you are done.

To me, the college basketball format makes so much more sense. Nobody goes undefeated, but every good team from the most unlikely of small conference tournament winners to the juggernauts gets a chance to get the title. And honestly, for me, my expectations for VT basketball are much more realistic. I just want to get to the NCAA tournament. Winning a game in the tournament would be fantastic, but I just want the team to get there and I will be happy. That's a realistic goal.

My goal for the football team is obviously unfairly unrealistic given their results in big games, but my brain still thinks they should be at that level, so I can't change my expectations. I'm not happy with a win in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. I'm not happy with an appearance in the Orange Bowl against Stanford. I'll take a win against Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl, but honestly I would have liked more than that as well. So if my goal is a national title and my team is out of contention for the national title just 5 weeks into the season because of one loss, then my interest turns to a sport where my team can lose several games and still have a realistic chance to meet my expectations for them.

So with that said, I've been getting more and more anxious for basketball season. The first item -- VT lost freshman point guard Marquis Rankin for at least a few games as he went down in practice the other day with a knee injury. I am always way too optimistic before the season starts, but in my mind this is not a huge loss. I would have liked for Rankin to be able to keep getting familiar with his new teammates, there's no question about that. However, I was not counting on Rankin to give us much this season. Point guard is the most difficult position when speaking of the jump from high school to college, especially in the ACC. Just ask Tyrone Garland. Ty was one of the most prolific high school point guards in the history of the city of Philadelphia and some bright spots aside, most of his freshman season was a struggle. He had an extremely tough time dealing with the defensive pressure of opposing PGs in the ACC and rarely seemed to be in sync with the rest of the offense. It was basically the same for Erick Green in his freshman year, and this is exactly what we can expect from Rankin in his freshman season. It's best if he doesn't have to see any major minutes on the floor this year anyway, so his loss in the first couple of games doesn't scare me... so long as the other point guards stay healthy.

I also decided to take a look at freshman power forward Joey Van Zegeren's highlights today. I have to tell you, I like what I have seen. I'm not sure what exactly a coach looks for when he views game tape of a potential recruit, but here are the things that I noticed:

• I see above average athleticism. Not elite, but definitely better than a lot of players in the ACC. Joey is 6'10", but moves around easily and gets off the ground quickly when he jumps. He is able to get up and block shots when an opposing player jumps first and releases at the top of their jump. On dunks, his hands are well above the rim. Victor Davila is 6'8" and seemingly moves around like he has weights in his shoes in comparison. Because of this, I think JVZ will be a solid shot-blocker and shot-changer defensively.



• Conversely, Davila has an array of offensive post moves and JVZ doesn't really have much to work with. It seems like his only shot down there besides a dunk is an awkward looking push-hook shot that he seemingly can get off with either his left or right hand. In highlight videos that shot always goes in, but I'm guessing that in real life it doesn't go in all that much. You never know though... Chiek Diakite had a horrible looking turn-around jumper, but he nailed it at a high percentage.



• The rebounding is luscious. JVZ frequently gets himself into a mix of players and comes down with the ball. He looks like he's not afraid to use his body to create space, which is the first thing you would worry about with a European recruit. He seems to embrace contact, and when you combine that with athleticism and good hands you usually get a solid rebounder.



• JVZ has a good-looking jump shot. It's fluid and he has a high release. I'd expect him to be able to hit jumpers out to the 3-point line at a good percentage.



• My final point... he seems to move well without the ball. He makes good, strong cuts to the basket and seems like he has energy to make his defender work to keep up with him.

All in all, I think this kid could really turn out to be a good player. He is already 20 years old, but he doesn't look like he has reached his ceiling. With improved competition in practice helping to strengthen his game, he could end up being the power forward we thought we were getting with Allan Chaney. That's a bold prediction and one that I'm not really going to stand behind given that I've only seen his pre-college highlight reel, but man he's got a crap load of potential.