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D
eborah Allen worked a full-time job during the day and another
in the mornings and evenings while raising four children, and she
struggled enough to get all of her “mom” chores done during the course
of a day.
But her youngest kid often made matters a touch more difficult,
particularly when it came to getting the laundry finished. He routinely
pulled socks out of the laundry basket, backed up and launched
“jumpers”—in a precursor to his future.
Tiring of finding socks scattered throughout the house, she decided
that he needed to find a more appropriate venue to work on his
blossoming game. One day, as Seth Allen plucked Cheerios from a
bowl, he fielded a jersey from his mom, who told him it was time to
move from the living room to the court.
“I was 4 or 5,” Allen said. “I had my first rec game, and that was a big
moment in my life.”
Allen—who interestingly does everything right handed except
shoot—has been playing basketball ever since and now arguably stands
as the most talented member on a Virginia Tech men’s basketball team
enjoying its best season in a decade. The Hokies last made the NCAA
Tournament in 2007, and behind Allen and a lot of other experienced,
versatile parts, they appear well positioned for a return following a 10-
year hiatus.
Depending on whom one asks, Allen may not be the most talented
athlete in his family. His father, Joe, played football at Arizona State.
His older brother, Brandon, played basketball at Mount Olive in
North Carolina and his older sister, Starr, played at Virginia State
before giving up the sport to concentrate on academics. Another older
brother, Cameron, was a good athlete, too.
Cameron is the oldest of the quartet, while Brandon finished at
Mount Olive in 2011. They tortured their youngest sibling in pick-
up games held in the driveway of the family’s home in Woodbridge,
Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C. They’d swat his shot and then
make him run down the hill next to the driveway to retrieve the ball.
The constant rejections ticked off Seth, but he never once thought
about quitting. He fetched the ball, ran back up the hill and yelled,
‘Check up,’ eager to resume the game in a masochistic sort of way.
“Being able to compete with older people gets you better,” he said.
“I’d get my tail beat all the time. I’d get my shot blocked, and then
I’d have to run down the hill and go get the ball. I would never quit. I
always kept going at them. It [the game of basketball] was my escape
away from everything. It’s never done me wrong.”
Yet the game hasn’t always made life easy. As he got older and
started competing on both his high school team and the AAU circuit,
he got better. He started receiving modest recruiting interest while
competing for C.D. Hylton High in Woodbridge.
He knew that he needed a scholarship to play in college. He was
part of a close, loving family, but they weren’t the Huxtables. His sister
received academic aid to go to school, but his brothers had to take out
loans to pay for tuition. That created a burden on his parents—one in
which he did not want to add.
Seth Allen
started his collegiate career at
Maryland, but decided to transfer to Virginia
Tech, putting his faith in Buzz Williams and
playing a large role in turning around the
Hokies’ basketball fortunes
by
Jimmy Robertson
26
Inside Hokie Sports