Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 5 | May 2019

inside.hokiesports.com 11 I wasn’t blind to the writing on the wall, and I wasn’t deaf to the talk about the program. I had tried to appreciate the small things in that final month —the team meals, the flights, the workouts, and the comradery of a group — because I knew what may come. While you might not have been in the rooms or on the planes, I hope that you did, too. You played a big part of what led to those final days, and I hope you enjoyed them. Packing Cassell Coliseum. Filling social media with pride in Hokie hoops. Caring. All critically important. It happened seemingly in the blink of an eye. Buzz Williams left. For me, that carried a sadness with it simply because of the work I put in to cultivate a relationship with him and his program. Harder still was the trickle-down effect. I consider David Jackson, a former Hokie player himself and the team’s strength and conditioning coach, a good friend. He left as well, along with Jamie McNeilly, Devin Johnson, Lyle Wolf, Josh Chambers, Joe Fulce and Baylie Stous. They were my friends and my wife’s friends. They provided community for us, and the dynamic worked. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a sense of loss in that for both of us. It’s relatable, I think. Maybe you had a favorite player from those teams. Maybe you became a fan of the program again because of Williams’ energy. Maybe you had been all along and had been waiting years for that Tournament run. I needed to be honest with myself that their departures hurt to some degree. Maybe you do, too. It was a special group, a special time, and that emotion is normal. I have gotten pretty good at emotional deflection over the years. So, I went home to Minnesota to visit my parents. Get out of dodge for a bit, and let things cool down. Thirty-six hours after arriving at home, I got word that I needed to get back. There was a new leader of Virginia Tech men’s basketball. I hopped on a plane, returned and walked back into Cassell Coliseum. I saw some familiar faces—P.J. Horne, Isaiah Wilkins, Landers Nolley, and Bruce Garnes (the unofficial mayor of Blacksburg). Also, Christian Webster and Ryan Nadeau. I listened to Coach Mike Young speak, and then sat down with him for the first of hopefully thousands of conversations. About life. About basketball. About Blacksburg. About the future. I met his family. I met some of the people coming with him to Tech. Suddenly, I wasn’t sad anymore. I got excited again. For the possibilities. Sure, with our programming and interviews and all that jazz, but more so about the future of Virginia Tech basketball. About the next version of the family. About the moments ahead of us. So, as I write this, it has been a few weeks since the Sweet 16, and I’ve come to the place where I mentally want to leave it. I forever will be appreciative of Robinson (5), Hill (Med), Outlaw and Alexander-Walker (NAW). Their contributions on and off the court will live on in Hokie lore. They always will be remembered as all-time Virginia Tech greats. Their accomplishments will stand as the foundation upon which the program rises. I forever will be grateful for having narrated that chapter of Virginia Tech history, and I forever will be positively scarred for what I learned from Williams and my time with the group he put together. There is no denying it. I will miss my friends, but they are still my friends. But it is over. That particular chapter came to an end. I celebrate it because Hokie Nation stamped its signature all over it. I hope you do the same. And now we move on. We get ready for the next chapter—the Mike Young era of Tech basketball—and we do that with the same Hokie spirit and determination as shown by Hokies for generations. Because that’s the thing. It was a magically unique chapter, yes, but it represented just one chapter in a book with many others to be written. The book of Virginia Tech basketball. Who will star in the chapters to come? When and where will the magical moments come? Who will be my new friends? I don’t know yet, but my experiences in the past and my faith in the future prepared me to embrace them with both arms when they arrive. And I know you’ll be standing right next to me when they do. Let’s Go! MODERN COL L EGE J EWE LRY 1 0% OF F CODE HOK I ESAD | KYL ECAVAN . COM