Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 9 No. 2

admitted. “We’re going to be thin in the post. So we’re going to be playing

a lot of small ball and hopefully they grasp it, and hopefully we’ll offer an

advantage to us even though we won’t be as big as everyone else.”

Brooks also kept two of Wolff’s recruits in guards Kaela Kinder and

Genesis Parker, and he added two other guards. Diandra DaRosa spent

two seasons at ASACollege, a junior college, before coming to Blacksburg,

and she averaged 14.1 points and 5.4 assists per game. The other guard is

a player whom Brooks knows quite well—his daughter, Kendyl, who led

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her Spotswood High team to the Virginia Group 3A title last year.

The road to contender status in the ACC will not be an easy one. In

addition to playing a challenging non-conference slate that includes home

games against Georgetown, Tennessee and Nebraska and a road tilt at

Auburn, the Hokies play five ACC teams that finished last season ranked

in the top 25, including Syracuse, which lost in the national title game.

Perhaps of more concern, of the four teams that finished behind Tech

in the ACC standings last season—Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Boston

College and Clemson—the Hokies play three of them on the road. The

Hokies play six games against teams that finished fifth or better in the

league standings.

But Brooks doesn’t look that far ahead. He just wants his team to get

better each day. He said his players are trying to do that—and then some.

“They’ve been very receptive,” Brooks said. “Any time there is a new

coach, there is going to be some reservation somewhere, somehow, but

they’ve been receptive to the preseason workouts and everything we’ve

asked. They don’t understand the culture we’re trying to implement yet,

but they’ve been receptive. I’m proud of that and happy with that.

“The key for us is that they play for each other. They have to cover for

each other. Once we get into conference play, I don’t think we’re going to

be the most talented teamwhen we step on the floor. We’re going to have

to rely on each other to play hard. That’s the only way we’re going to be

able to give ourselves a chance to compete.”

Tech opens the season Nov. 11 against UNC Asheville. It will be the

first step in the journey. How long that journey will take remains to

be seen.