Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 2 | October 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 9 by Jimmy Robertson With 2018-19 season set to tip off, Hokies look to be explosive again— but finding stoppers key for a winning hand Those who know Buzz Williams probably would not mistake him for a gambler, but as he sat in his office last Feb. 3 following Virginia Tech’s 84-75 loss to Miami, he contemplated shoving all his chips to the center of the table. Miami just had shot 51 percent against the Hokies and drained 10 3-pointers while doing so. The loss left Tech at 16-7 overall, but just a pedestrian 5-5 in ACC play. Williams knew Tech possessed immense firepower—the Hokies wound up leading the ACC in field-goal percentage—but he knew his team needed to find a way to stop people. Or at least the will to do so. So Williams decided to make a bold move. In gambling parlance, he went all in. “We scrapped everything we had ever done defensively,” Williams said. “It was the only practices in my career that I didn’t have a practice plan. We did the same thing every day from that point forward and completed changed everything we were doing defensively. We were 5-5 at that point, and you never know. “I told the staff that [Sunday] afternoon when we finally made the decision, ‘The decision that we’re making determines if we play in the postseason.’” Tech fans know the ending of the story. The Hokies allowed just two opponents to shoot better than 50 percent the rest of the season, beat then-No. 2 Virginia 61-60 in overtime, secured a 64-63 victory over then- No. 5 Duke, and received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. For just the second time in three decades, Tech went dancing in back-to-back years. Now, with the Hokies set to tip off the 2018-19 campaign, they return many key figures from last year’s squad. In fact, this may be the best scoring team since the days of Dell and Bimbo. But the question is this: can they stop enough people to make a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time in program history? The smart wager would be yes. After all, they do return Justin Robinson, Chris Clarke, Ahmed Hill and others. But they also lost their two best defenders in Justin Bibbs and Devin Wilson. When Williams made the decision to scrap his defense on that cold February afternoon, he also made the decision to insert Wilson into the starting lineup. As Wilson’s minutes went up, not coincidentally, so, too, did the Hokies’ win total. Tech already holds its hand for the 2018- 19 season, and it’s not as if the Hokies can pull two better cards from the deck. Different cards, yes, but not necessarily better. Williams considered Bibbs and Wilson his aces when it came to defense. “I don’t know that any player I’ve ever coached has the defensive instincts that Devin did,” Williams said. “Bibbs had that degree of instincts, and as his career unfolded, he continued to improve.” Williams does think Kerry Blackshear Jr. brings an element of instincts on that end of the court. Ty Outlaw knows positioning and angles, too, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker brings length. Four freshmen figure to play extensively provided they defend. The good news is thatWilliams and his staff spent the offseason studying and tweaking. Thus, they went into preseason practices with a plan that emphasized last year’s successful defensive principles and schemes, a plan that they hope possesses staying power and doesn’t force another midseason purge. The players say they get the message. After enduring two first-round NCAA losses, they want an extended run, and they know that scoring 80 points per game won’t get them one if they give up 80 a game as well. The veterans understand the lost impacts of Bibbs and Wilson, while the freshmen are learning. “We actually had a film session on Devin and Bibbs and just how much they helped us on the defensive aspect and how they made up for everything,” Robinson said. “We had a boot camp basketball station that was specific to defense and just how we have to find a guy that can fill the holes that they did. It’s [the loss of Wilson and Bibbs] a big blow, but I’m sure somebody will step up. I want to be that guy, but we have a lot of guys that are competitive.” “As of now, we don’t,” Williams said when asked if he had replacements for Wilson and Bibbs. The Hokies have a little time. They figure to be favorites in most of their non-conference games, if not all of them. The league schedule starts Jan. 1, and they then start finding answers about themselves. Williams may not have his aces on defense this season, but he likes his cards. With the season just around the corner, he is gambling that he has a winning hand.