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

The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team officially started practicing in mid-October, and while Buzz Williams was excited—and still is—about the possibilities of his 2018-19 squad, he thinks more about his program’s journey than its destination. In March of 2014, Director of Athletics Whit Babcock hired him to turn around the worst program in the ACC. Four years later, the program made its second of back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. “When I think about what’s upcoming, I guess because I’m old that I think back to the stories of what led to this point,” Williams said. “Just grateful for all of those parents and all of those coaches and all of those hours and all of those sacrifices. To go from four years in a row in last place [only one of those was under Williams] and then fast forward to four years later and see what has transpired and think about what all the administration has done to support us, all that the fans have done and how season ticket sales are numbers that you never see … “It’s not one person. It’s not one player. It’s not one decision. It’s not one day. It’s all of those things tied together and how important the character of all of those people are for their willingness to sacrifice for something bigger. It may signal that I don’t care about ball as much as I used to, and yeah, I don’t. I care more about the people that are involved with the ball.” So, too, does Hokie Nation, and for good reason. Williams’ roster is filled with high- character players who love playing basketball, and perhaps just as importantly, love playing for him and Virginia Tech. They also happen to be quite talented. As they continue to prepare for the 2018-19 season opener against Gardner-Webb on Nov. 9, the Hokies return the bulk of their roster from last season’s team that finished 21-12 overall, 10-8 in the ACC. Those totals included wins over four ranked teams, including ACC bluebloods North Carolina and Duke and rival Virginia. While optimism is high and expectations are higher, fans need to be cautious. After all, Tech lost two important cogs off last season’s squad—Justin Bibbs and Devin Wilson, the last two holdovers from the previous coaching staff before Williams’ arrival. Bibbs started 117 of 128 games in his career and scored nearly 1,500 points. Wilson, and specifically his defense, served as the key to the team winning five of its final eight regular- season games to get into the NCAA Tournament. “I don’t think we’ll be able to replace them,” Williams said. “Those guys were so accepting of our culture, and as their careers unfolded as players, not only did they accept it, they thrived in it and became very good models of what we want to be about in every facet in our life … We won’t be able to replace them, but I think they are two guys that we’ll always be able to look to as an example for what we want to be about on and off the floor.” Any success this season probably hinges on the performances of the squad’s four seniors—Ahmed Hill, Justin Robinson, Chris Clarke and Ty Outlaw. All four are the types of versatile players whom Williams loves. INA ROW For The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team has a lot of pieces returning for a run at a third straight NCAA Tournament bid—which would be a first in the program’s history by Jimmy Robertson 16 Inside Hokie Sports Continued on page 18