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

inside.hokiesports.com 19 300 Technology Drive Christiansburg, Virginia 24073 www.inorganicventures.com Makers of the world’s most accurate Certified Reference Materials Because the Hokies are such a big part of ours. Two of our PhDs as well as eleven key members of our service, production, and business teams hold degrees from Virginia Tech. When you’ve got the right talent in place, there’s no limit to how far you can go. Proud to support the Hokies’ teams. do think about sleeping in tomorrow? It’s Saturday.’ It’s just not his nature.” The rest of Tech’s roster includes five freshmen—Isaiah Wilkins, Jonathan Kabongo, Landers Nolley II, Tyrece Radford and Brendan Palmer. All are perimeter players, but the 6-7, 230-pound Nolley certainly possesses the size and game to play inside. He was the Atlanta Journal- Constitution Player of the Year as a senior in the talent-rich Georgia city after averaging 31 points and 8 rebounds per game. The Hokies certainly expect to bring scoring punch to games this season. After all, they averaged nearly 80 points per game, and they led the ACC in field-goal percentage (49.9) and 3-point percentage (38.8). They also showed a propensity to stop people after Williams made a drastic midseason change in defensive philosophy. After an 84-75 loss to Miami on Feb. 3—a game in which the Hokies allowed Miami to shoot 51 percent and hit 10 3s—Williams devoted entire practices to taking care of the team’s issues on defense. It worked. Tech allowed just two teams to shoot better than 50 percent the rest of the season, and he plans to continue the strategy, with much of the team’s practices being devoted to defense. “We’ve adopted it wholeheartedly and studied it a lot this summer … We’ve really tried to take all that we learned last year and then how can we succinctly teach it better and how tomake sure what we’re teaching captures the priority of the defense,” Williams said. “We still have a ways to go, but considering the genealogy of all this, it’s still in the toddler stage. But I do think this year thus far through a month [of practices], we’re ahead based on the newness of what we’re going to do.” The bigger concern for Williams, though, is rebounding. A year ago, Tech finished 14th in the ACC in rebounding margin. The Hokies were out-rebounded by an average of 1.5 per game, and in terms of total rebounds, by 152. At 6-6, Clarke led the Hokies in rebounding last season—the lone player with more than 200 rebounds. Blackshear, Horne and Alexander-Walker all need to increase their numbers to help the Hokies, and the presence of Nolley could help. “That will be our Achilles heel,” Williams admitted of rebounding. “Because of the complexion of our roster, it’s always been an issue, and obviously, your roster dictates what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are in many respects. Style of play maybe can enhance your strengths or protect your weaknesses as much as possible. “But for sure, that will be an issue. I hope that how we’ve changed defensively gives us a better chance, that our defensive rebounding percentage is at a higher rate. It did over the last few games. Our team is not exactly the same, but that will be, for sure, a concern on a nightly basis.” So if the Hokies play a little better and hang on the boards this season, they probably put themselves in position yet again for another NCAA Tournament berth. Keep in mind that the Hokies never have been to three straight NCAA Tournaments. Ever. They certainly possess the ingredients to make that happen—returning starters, experience, great guard play and talented freshmen. There are certainly worse positions in which to be. This year’s squad obviously isn’t the same as last year’s, and Williams knows that success is never assured. But he has enjoyed watching this program’s journey with him at the helm over the past four years. Hopefully, there is more of the story to come. Ahmed Hill averaged 10.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game last year and will be counted on to provide more this season.