Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 2 | October 2019

ACC officials certainly know how to throw a party, and this year’s ACC Operation Basketball certainly proved that point. They held the league’s annual media event at a beautiful downtown Charlotte hotel in early October, decorating the second floor in a sea of league and school banners, lights, studio and radio sets, and all kinds of ACC Network signage. Media members had a buffet of players and coaches on which to feast, and speaking of that metaphor, the catered lunch featured a spread of pulled pork, pulled chicken and smoked beef brisket. There were vegetables, too, if one left room for those on his or her plate. Mike Young had attended numerous media days during his 17-year stint as the head coach at Wofford, but suffice it to say, his current conference home does things a tad differently than the Southern Conference. “This is a little different than what I’m accustomed to, I can tell you that,” Young said, laughing. Of course, at the end of the day, the glitz and glamour matters little. It comes down to coaching basketball, recruiting good players, and getting them to execute on the court. Young certainly knows how to do that, as evidenced by his 299 victories and five NCAA Tournament appearances at Wofford. Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock expects Young to do the same in Blacksburg after naming him the Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach in early April. Young took over the helm of the Hokies’ program following BuzzWilliams’ departure for the head job at Texas A&Mafter guiding Tech to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances—a program first. Unfortunately for Young, nearly all of the key pieces departed. His current squad features only five players who played a minute for Tech last season—guards Wabissa Bede, Jonathan Kabongo and Brendan Palmer and forwards P.J. Horne and IsaiahWilkins. The roster features two players who sat out as redshirts last season (Landers Nolley II and Tyrece Radford) and eight newcomers. So Young and his staff have spent most of summer workouts and the first part of fall practices simply teaching and getting his players to buy into his schemes and philosophies. “I think very, very good,” Young said of the buy-in. “The hesitancy is more a lack of the familiar than buy-in. Not one day have I left that campus thinking that there’s questions there. Not in the least. Again, it’s the first time in 30 years that I’ve coached a different team. We had that thing rolling for so long [at Wofford]. But in terms of their willingness to take us in as a new staff, I couldn’t be happier or more proud of how that’s gone.” How are the 2019-20 Hokies shaping up? Well, in short, Tech features a mixture of experience and youth on the perimeter and a lack of proven post players. Young convinced Bede to remain in Blacksburg after he had entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal following Williams’ departure, and Bede probably serves as the anchor of this squad. The 6-foot-1 junior started 26 games a year ago, averaging 3.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Bede received an increase inminutes after standout point guard Justin Robinson suffered a foot injury, and in the 10 games that Robinson missed, Bede averaged 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. For the season, he shot 40.2 percent from the floor, including 35.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. Many in Hokie Nation question Bede’s ability to make shots, but his 3-point percentage numbers resemble Robinson’s after the latter’s first two seasons at Tech—Robinson shot 35.1 percent as a freshman and 35.8 percent as a sophomore. “His role on that team was to guard you’re a-- off and don’t turn the ball over and make an open shot,” Young said of Bede. “Well, this year, his role is different. He’s going to have the ball in his hands more. He’s going to have much freer rein, but there will be somebody in his role that will guard your tail off, don’t turn the ball over and make open shots. So, I think he’s flourished to this point with an expanded role, and he’s earned that and continued to grow and develop as we’ve moved on.” “It’s going to be cool,” Bede said of replacing Robinson. “It’s going to be fun. J-Rob taught me a lot of things, what to do to help my game. Nickeil [Alexander-Walker] as well. They all believe in me, and they’re all excited for me heading into this year.” After Bede, though, Tech’s backcourt features a lot of unknown entities. Kabongo, a sophomore who played in 21 games a season ago, brings a little experience, but he will miss nonconference play because of an injury—and may miss the season. Palmer, a walk-on, played in four games in 2018-19. The remainders of the group are freshmen—Radford, Hunter Cattoor, Nahiem Alleyne and Jalen Cone. Radford represents an intriguing prospect. He took a redshirt season, but as a senior at McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he averaged 22 points, six rebounds and four assists per game. Cone also is an interesting story. He graduated from Walkertown High School in Walkertown, North Carolina a year early to enroll at Tech for this season. An uncanny scorer for someone standing 5-10, Cone averaged 26 points and 6.6 assists per game as a senior and an astounding 35.5 points per game as a junior. He may team with Bede in the backcourt, but he has the ability to play both guard spots. season preview men’s basketball inside.hokiesports.com 19 Continued on page 20