Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 13 No. 2 | October 2020

8 Inside Hokie Sports by Jimmy Robertson To understand the state of college basketball these days, consider the life path of a certain Virginia Tech men’s player. He grew up in Manhattan, New York; attended a private school in the city; spent his high school days in Florence, South Carolina; played basketball and graduated from Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas; and now will spend the next seven months in Blacksburg playing for the Hokies. And Cartier Diarra’s story is almost becoming the norm. The number of college players bouncing from one school to another continues to be staggering, as players keep seeking the best possible situations for themselves, whether the reasons be for playing time, style of play, academics, or social life—or a combination of all of those. Coaches often lament the constant migration, but they have adapted, with the transfer portal serving as the Costco of college basketball. Need a point guard? Check the portal. How about some size in the post? Head to the portal. What about some scoring punch? Visit the portal. It’s become a one-stop shop for a college basketball coach’s needs. Mike Young and Kenny Brooks hope that they got good deals this offseason because the success of the Virginia Tech men’s and women’s basketball programs hinge largely on it. A departure of players in both programs led to the offseason shopping spree, and as a result, a combined eight of Brooks’ and Young’s 28 scholarship players this season—nearly 30%—began their careers at other schools. “We’re head coaches, but you almost have to add the title of GM [general manager] to your title,” Brooks admitted. “This day and age, the transfer portal has made college athletics different. It makes it easier [for college athletes] as opposed to sticking out tougher situations. “So we were prepared that it [the transfers of two players] could be a possibility. I think if we weren’t prepared, then we aren’t doing our jobs because that’s just a part of college athletics now. The transfer portal and the ability to transfer so easily, that’s going to be an issue for years to come.” Young and Brooks, with a combined 38 years of head coaching experience, prefer the traditional formula for building a program—recruiting players, developing them, coaching them, loving them, and then consistently winning with them. Young took Wofford to five NCAA Tournaments during his time there, and Brooks guided JMU to six NCAA appearances in his tenure, both following the traditional model. But they knew they needed to adapt. Brooks saw Dara Mabrey and Trinity Baptiste inexplicably transfer after last season after both played extensively for the Hokies, with Mabrey starting every game and Baptiste earning the ACC’s Sixth Woman of the Year Award. Young saw leading scorer Landers Nolley II bolt, along with P.J. Horne and Isaiah Wilkins. Relaxed NCAA rules and recent player empowerment have led to the unprecedented movement. In fact, two of Tech’s players—D’asia Gregg and Justyn Mutts—already are playing for their third schools. Gregg started her career at Georgia Tech before leaving and playing at a Florida junior college last season. Mutts began his career at High Point, played for Delaware for two seasons, and came to Tech as a graduate transfer. Could a player play at four different schools in four years? Are we at that point? So those who refuse to change, or resist it, risk running out of the goods needed for success. Most coaches want the best for their players. They understand every situation doesn’t work out. They simply want a little sanity in the process. “I don’t like it, but it’s not turning around any time soon,” Young said. “It is the new landscape, and we are all in roster management mode every day. None of us are immune to it. All you can do is treat them [the players] well, respectfully—you’ve got to coach them now—and what an unbelievable environment we have here, a world-class education. We’ve got it all at Virginia Tech. “We’ve [his past teams] had very little attrition through the years. I don’t think that’s going to change, but let’s see how it plays out as we move down the line.” Both squads begin competition Nov. 25 after a full five weeks of practices. Thanks to the pandemic, which limited offseason workouts, Young and Brooks received all of five weeks to ensure that all their newcomers mesh with the returning players. Brooks’ roster features seven new faces, while Young’s has six. Talent remains the most important part of building a winning basketball team, but chemistry is the most important part of building a culture. The lack of face-to-face, on-court instruction has both coaches concerned more about chemistry than how the team performs, at least initially. “Just because of COVID, they’re just not able to spend as much time with each other to learn each other,” Brooks said. “They don’t have the locker room time that they’d normally have.” Fortunately, both believe that they have brought in outstanding people in addition to outstanding talent. They trust their assistants, who handle a bulk of the recruiting, and understand that evaluating the person carries as much value as evaluating the player. Also, the returning players have vouched for their new teammates, which aids in efforts to build a winner. “I’m not concerned at all,” Tech guard Nahiem Alleyne said of the team’s chemistry. “I’m glad that we’ve got some new guys to challenge us in practice. They’re older guys, so I can learn from them, too. I’ve been learning from them a lot, so it’s been very good that they’ve been up here.” “We have really good chemistry,” Tech forward Hunter Cattoor agreed. “That was the biggest thing coming in that I noticed. Everyone wants everyone to win. It’s not, ‘I want to win and do this for myself.’ It’s a team effort. So that was the biggest thing with these guys coming in, and they’re a great group of guys on and off the court—good to talk to, to laugh with, and hang out with it. So it’s been good to be with them.” Neither Young nor Brooks desire a wholesale approach to roster building. They want to build programs, not teams. But they accept this new phenomena in college sports, and they spent the offseason trying to work it to their advantage—and this season will tell if both got exactly what they wanted. Tech basketball coaches looking to transfers to play key roles this season