Good evening from all of us at SCACCHoops. David Teel, always with the quick and accurate reporting, blogged today that Dorian Finney-Smith (DFS) plans to transfer from Virginia Tech (H/T @TechHoops).
According to Teel, this had been in the works for months, so it’s not related to the coaching change. At first glance, I and some other Hokies thought he might be interested in going back home to the 757 and Old Dominion University – that is his home, after all. But Teel of the Daily Press, Ed Miller of the Virginian Pilot, and Mike Barber of the Richmond Times-Dispatch all have sources that indicate otherwise – that DFS will go elsewhere – your guess is as good as mine here on where DFS ends up.
With the DFS transfer (and JT Thompson transferring – still haven’t heard if he’s going to play next year at another school), our roster is excruciatingly thin (Victor Davila and Dorenzo Hudson graduate this Saturday, as a reminder, and congrats to them both) – this might be our starting lineup for next year:
1. Robert Brown will return at shooting guard.
2. Erick Green will return at point guard.
3. Jarell Eddie at the small forward (the three).
4. C.J Barksdale at the power forward (the four).
5. Cadarian Raines will return probably as the center (the five).
On nights when we need quickness, I’d imagine that Robert Brown would come off the bench and Marquis Rankin would start instead at point guard – and Erick Green to the shooting guard.
We also have two new recruits arriving in Marshall Wood and an A+ recruit Power Forward recruit in Montrezl Harrell (one of the faster risers in the recruiting rankings – he’s a baller – I’ve seen him in play live in person). Wood recommitted to Virginia Tech – and the status of Harrell, however, is not known at this time – he might come to Tech – he might not.
Make no mistake, a DFS transfer is clearly a shot in the arm to the Hokies – especially in the front court – I don’t foresee Joey Van Zegeren making substantial leaps where his contributions would replace that of DFS (who could be a third-team all-ACC player next year if he would have stayed). A Raines, Barksdale, DFS frontline – with Harrell subbing in off the bench for major minutes would be pretty formidable especially with the athletic talents that DFS brings for rebounding, playing around the rim, playing hard defense, this sort of thing. You need big guys in the ACC to compete in the upper half of the league – this is a substantial loss for the Hokies.
In 2012-2013, we are looking at a rotation of 8 players (Brown, Green, Eddie, Barksdale, Raines, Rankin, Wood, and Harrell), which would be down from 9 if DFS were still in Blacksburg. This rotation would move down to 7 players if Harrell asks out of his commitment (we are hopeful that he does not). That’s a short bench for a long season – not saying you can’t be successful with that sort of bench (we saw the Hoos do it last year – and the Hokies were successful in 2010-2011with a short bench due to lots of injuries), but that would be a challenging and daunting task for a first year coach.
We will keep you updated at
SCACCHoops. As always, thanks for checking out the site.
Thanks to @hokieguru for keeping us in touch with all of the latest Virginia Tech news.
