The 2015-2016 college basketball season isn’t over, but one race is, ACC COY. It’s a wrap. It ended on the last Saturday of the regular season. Just like Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon game last week against UNC effectively ended the ACC POY race, Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams halted anymore discussion with the Hokies brilliant performance against top 10 ranked Miami.
Coming into the weekend, we said the ACC COY of year race was down to Miami’s Larranaga, Virginia’s Tony Bennett, and Virginia Tech’s Buzz Williams. I was even leaning Larranaga before the weekend.
Then Miami went to Virginia Tech and got plastered in a not as close as the scored indicated 77-62 loss. The Hokies finished the ACC regular season 10-8, and will have a remarkable 6th seed in the ACC tournament after a pre-season prediction of 14th by the ACC media. The team’s leading scorer and 3 Point shooter Adam Smith transferred to Georgia Tech. The Hokies had finished at the bottom of the ACC for four straight seasons. I would have considered 7 ACC wins a real achievement. Buzz Williams beat that by 3 games.
We knew Buzz Williams was a great hire at Virginia Tech. We predicted he would succeed at Virginia Tech, but how long would it take? The Hokies were a huge rebuilding project, but Buzz Williams has turned the Hokies into a team that resembles many of his NCAA teams at Marquette – tough hard nosed, guard oriented, with excellent ball handlers spread across the lineup.
The future is extremely bright at Virginia Tech. The Hokies are a young team, that have won 18 games so far this season. No matter what happens this will be Virginia Tech’s best season since at least the 2010-2011 22 win NIT team.
I would say Buzz William’s Virginia Tech basketball reclamation project is at 2 least years ahead of schedule. For the the Hokies to finish 10-8 in arguably the country’s best basketball conference in just year 2 of his tenure is a sign that the Hokies definitely headed in the right direction.
The Hokies have won 5 games in a row heading into the ACC Tournament, and with the ACC COY award likely already in hand, could a deep ACCT run be next?
Buzz Williams has his team believing they can play with anyone in the ACC.
