Virginia Tech basketball is coming alive at the perfect time under Buzz Williams

Year 4 at Marquette was a special one for Buzz Williams. A year after guiding the Golden Eagles to a surprise Sweet 16 run, he led the team to a Big East regular season title and another trip to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend. A year later he would take Marquette to the Elite 8.

Virginia Tech fans are hoping that similar success befalls their program in Williams’ fourth season at the helm. The Hokies broke a decade-long NCAA tournament drought in 2017, and now appear to have a team returning that’s capable of taking the program to the Sweet 16 for the first time in history (VT played in a regional semifinal in 1967 before there was technically a “Sweet 16”).

The combination of major preseason storylines surrounding the 2017-18 Virginia Tech Hokies is a highly unusual one. On one hand, the team must replace its two leading scorers from last season in the graduated Zach LeDay (16.5 ppg) and Seth Allen (13.3 ppg). On the other, neither of those players started for the Hokies last season, meaning Tech is one of the few teams in the country that returns all five starters from a team that made the Big Dance a year ago.

No one has ever accused Williams of being conventional.

PG Justin Robinson, junior

SG Ahmed Hill, junior

SF Justin Bibbs, senior

PF Chris Clarke, junior

C Khadim Sy, sophomore

Key reserves: F Kerry Blackshear (junior), G Nickeil Alexander-Walker (freshman), G Wabissa Bede (freshman), G Devin Wilson (senior)

Virginia Tech went 22-11, earned a No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament, and dropped an 84-74 first-round game to eventual Sweet 16 squad Wisconsin. The appearance in the Big Dance was the first for the Hokies since 2007, and just their second since 1996.

Tech mostly took care of business against the teams they were supposed to beat in the ACC, a trend which carried them to a 10-8 league record and a seventh-place finish in the conference most believed was the best in the country. Included in those 10 wins were upsets of Duke and Virginia. The Hokies also took down Sweet 16-bound Michigan during the non-conference portion of the season.

Who’s the star?

With LeDay and Allen both graduated, the pressure will be on junior Chris Clarke to first get healthy, and second become a star. Clarke was the team’s leading rebounder (7.3 rpg) and third-leading scorer (11.4 ppg) when he tore his ACL in mid-February. The Hokies performance on the glass took a huge hit, and the team went just 5-4 after his injury.

If Clarke is 100 percent for the duration of 2017-18, he should be an All-ACC performer.

Why Virginia Tech can be better than last year

Experience. Not many successful teams from the 2016-17 season are bringing back all five starters for 2017-18. Furthermore, this was a group of talented players a year ago who had never felt what it was like to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.

Knowing what it takes to get to the NCAA tournament and experiencing what it’s like to play on college basketball’s stage should be enormously beneficial for Williams’ team this winter. A healthy Clarke won’t hurt either.

What’s this team’s biggest weakness?

The lack of a rim protector. Just about every great college basketball team over the last decade has had at least one player who is great at blocking or altering shots. This will be an issue for a Virginia Tech team that should once again be undersized. There are three 6’10 players on the Hokie roster, but none — even starter Khadim Sy — have established themselves as forces on the block so far during their time in Blacksburg. That probably needs to change if Tech has aspirations of making a run to the NCAA tournament’s second weekend or beyond.

Anything else?

Dancing Buzz?

Dancing Buzz.