Virginia Tech Spring Football Updates, WBB Falls In NCAA Tournament: TSL Podcast 478

America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first, nearly

three years faster. Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home,

and not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us.

Will we let them? Or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads,

America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead.

Learn how at americacures.com, paid for by pharma.

Tech's iBind is presented by First Bank and Trust Company, the bank that puts you first.

They can meet your banking and financing needs for personal, agricultural, business,

commercial, mortgages, and so much more. Visit FirstBank.com to learn more.

Spring practice continues. Women's basketball is done dancing and the transfer portal has hit

the hardwood. We've got all the latest surrounding virginia tech sports on episode 478

of the tech sideline podcast, which starts right now.

We're recording on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 from the tech solution studio in the virginia tech

corporate research center. Today's episode is brought to you by The Hockey Way. If you're watching

on YouTube, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel and refer to the show to a friend

if you haven't already. I'm your host, Riley Klaus, and today I'm joined to my left by lead

analyst and columnist, Chris Coleman. Across the way, our managing editor at David Cunningham,

to my right, senior staff writer, Andy Bitter, and producing the show behind the scenes, as always,

is Mr. Nick Brown. Now we're going to start today by picking up the talk on

spring practice for virginia tech football, in which the latest news was a

position change as reserve quarterback AJ Brand is making the move to wide receiver.

I don't think that's a big, big surprise. When he first signed with virginia tech, he was

rewarded as a very good athlete, but a very raw quarterback. It was said that maybe he could

change positions if quarterback didn't work out. I'm glad that they didn't wait to the end of

the spring. I'm glad that they went ahead and did it now because it does two things. Number one,

it pairs down the quarterback reps. You can't keep wrapping five quarterbacks throughout the spring,

in my opinion, that you don't get, I don't think you can get enough focus on any one guy if you

try to keep wrapping so many players. Number two, it gets him in a position where he can actually

develop. If they waited to the end of the spring, he would be thrown into the fire in August to

the position that he had in play before. So now he gets to get his feet wet, get some actual

coaching because this is the best time of year to learn a new position. It's really hard to do

in August. So I think the timing of it was good. Yeah, I think you look at the log jam of quarterbacks

they had in that redshirt freshman class. They have three guys as redshirt freshmen, then

draw a hue and coming in as a freshman. Those are four guys that basically have the same amount

of eligibility left. Something had to give there and it always works out and neither works out

through the transfer portal, which you don't have after spring now. Or if you want to keep a guy,

you switch positions and you look at brands history here in high school. Yeah, he was a quarterback,

kind of for 11,000 yards and 151 touchdowns in high school, but a lot of that was rushing.

There's a player on staff, Vic Hall, pretty good high school quarterback who then switched positions

in college, went to the defensive side. So I guess that was a possibility because I think

brand perhaps played safety in college or was talked about the high school original projection

as if he didn't play quarterback would be safe. And you know, Frank was asked about that and he

said, you know, I think if you cut him open, he's an offensive minded guy. Like that's where his

heart is on the offensive side. So I think it's a good move to try to find a way to get this guy

on the field in a different capacity. And if he was just going to be fifth string quarterback or

what it is, whatever it is, he doesn't really help the team in any way. Now receiver, I think he

can if he picks it up quickly and he looks like he's got good size and moves well and you know,

look like he wasn't out of place in the receivers room the other day. Well, based on Franklin's

comments, it seems like the receiver room outside of Aiden Green and Keishan Brown is very open.

Yeah, he's been very guarded about that about receivers. I think there may be a little bit more.

I mean, he didn't really talk about Keishan Brown. He's a Keishan equation. Keishan, Keishan,

Keishan, okay. Keishan, we haven't really he hasn't really talked about too much as I asked him

specifically about yesterday because I'm like, he looks really good out there and Franklin's like,

yes, yes, he does look good out there. So him and Aiden Green, but I think the concerns are

justified beyond that because you're probably looking at Chance Wiggins and Keelan Adams is

pretty big contributors and they've never really played. I'm just a little handful. Yeah, they missed

all of last year handful of snaps there at the end of the 24 season. You're asking them to play

big roles. Snoop Peter can come off basketball. He's finally in pads the other day. He's probably

going to be expected to play a big role. Outside of the long touchdown catch against UVA,

doesn't really have a lot of college experience. You're seeing guys like Cam Sparks, Luke Stewie,

who are at your freshman, get a lot of reps in practice. I think there's cause for concern. Marley

Jackson's out for this spring. He's got his arm in a sling right now. So yeah, I think there are

a little bit of concerns about the receiver room, but I think you throw a brand to the mix. Say

another young guy. See what he can do and go from there. And Virginia Tech was as well practicing

in pads recently. And what does that change in terms of the intensity level of practice?

I mean, when it comes down to it, if you're a true football player at heart, you want to practice

with pads on and hit people. I think you hear it every year. You get three weeks into August

Camp and these guys are just tired of hitting each other and they're ready to hit another team.

I mean, that's what you sign up for as a football player is contact. And if you don't like contact,

that's probably not the sport for you. And that Franklin is sort of underscores his mentality.

And like, this is a tough game and toughness is, you know, toughness and the trenches.

And you can't really see that until you get in pads. And there was a drill we were watching at the

very end. We got about four periods of open practice. And it's one where all the players start

like face down on the ground and then get up and then they run into each other. It's basically

just a complete outro. What they're simulating there is an outside run with the tight end leading

out on an outside linebacker or a safety in space. And tight ends have to make those blocks all the

time. And linebackers have to learn how to navigate those blocks. And Tex Titans did not block

well the last few years. So to me, it's good to see some dedication to some one-on-one blocking

by the tight ends because that's a critical blocking position.

Well, we have a good picture from Ivan Tukwan where the two players about the collide.

They're both eyes are closed like about as they're about the client. But the most animated,

we saw James Franklin in that clip after some language he was directing to people to hit the

MFR out there. It was Jerika's hairston. Yeah. It was not necessarily known for his block.

It had a couple of good blocks last year. They used him almost just like a pulling full back on

a couple of those drones touchdown runs. But he got up and he smacked a guy going to the

outside. And Franklin sprinted across the field. He was like, yeah, it's like giving

him out of boys at that point. You see how he's built this team. A lot of emphasis on linemen

getting bigger in the trenches, having a big number of guys there. You look at his Penn State

tenure. That's what they were known for. Trench players, winning games and in bad weather.

Not always pretty, but you know, gets the job done type of stuff. I think that's how this

Virginia Tech team is going to be molded. And toughness and physicality is going to be part of that.

I agree on Harrison. I think maybe he looks a little bit bigger than he was. I don't know what

his listed weight is now, but just, you know, as far as the eye test goes, he looks a little bit bigger.

We only got to see about two minutes of those drills. But I did think, you know, he threw maybe

the two best blocks that I saw in that drill. So that's good to see him coming along in that area

of the game. And you know, Frank Franklin gets, he's regarded by almost everybody as a recruiter.

Right. But he's actually, yeah. And yes, he's an excellent recruiter. But he's also, he's really

an old school football coach. Like he likes to tell you that too. Right. He does. I've got an old

school mentality. Right. I mean, I'm old school rap. Yeah. I mean, if you watch Penn State play over

the years, yeah, they run over you. Yeah, they're more of like 1996 Virginia Tech than they are

2019 Virginia Tech, you know, that that's how it wasn't Penn State. It was also always multiple

tight ends, especially like the last four or five years when Ty Howell was there. And they have good

ones. Yes. And I look at this tight end room. I feel pretty good about this tight end. I agree. So,

so if you if you can look at the receivers and be like, look, if none of you guys step up,

fine, we'll just take a receiver off the field and put it an extra tight end. Right. This isn't,

it's not necessarily receiver versus receiver here. It's also receiver versus tight end.

Like if your third tight end is better than your third, fourth receiver and all that, then

they'll just go have your formations. But you look at that room. Benji guys now,

Richard seniors sort of been underutilized, I think, over his career. But I think he has some

past catching potential there. Matt Luke Reynolds, former five star guy who Penn State fans are

sort of like, no, he's not that good. He looks pretty good. He looked pretty good. He looked

pretty good, you know, Mossin, who was the guy that he was Rod Covill. Sure, on Covill at the

practice. And then he let know about it in the end. So I was like, okay, I was going to

little attitude to him. I got to, uh, Jerika's who, you know, great walk on success story.

I get people say, oh, walk on their dead now. It's like not quite. I mean, he was a walk on,

uh, looks pretty good. You know, caught three or four touchdowns last year. I forget exactly.

Yeah. He has some big catches. He had some, again, like I said before, some blocks. Then

even beyond the Matt Henderson, I think is a good up and coming guy. I think that room is in

pretty good shape. And perhaps as good a shape as it's been in in years, they could

continue. They could continue. Yes, they germane is there too is they could consume will be

play four guys. Yeah. Yeah. And they've got five, they've, and they've got four guys with

experience plus Matt Henderson, who I think was a really talented pass catcher in high school.

And when your offensive coordinator is the tight ends coach, you know that they're going to be

involved in some ways. So I want to see like a four tight ends at one time, like 14 personnel

or something like that. You want, you want like the Maryland die? Yeah. Yeah. The Maryland

die would be great. Yeah. Well, but I do find it interesting. Chris, you wrote, um, within the

last month, maybe a little bit longer than that, you wrote something about, um, tie how on just

his usage of tight ends and, and the usage of Penn State versus like, Hey, what is Virginia

tech done lately? And I, I would not be surprised at all if, you know, the questions about the

wide receiver room persists outside of brown and green. If it's like, Hey, we, we will roll with

multiple tight ends sets consistently because those are are from a, both a blocking standpoint,

but also a pass catching standpoint. Those are our most reliable guys. And if you can put

Reynolds and Gosnell and another one of those other guys on the field at the same time,

you know, alongside a brown or a green feel like that might be a better option at times than a,

oh, hey, we're going to roll out a, a Wiggins or an Adams for now who don't have experience.

It's an interesting dynamic. And you guys talked about blocking and improving the trenches as well.

Franklin seems to continually continuously harp on the flexibility on the offensive lines.

Who might be seeing guys at some different spots? Yeah. I mean, we already have so far

I mean, I was surprised to see Johnny Garrett at guard when practice started. I think everybody

was surprised to see that I didn't get a chance to look at the offensive line yesterday because

that they were kind of far away from from where I was standing, but I don't know if that starting

group looked any different, but I can't imagine that it would look the exact same for the spring

game as it did the first day of practice. And even if it does, I mean, last year, where was

Remack all spring? Was he a tackle spot? I think so. And then he ended up not playing tack almost

in the air. So it's, and you know, you asked me had more of us like, I know what he could do at guard.

He did that for me at West Virginia for a couple of years at guard. I need to see what he could do

attack on, you know, spring balls the time to do that. You know, experiment with different

lineups. And you know, sometimes you get to August is completely different for what it was in

the spring. Like, remember, what was the year where all of a sudden just I didn't know where like

Kyle Chung is starting at right tackle. Right. Yeah, it was like 2017. Yeah, where did that come

from? I did, yeah, I did not see that coming the whole time. Then like, oh, there he is. And he

was actually pretty effective. Well, I remember when Dwayne Brown was moved from tight end to

offensive tackle halfway through August, like two weeks before the opening game. It's like,

oh, we're going to play Dwayne at office tackle now. And then he started the first game at

offensive tackle and to practice it for two weeks. It turned out to be a pretty good career man.

Oh, is that about 160 million dollars? I think Frank like to mention that all the time when

for when players like, I don't really want to move to offensive line. I was like, we have this guy

Dwayne Brown and why teller? Yeah, I mean, Yash Neigeman recently retired in the NFL. He was one

who came in as a defensive lineman for like a day. Like what they recruited them. You look at

him and he go, six, six, like 300 seems like an offensive tackle. I remember the first time I saw

him, Charlie Walsh, who was the defensive line coach. It was walking on the field and I said,

man, you ought to be able to do something with that. And Charlie goes, yeah, he's pretty, but I ain't

keeping him. Well, I think when Neigeman signed, I was texting with Shane Beemer here at the time,

I think. I was texting with him. I was like, they're saying defensive lineman with right now. It's

like, that's that's all he wants to play right now. It's like they they see what's got. But they

see a plan for these guys that they don't see themselves. And you know, I think it's probably

pretty effective if you go up to him and give him the Dwayne Brown speech ago. This guy turned into

a, you know, NFL Mainstay made a lot of money. Right. And actually, it's funny that Dwayne Brown has a

son in Texas who's a four star recruit who's going to be officially visiting Virginia Tech and

in May or June. So actually, you can bring Dwayne to campus in May and he can tell these guys

in person. Exactly how it was good for him. Also, speaking of Blast from the past, I saw this,

you know, who the new staffer might might be here. And if you're going by Twitter, Clues,

we have another new staffer. Yeah. Good God. How many do we need? The name La Fonte Thurogood?

I know. I know I'm very well, actually. Absolutely. Yeah. What was the story of La Fonte? Well,

La Fonte, he was the one that was committed to Virginia Tech. He was. And then,

this was behind on signing day flip to Vanderbilt. James Frank. James Frank. Flip to the Vanderbilt did.

I went back and read the story. It was a quarter. It was a quarter. Back to everybody lost their

minds over. He was like the beginning of the end with recruiting. And it kind of was, but not

for him. That wasn't the reason. Just like recruiting overall sort of deteriorated there

at the end of the beer. And they brought it back for a little bit. You look at one of the last

classes they had with Kendall Fuller and guys like that. They did pretty well. But there was a

lull there that they had to get through. But I remember the thorough good was like the Canary and

the coal mine. Yeah. Moment. Cause, you know, Kyle, he was local for the 757. And I think Kyle

took a lot of stuff about that. And here's the tech didn't really think he was going to play

quarterback. They thought he was a good athlete. They flipped him to running back at Vanderbilt

within like a month. Yeah. And then I think he ended up, he ended up GMU and where he's a safety.

Yeah. I've called Emory and Henry football over the last few years. Okay.

Staff this season. Okay. So I don't know. That's official. Yeah. But you look at his Twitter

account. He's got a Virginia Tech background on it. He's also, he's also following me on Twitter.

So I don't know why you've been doing that. I don't care about Virginia Tech. What about the

Penn State linebacker coach? He started following us on Twitter. That's true. And then we're back.

But did he have the back of the Twitter background? I don't know. That's true. But yeah, I thought

that was funny. That name from the past there because that was such a prominent moment in like

Virginia Tech recruiting. That would have been one of like the first draft show. It was

that it was that Vanderbilt. Yeah. It was brand new and tech fans were like, wow, that guy's

an awesome recruiter. Yeah. And then he went to Penn State and tech fans were like, wow,

we really hate that guy now because he's got a kill us and recruit. And then he came here and

Penn State fans like, wow, we really hate that guy. So on the offensive line real quick,

not just because of his last name, but I'm going to touch on cunning him because it seems like

he's he's practicing it right tackle right now. Well Garrett inside of right guard. It's like

if he he's got an extra year of eligibility because of of injuries, if he's a guy like they

were so high on him coming out of Georgia state, like it felt like yeah, it felt just kept

getting hurt. Yeah, it felt like he could do something he had potential. I think at Georgia state,

he played pretty well against like SEC level competition. Yeah, he did. It's a good game against LSU,

I believe. Yeah, it's like if it can click for him, like he's an experienced guy, they don't have

many that that have played as many snaps as him. I'd be interested to see if he can kind of

get it going. Well, he played like 750 snaps at one year at Georgia state at all at right tackle,

and came here and I think he's played 250 snaps here. Right.

230 the first year and then barely anything last year when he got hurt. Well, it was the opposite.

He didn't play the first year. He'd actually played in four games last year and then they

shut him down. If you look that up on PFF, now they tried to move him to guard. Yeah. And

but he got hurt even heading into like the 2024 season was banged up. They didn't announce that.

I think, but I think moving inside to guard was a little bit of an adjustment for him.

I forget where he played last year, probably multiple spots, considering how influx the the offensive

line was. He's a guy who like it's six three doesn't really have the height of a traditional offensive

tackle. But if you look at his arms, he kind of has the arms of traditional offensive tackle,

and you know, that length is actually more important than height. So it'll be interesting to see

where he ends up. If they don't like Garrett guard and they and they they could always flip

flop him back, you know, but that that's all part of the spring. Both those guys are experienced

players. I think it's tough for a young guy to flip flop around positions. But but once a guy

has settled in and he has experienced it a position, you can try him at somewhere else. And if

it doesn't work out, you can move him back to his original position and you haven't lost anything.

And plus some other guys are out this like low and how one is out this spring. I think just

and Terry is he banged up and he's been his guys in. There's guys in like orange uniforms that

it's not their number. Right. This is like this huge guy that's wearing number two or something like

that. I don't think that's Tikai. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's not 300 pound Tikai. So it's

tough to tell sometimes when you're a practice who who's out. Yeah. Let's close the spring practice

discussion by talking about how Frank and likes to close out his practices by getting the special

teams involved. Game winning kick, game winning punt. I think the standard did a lot of place that

they liked to amp the pressure out. But I've never seen game winning punt before. It's usually like

a field goal. They're practicing like coffin corner ponies. Yeah. We were out there. And I think

Will love was the kicker. And Frank was like inches from his face. Just like yelling at him and

like trying to then throw him off. The players were pretty tight on him when he's doing the snap

and kicking the ball. And he got a really good hang time coffin corner type pontoff. And they

went crazy. And the other side did pushups or whatever it was. And you know, the add a little

stakes to it is like, you know, it's easy to kick when it's, you know, climate controlled. And

there's no pressure. And you're just an empty stadium or something like that. But when there's

people yelling and screaming, and you're on the road, there's pressure to, you know, bad snap

or something like that. That's when you have to step up and do it. So they try to create those

opportunities and practices. Again, I don't think that's unusual. I think, uh, you know,

beamer went to a pry all did the same thing. But maybe not in their face so much. Maybe not

like that. I don't know if I've seen a punt situation. It's usually like a feelable walkoff

type thing. But I thought the punt was interesting. He said that dude, I kick off too. Well,

Pontian is winning as Frank Beamer, right? Um, I remember, I remember a game basketball game in

Buzz Williams first year. And Virginia Tech was at the free throw line. And I forget which player it

was. Um, he wasn't a very good free throw shooter. Obviously, the arena's dead quiet coast

tech is at the free throw line. Dead quiet except for Buzz Williams who's just pacing up and down

the bench, just going, make it, make it, make it, make it, make it the whole time to the player.

Of course, he missed both. But the whole arena could hear it. He was saying it so loud. He was

just putting pressure on his guy. He was trying to get his guys. Because it's not like there are

fans in the arena saying anything to put, I mean, I know you have home anyway. But like, um,

you just, it's, there's no crowd. Yeah. You have to learn and teach guys to respond when

there's pressure. And I think that's, uh, that's something that Buzz was a really good coach.

You won a lot of games. Uh, James Franklin has won a lot of games, right? And I think those,

those guys, I'm guessing if you go to a practice of a guy of like a guy who's proven to, to

have won a lot of games, you'll see a few unique things like that that, that you might not see

it some other practices. Yeah. I think it's just them getting the most out of the players. And

you said, will love, I mean, he's a true freshman. I think this is first month on campus. I'm sure

that you get James Franklin up in his face. Like, you got, you got to make this punt and practice.

I mean, that's, yeah. I think he is a, as an early enrollee would be pretty intimidated.

I don't, you know, the brothers love don't seem too phased by this kind of stuff. I mean,

John can kick it during with a marching band all around.

It doesn't seem to bother this. You can take a pretty good, you know, nerves of steel there.

Well, we're going to talk more about basketball and other sports after word from our sponsor,

the Hockey Way. This episode of the tech side line podcast is brought to you by the Hockey Way.

The Hockey Way supports student athletes in leveraging their name, image and likeness to amplify

the mission of charitable organizations as a way to give back to the community. Your contributions

to the Hockey Way support Hockey's NIL and are tax deductible. Visit thehockeyway.org to learn more.

But now let's take the conversation to the hardwood beginning with women's basketball who did

make the NCAA tournament, but they fell to organ in the first round 70 to 60. Now I want to go to

David first, because you're there to experience it. What happened in this game against organ?

Honestly,

Gamer runs where I thought a organ organ's dynamic duo of Katie Fiso and he's a two-tay.

They did a really good job of in the first half getting inside, getting buckets around the rim.

They go on a 12-o run in the first quarter and kind of look like they were pulling away.

And to the detects credit, Carly Wentz will foul trouble, Karris Baker, foul trouble, Hockey still

found a way to climb back and they were only down to then end up being like a four-point game at

half-time. I thought the turning point was in that third quarter. You're talking about an 18-o run

for the ducks and that was more of an inside heavy game where a two-day and some of their other

post-players really got going and, you know, Tech just didn't really have a response offensively.

Organ shot almost 48 percent. Tech was in the low 30s or even below that. Just really,

really difficult when you don't really have an answer on either end. And to detects credit,

picked things up in the fourth quarter with Karris Baker, but she entered the quarter with four

points. She finished with 21. She had 17 in that quarter and Tech had 20. But I think it kind of

epitomized the season a little bit, just a little bit inconsistent and when Carly Wentz and

Karris Baker have not been on all year, they have had quarters where they've just been really quiet.

They've gone through a scoring drought and it's been really hard to sustain. You even saw that

at times like going back to like the Miami game where they were leading and then

blew the lead and lost. Like if they haven't been able to sustain offense for long periods of time

with that duo, it's been really, really tough. So, tough way to end the year, you know, they pull

it within 10. Organ's, I thought, a much more experienced and better team and their role players

kind of stepped up in better spots. I think there's, if you look at most of their losses this year,

they always have that one law that lasts like five to eight minutes and then they can't overcome it.

It was the same way in the North Carolina game in the ACC tournament and that's what happened

in the third quarter. I thought it was an even game at halftime. I thought either team had a chance

to win it, but in the end that that law cost them. Overall though, you know, progress from year one

to year two in the Megan Duffy year. I think the main thing in the off season is she's got to find

her own third score. Like everybody she's brought into the program or recruited so far has been

a complimentary player. I think to really take a step forward that they need like a third very good

player on that roster. Besides, you know, the two that we're here under under Kenny Brooks. So I

think that's the key to making it past the first round next year is to find that third piece.

What is the outlook next year? I mean, what's coming back and then where do you feel like they

really need to improve it? Yeah, I mean, the only two players they lose are Kyla Freelon and Mel

Daily. They obviously, and I look at the roster next year and go. The number one thing they need is a

back to the basket post player and I say that because Freelon was pretty good, but she came from

Texas Tech where she's under size at six one. She averaged nine rebounds per game, but she only

averaged four and four at Texas Tech. Tech really got the most out of her. And I thought she

she played really well, but she is not your traditional. We're going to throw it inside and she's

going to, you know, spin and throw up something and be told about the latissism like Toby LaWal.

Yeah. Well, a lot of it was tech running in transition or second chance points, right? And

that's great to an extent, but I think tech was really limited at times this year because

it's only two three really good consistent three point shooters where it's two leading scores.

And so if your two leading scores are not scoring, you really have no three point shooting that's

consistent and you really don't have a consistent inside presence. So it makes it really difficult

because you're setting settling for a lot of these mid range shots. That's what Mel daily

frequented. That's what's my suffering likes. And as a result, you're in this weird position between

three point shooting and inside game. You're in kind of no man's land. Those are some people

think you don't shouldn't even take mid range number. Correct. Yeah. So I think I think they've

got a good outlook. They can return just about everybody. They need a they need a post player. And I

think they they're missing what like Lonnie White and Matilda Eckbrought that three point shooting.

A three in D player. You know, they get Kate Sears back from injury, which I think could be a

really good boost. She was top 100 freshman. You know, suffered an injury before the season didn't

play all year. She'll be a registered freshman. I'm curious to see what what she could kind of do.

Yes. As Nick said, average at triple double one high school in North Carolina. She was the

state player of the year coming out of there. They've got a really good to really good freshman coming

in. Kaleo Anderson, a six foot guard from Washington state. She's a top 100 kid. Another McDonald's

own American game nominee is along with the forward. Ariana Harris Mott. She's six four

Boo Williams product from Maryland. You know, I think they continue to bring in good players, but

they do need that like third double digit score up there with Wenzel and Baker. They need someone,

they need another piece. And I think Mackenzie Nelson has been really good, but she's not really a

a go-to score. They they need someone to kind of take the pressure off or or or other pieces as a whole.

And I think too many times this year they got into situations where it's like we need someone

to step up and get a bucket. And the the defense is king in on either Wenzel or Baker or both.

And one of them is having a quiet game. And it's like if you can't get your leading score free

and the other one's not having a good game, who do you turn to? But to Chris' point, this was

a really good year. I mean, they go from being the first team out to securely being in the NCA

tournament field. They went 12 and 6 in the ACC and finished tied for 5th. And that's a really good

ACC record. Now, I think people will look at UVA and say maybe UVA had the more impressive end

to the season considering the Cavaliers made the sweet 16. But part of that's about matchups

in the postseason. Part of that's about luck. And to be fair, they played Iowa really, really well

the other day on their home floor. But but I think it was a really good good year. And I think

the future is bright. If Duffy can add the right, I add a post piece, add a three point shooter

to stretch the floor. If you can do that, I think the complimentary pieces you have coming back are

are all pretty good. I think it sets up well. Just just another Liz Kittley or Claire stretch.

Sure. No problem. Those two trees everywhere. Yeah, I think you've got to make sure

you're obviously you don't have to replace those top two players next year, you do the year after.

I remember back when when Bonnie Hendrickson left and it was a big deal. And they brought in Beth

Dawkerberger to replace Bonnie Hendrickson. And I believe they made the insane tournament in Beth

Dawkerberger's first two years because she inherited Carrie Mason. He was a really, really good guard.

But then the rest of her tenure like once Bonnie's players left the program, the program just

collapsed because Dawkerberger herself couldn't fill the team with any players.

So that's why I'm saying we've got to got to push ahead this off season and find that third

scoring piece and show that you can bring the high level players into the program that are

necessary to keep this an NCAA tournament program. Yeah. And Duffy's recruited well. Yeah.

She's she's brought in a bunch of top 100 kids. But I think Sears was going to be I think a

night trying to add a lot of stuff in the front court and a money Jenkins and her will both be

sophomores next year. And I think they're good building blocks in the front court. I think Kate

Sears was kind of supposed to be the the kind of instant impact recruit and she gets hurt and you

don't really have that. I like the way they've recruited. But I agree. If they can get someone

honestly a little bit similar to Rose Misha in the post somebody who maybe is a tad undersized

but is comfortable going one-on-one on the block just being able to play through that person

as an outlet. I think that would be a big step in the right direction. And honestly just having

someone like white or egg very similar mold in the corner where you can outlet the ball to them

and it and they can take pressure off and it's not a Baker or Wenzel 3. I think that would help.

But all that all that said they had a really good year. And I wrote about this the other day.

Of course the expectations are higher. You know with with everything Kenny Brooks did taking the

program to an ACC tournament championship in a final four and an ACC regular season championship.

Of course expectations are going to be really really high. But you also

lost him. He laughed and he took one of the second greatest player in program history with him

in the first greatest player. You know ran out of eligibility and was not a track might have been

the third best player in school history. She's she's she's very good too. But you have to replace

all that you have to start over and Duffy is always kind of stuck with her core.

Uh that group of

heck and and semi-assuffering and Carly Wenzel and Karris Baker and Mackie Nelson.

That group that kind of bought in at the very very beginning when Duffy was

brought in and introduced she's kind of stuck with them and that's a good core to build off of.

And you know it's hard to forget sometimes like obviously she took over at the program was in

a better place when she took over than when it was when Kenny Brooks took over from Dennis Wolf.

Yes because as I wrote the other day they in the in between NCAA appearances in in 2006 and

2021 tech was 59 and 159 in the ACC like this was a bad program like bottom of the ACC like winning

like one two or three ACC games a season. You've you've you've Kenny Brooks stabilized it

took it to new heights but now you're back to kind of the expectation I think which is making

the NCAA tournament and maybe maybe doing a little bit more than that if you get the right

pieces in and I think Duffy has done a really good job of I think it's a big accomplishment to get

back to the NCAA tournament and that should be the goal. You know finishing right around the top

six in the league I think is is huge and if she can continue to keep that core together while

going out in the transfer portal and and getting an impact player or two I think that would be that

would be a huge step in the right direction to kind of keep that really good trajectory going.

Is this going to be four one seeds in the women's tournament those one seeds are just for do you

see that Yukon circuit is like 65 to 12 or something like 45 seven at one point. I'm looking at

the lines. Oh my the lines for the sweet six games with the ones you count as a South Carolina

17 and a half point favorite on Oklahoma Texas 14 and a half on Kentucky. That's the closest

of the one seeds UCLA 18 and a half from Minnesota Yukon 27 and a half over North Carolina like

the top of women's basketball just feels like they're playing a different sport. There's a little

more parody in women's basketball than there used to be but it's it's really it's grown it's

grown from four teams have a chance to win the national title to eight or something like that right

the depth isn't quite maybe maybe we'll see an upset or two here in this row you get a four

seed against a one a little bit better chance but man some those eight seeds I mean Oregon went

on to play Texas and lost a hundred to 58. Yeah I mean in an NCAA tournament that's not a one

versus 16 that's a one versus eight. Yeah. It's tough. I mean that's the thing you win that eight

nine game and you're excited you want a game and your award is you get blown out by 40 and

in bearish but it's where I mean even into the two line I think it is somewhat helpful. Yeah

when it's basketball you look at UVA beating Iowa. I wanted to see invincible. You can't

feels invincible. Yes. They feel like they're tough. They feel like they're like old school

super. Yeah maybe I'll be proven wrong here as we get to the sweet 16 and beyond but the first

couple rounds that those top seeds are really tough to be up. Yeah. I mean I like Vanderbilt. It

helps when you've got the nation's leading scorer Michaela Blake's obviously but yeah in J

climbing of course. Yes. We were talking to him last last night and he's going down to

Fort Worth today but it's I think the the top four seeds this year they all have very experienced

players. They've got like UCLA's got loads of seniors. You can't has loads of seniors. Easy

fun like like this is what happens when you build a year over year after over year and you see

the the group sticking together and I'm not surprised. I mean those four teams have a combine like

six losses and Texas probably has three of them and Texas won the SEC and Texas is no slouch either.

So it it's really difficult but that's kind of what you aspire to. That's what you strive to be

and you know the ACC got five teams in the sweet 16 which I think is pretty pretty impressive.

I would not sleep on a team like Duke. Carolina has a tough matchup with Yukon but Duke is LSU and

they played earlier this year and Duke is a completely different team since then and has played

really really well. I'm I'm excited for the sweet 16 and and also you know the transfer portal

when it opens on April 6th what Virginia Tech does there I will be very very interesting to watch

because you got a lot of potential but you've got a Duffy was not able to add a true post player

in the portal last year when I say true I mean back to basketball player kind of with on on some of

those and it's tough because it's a money game you got to have a money and resources but I think

Tech is in a much better position. It's easier to recruit when you you're coming off an NCAA tournament.

Yes and you mentioned the transfer portal that has hit Mike Young squad on the men's side. So

let's talk about Isaiah Pasha hitting the transfer portal. He played in 18 games this season for the

Hokies averaging two points a game. I want to use the Pasha situation to point out some metrics

here. So this is Ken Palm efficiency metrics the difference between being number 10 and number 90

in 2006 it was 13.74 points per 100 of possessions between number 10 and number 90 by 2021 that had

had grown to 15.28 points by 2026 just five years later it's jumped all the way up to 18.96 points.

So the gap keeps widening between the top teams and everybody else. He was CAA freshman of the year

last year and then didn't even get on the court hardly at all for Virginia Tech this season.

So it's it's it's might it's tougher to evaluate the mid major guys these days because the level

of competition is high because those schools they just don't have as good a players as they used to

have. The good players are finding their way up to the top these days and Pasha's a guy who he had

a great CAA tournament last year. He was awesome when Delaware made made the finals with him and

John Camden but overall regular season he was extremely inconsistent with turnovers. He just

closed the season really really strong. I think he needed another year at that level to kind of

consolidate those games and gain more experience as show that you're a good consistent player like he

showed he had talent at the end of the year in the tournament but he didn't show that he had the

consistency. So he tried to jump up a level and it's a big jump these days as those efficiency

metric shows and he just wasn't ready for it and but he's at the point where he needs play in time

to improve and so he needs to drop back down to that level again and probably needs to stay there

unless he wants to be one of those four teams in four years. So it's not surprising. Yeah well

the difficult part is that he needs playing time to improve but it's not like he's getting playing

time behind Nyoko's of Dallas and Ben Hammond. Like that's not happening. He had two really good

games when tech needed him against Maryland Eastern Shore and Elon in December and that was when tech

had a bunch of injuries, had a bunch of sickness and Elon took him to overtime and Pasha had 18

points in those two games. He also had nine assists to one turnover and he did a little bit of

everything and then in the other 16 games he had like nine turnovers to two assists and he kind

of looked like a deer in the headlights a little bit on both ends. You know the ball went to him

and it kind of just got stuck more so than any other player. It's ripple over in the corner.

It didn't know what to do with it. Yeah and he ended up trying to go. And he's not really a

three point shooter. He's more of a driver but your spacing kind of has to be right to open up

those opportunities. It just never he never really felt like a fit. He didn't play in in many

ACC games only eight of the 18 for comparison Tyler Johnson and sincere Jones were both hurt for

like the entirety of ACC play and played in three ACC games each. So I'm not I'm not really

Riley. I'm not surprised like this was one was like yeah Pasha's leaving. I mean it doesn't

make sense for him to stick around and a really nice guy but it just never really didn't really

work. And I think that's the risk you take a little bit going into the transfer portal.

You know Moni Hansberry. He's a guy who was proven at West Virginia. You knew what you were

getting in him. And I think he proved to be a really good pick up. But the other end of the

spectrum a little bit is Isaiah Pasha a guy who on paper looks to be really really good player has

potential very young and raw still and when you go from a system at Delaware that I felt like

was kind of open do whatever you want a little bit like yeah that's why they weren't very good.

Yeah yeah they you know kind of not necessarily a structure to an to an ACC program that's

trying to make the ACC tournament and you are not a focal point you are a role player and you have

to figure out how to play in a system like that. And oh by the way you're still a sophomore

and you still haven't really found your footing yet. It's just a really really difficult situation.

So I think it just kind of shows what the portal can be and again no no surprises there. It did

give as Chris and I talked about yesterday. First portal entry for either basketball team gave

me an opportunity to go and create a roster management page for the offseason for both teams.

We've consolidated the men's and women's roster pages into one so you can go check that out whenever

necessary. I think we'll like sticky post it or put it at the top of the basketball boards or

something like that just to to follow along. So first of the offseason and two weeks the portal

officially opens so many more to come. So make sure to check that out as we are wrapping up this

podcast here are some updates from other sports since the last one. Virginia Tech wrestling finished

11th at NCAA's. Baseball was able to win an ACC series against Duke with a walkoff on Sunday to

win a true rubber match before falling to ETSU yesterday. Softball was able to sweep NC State

outscrolling the Wolfpack 21 to 3 over the first two games and it walked it off on Sunday to move

to 28 and 4 on the season. Are there any takeaways from those three sports from this past weekend?

I think softball you know if they continue with this right they're putting themselves in a pretty

good situation where they could potentially host a regional and yeah that's my own takeaway from

that. I mean well baseball sort of averted the troublesome situation there in the third game

coming back to win that one. Yeah I mean that that was a crucial series for baseball just as far

I mean they lost yesterday the ETSU on the road but but yeah I mean they they really needed that

series. Duke is towards the bottom of the league has a new coach because that coach went to UVA

and he's all Duke's players play for UVA now. Yeah but yeah I mean tech had some bad errors

late in that game that third game against Duke on Friday lost Saturday and then it came down

to Sunday and had some errors in that game and maybe avoided disaster a little bit just as far as

like I mean they had they lost that series it really would have hurt their it would have really

hurt that their RPI but they saved it you know Sam Groove second walkoff of the season softball of

course had a had a walkoff on Sunday too and they swept and they continue to look really good and

you know you brought up wrestling. I know NCA's weren't necessarily I mean probably didn't go

the way a lot of Virginia Tech fans hoped to podium finishes third place and fifth place for

Colin Guy finished fifth I believe and side elf finish and inside elf finish third pretty good

this at the end of the day was I think considering ACC regular season and tournament championship

yeah about as good of a season as Virginia Tech wrestling could have hoped and I think you saw a lot

of promise in some of those young guys just in terms of building for next year when they've

going to be going to be really good and get a bunch of recruits in. Yeah I got hence in coming back

as well absolutely a bunch of guys coming back so setting up to be good next year.

Well a reminder as usual you can see the Virginia Tech Spring Game on Saturday April 18th at 3 p.m.

Eastern as we close out this podcast what can we expect to see on TechSideLine.com.

Brandon Patterson has written a Keishan Brown article with a lot of video highlights and some

descriptions of his game which I'll be posting today will probably be published by the time you

watch this video. I think I'm going to delve into the men's basketball portal just a little bit

talk about what needs Tech might have and maybe the type of player that I think they should go

for this year when you consider what their weakness is where this year and then my normal Friday

Q&A. Yeah I'll have something else from practice talk to Aiden Green a little bit, Kamari Copeland

a little bit. I don't know if I'll combine those into one article sort of like guys are back

or guys that chose to be back that are key pieces might be the way to do it but they'll be coming

up later this week. Talking with Teal tomorrow. I don't mean to steal next thunder. I'm excited to

get Teal's perspective on the North Carolina situation and potentially the NC state. That's the

juicier one. This this coaching carousel is has we're recording this 9 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning

but Wednesday. Yeah Wednesday. But this is but as of Tuesday night. I mean this coaching carousel

is just going to get so juicy in the domino effects and the ripple effects from this are going to be

very interesting because Hebrew Davis is out at North Carolina. Will Wade might be leaving NC state

too. So we'll talk with Teal about a lot of that stuff is you and see going to continue to be

like we have to hire you and see guy no matter what I think they're opening it. I don't think they

have the the farm system. I don't think they're doing more than the farm system. If West Miller

had wanted Cincinnati then yeah you probably go higher West Miller. I think he got hired

Charlotte. He did get hired at Charlotte. Yeah I mean you'd be like all right we got to go with

Jeff Lebow from like that's like get him off the bench here. Yeah I don't think they have the

the guys for it at this point. No but it's probably probably be helpful for them to go outside the

family. I've been a little too insular and I think it's caught up to them unless they want to

pull Roy out of retirement. Yeah I think he's happy golfing right now. There are some similarities.

It's like tech. I mean it's not like the tech is always hard to tech guy because Justin

Fuente wasn't a tech guy but you know you see some similarities with a lot of people like in the

athletic department they've been here for so long at Carolina and at tech. Oh yeah as far as you

and see how in basketball coaches and sometimes I think it's wise to get some outside perspective

and some some fresh ideas. Yeah so I mean if they're proud of the Bella Jack model Phil Jackson.

Come on down. Yeah buddy. He's won a lot. He's perfect for it. So it sounds like some interesting

relationships. Yeah there you go. Yeah a good note. A lot you guys will be able to talk about with

talking with T.O. which is one thing you can look forward to on the audio video schedule but

Nick what else can we tune into? Friday Q&A on Friday I've been mulling over the

Will Wade situation this morning as I think everybody is and I just want to say this is my

hypothesis for LSU athletics. I think with all the voodoo and black magic down there someone sold

their soul to the devil because if you look at if they get Will Wade there are three top head coaches

and Lane Kiffin and before that Brian Kelly Kim Mokey and now Will Wade I think that hypothesis

is slowly starting to reveal itself to be true because man they do not care about your pass. Tell

us that you don't care about anything but waiting without actually telling us right I mean that's

the Will Wade higher would be fast at it because they're like yeah you paid recruits but that's

sort of the game now yeah you were you were like ahead of the time in that point so we'll look past

I mean he had a I believe he had like a FBI like wiretap scandal at that school but all that's legal

now I mean it'd be like a brick patino went back to Louisville I mean wouldn't be a bad move

patino knows how to couch he does does know how to coach yeah uh Saint St John's Duke

that would be very exciting yeah like going on Riley that indeed a lot going on and text

sideline is a great place to catch all of the action but thank you for watching this one

episode 478 of the text sideline podcast make sure to like the video subscribe to the channel

and or for the show to a friend if you haven't already for Chris Coleman David Cunningham

Andy Bitter and Nick Brown behind the scenes I'm Riley Klaus thanks so long for now

this episode is brought to you by athletic brewing company no matter how you do game day on the

couch in the crowd or manning the snack table athletic brewing fits right in with a full lineup of

non-alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy bold flavors all game long no hangovers no buzz no subbing

out for water in the second half stuck the fridge for tip off with a variety of non-alcoholic

craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at athletic brewing.com near beer fit

for all times