Virginia Tech Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for Hokies

Virginia Tech Basketball has a new coach, Mike Young. The first-year coach looks to continue the run of success started by Buzz Williams. Here is a preview of the Hokies.

Fresh off a trip to the Sweet 16 and three straight bids to the NCAA Tournament, looking for a new head coach is probably the last thing Virginia Tech Basketball expected to be doing after the season. But, when Buzz Williams chose to return to Texas A&M, that’s exactly what they found themselves doing.

The Hokies wasted little time finding a replacement, just four days after Williams was formerly introduced in College Station, Mike Young was tabbed to be the new head man in Blacksburg. Young was coming off a successful season himself, leading Wofford to a 30-5 record including an unblemished 18-0 in the Southern Conference and an NCAA Tournament win over Seton Hall.

Young had been at Wofford since 1989, serving as an assistant before taking the head coaching job in 2002. The roster that Young inherits will be quite a bit different from the one that lost to Duke in March, due to departures to the NBA, graduation, and transfers, but after 30 years at Wofford, he takes on a new challenge and has his chance to show he can run a power-five program.

As is always the case with a new coach, his first couple of seasons will involuntarily compared to his predecessor. So, not only does Young have to get players and fans alike to buy into a style that isn’t one they’ve seen over the last five years, but the bar is set pretty high in terms of what people now expect out of Hokies’ basketball.