Look No Further Than Your Own Back Yard
by Jim Alderson, 3/3/05

The answer is Darian Townes and Aliou Kane. The question is how many quality big men with Virginia ties are playing their college basketball outside of the Commonwealth? More than those inside the state, it would seem. The question seems relevant in light of the current status of the Virginia Tech basketball team. The Hokies followed up their monumental upset over Duke and perfunctory handling of Miami with a bad loss at NC State and a very tough one at Clemson. In the process Tech has gone from a long-shot possibility for the NCAA Tournament to one that will now be struggling to make the NIT. While a 7-8 ACC record heading into Saturday�s final against Maryland still represents an astounding leap up the standings from where Tech was forecast, the accomplishments of the first year in the conference has lost just a bit of its luster.

Tech got hammered at State and there is little to be gained from analyzing it. Tech caught a Wolfpack team � that for a good chunk of the season had been engaged in some spectacular underachieving � at exactly the wrong time, with their backs squarely against the RBC Center wall. Herb Sendek�s team responded in a big way, giving Sendek the kind of effort that, quite frankly, he had not seen many times this year. Tech simply does not have the players to deal with that kind of effort from one of the more talented ACC teams. It got out of hand very early and stayed that way. You could figure this wasn�t Tech�s day when around the ten-minute mark of the first half the television announcers began talking about Frank Beamer and our football team. Announcers discussing Jeff King�s future NFL prospects during a Tech basketball game is not a positive development.

The loss at Clemson was much tougher. It was a game that featured a solid comeback by Tech and literally came down to less than the final second. It was also a game that Tech lost in exactly the same manner by which they beat the Tigers in Cassell, a lay-up following a turnover. It was the sort of last-second thrilling finish that has long been the stock in trade of ACC basketball. Tech had made its mark this year winning close games and the basketball gods no doubt figured it was time for one to go the other way. This happens in the conference to each and every team, often. You win some and you lose some; I�ll take one close loss for every four close wins, and so will most other ACC fans.

How Tech lost at Clemson seems worthy of a closer look. The ACC is not known for the overall incompetence of its basketball coaches, claims from Raleigh and Hooville notwithstanding. These guys know what they are doing and over time will pinpoint your weaknesses and game plan accordingly. Tech has won enough games in this inaugural ACC season for opposing coaches to perhaps pay a little more attention when the Hokies show up on the schedule. The days of coaches and teams looking past Tech to the next ranked team on their schedule are over.

Clemson�s Oliver Purnell threw a different defensive game plan at Tech from the one seen earlier in the year at Cassell. This one looked a lot like one that was primarily designed to stop Tech�s guards. The Tigers often deployed a backcourt press after made baskets, exploiting Tech�s lack of a true point guard and causing the Hokies trouble in getting into their half-court sets. It cost Tech time just to get into their offense, seconds no longer available for the time-consuming offense run by Seth Greenberg, at least with this year�s team. It was an effective rear-guard action. When Tech was in its half-court offense, Purnell usually had three men and occasionally four out around the three-point line attempting to disrupt play by Tech�s perimeter trio of Zabian Dowdell, Jamon Gordon and Carlos Dixon. Clemson was basically ignoring Tech�s inside game. This is not how the Tigers choose to defend Eric Williams, Sean May or Shelden Williams. Tech forward Deron Washington made the Tigers pay for this strategy in the second half, contributing greatly to Tech�s late-game run to close with Clemson. This ended when Washington lapsed back into his usual foul trouble, not an uncommon problem for a freshman.

Purnell�s perimeter-oriented defense spotlighted the single biggest weakness on this Tech team, a lack of a legitimate inside game. Coleman Collins has been a warrior, playing through injury and now personal problems at home that cause basketball wins and losses to pale in significance. Collins is also undersized for what he has been asked to do on this Tech team, engage in low post combat with guys possessing greater bulk than he. Collins is a natural forward playing center.

The three best teams in the ACC, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke, by no coincidence also have the three best inside players in Sean May and the Williams Shelden and Eric. None of these three are classic centers, but all have the wide bodies that are increasingly dominating college ball in these days of the NBA showering millions on any high school player taller than 6�10�� who gives at least some indication of being able to walk onto a court while chewing gum. With big men disappearing from the college game, the astute coaches are turning to the bulk of the sort possessed by the Big Three�s big three. May, Williams and Williams have the strength to dominate the physical play inside the lane which exists and will continue to for at least the immediate future. To achieve much more than the middle-of-the pack ACC finish that this year has brought, Tech is going to have to obtain that kind of presence, too.

These types of kids are and have been within our midst. Elton Brown of the Hoos is one. At times it is hard not to contemplate Tech�s inside game if Brown were lined up beside Collins. It is likely that the team would be much better than scrambling for a .500 conference finish against Maryland. Elton Brown, however, is a Hoo. He is unique not because he is a legitimate college post player, but because he's one who came from in-state, the only one who elected to stay within its confines.

Which brings us back to Darian Townes and Aliou Kane. Darian Townes is a freshman at Arkansas. He is 6� 9" and from NOVA. He was a high school senior in 2003 and originally signed with Georgetown. Academics became a problem and he spent a year at Hargrave. I would assume that last year the coaching situation at Georgetown scared him off and he ended up in the SEC. Townes would have been the perfect complement to Collins, but he is out of state.

Aliou Kane is a native of Mauritania in Africa. He played his high school ball at the Blue Ridge School in Dyke, VA, and signed with Minnesota after a recruiting tussle that included the Hoos and North Carolina. Things did not work out for him with the Gophers and he transferred to Collins Junior College this year. Next year he will play at TCU, having two years of eligibility remaining. While JUCOS are generally a gamble [see Justin Holt] and Kane�s history looks no different on the surface, still he displayed scads of talent in high school and one can�t help but wonder if he might have been able to allow Collins to move to his more natural position of forward for Tech.

We won�t know whether Townes and Kane could have been the inside answer for Tech because they are out of state. So will be Shawn Taggart, an in-state big man who next year will be a freshman at Iowa State. Seth Greenberg and his staff at least got in the door with Taggart, but in the end, like others before him, he is heading out of state.

Tech will attempt to bolster their inside presence next season with Hyman Taylor and Terrance Vinson. Neither received a lot of recruiting interest from ACC-caliber schools and both are from out of state, Florida and Georgia. As with Zabian Dowdell and Deron Washington, Greenberg is mining contacts made while at South Florida. Coleman Collins from Georgia and Jamon Gordon from Florida were both initially recruited by Ricky Stokes. In the meantime, the bulk of the in-state big men are heading out of state.

The regime of Seth Greenberg at Tech is still in its infancy and it is hardly fair to expect him to immediately start raking in the state�s best prospects. Before Greenberg, Tech simply had little chance. Tech�s bouncing conference affiliations and the scant recruiting resources given Stokes during Tech�s Big East days held little interest for the state�s best players. They are out there, however and likely will continue to come through the pipeline. There will be more Darian Townes and Aliou Kanes to be recruited in future years.

While the overall resources devoted to basketball might still be a bit lacking at Virginia Tech compared to what should be its recruiting rivals, Seth now has at least a solid conference affiliation to dangle in front of the state�s best big men. He will need to get his share for long-term success at Tech.

Frank Beamer has built a fairly good football program at Tech focusing largely on in-state kids. In basketball, Skip Prosser is doing pretty well concentrating his recruiting on kids from North Carolina usually overlooked by powerhouses Duke and Carolina with their national recruiting scope. The solution for Tech�s inside woes is inside our state. Seth Greenberg is now able to offer the quality Virginia kids the ACC experience that no Tech coach has before been able to. Marquie Cooke was a good start in establishing an in-state recruiting presence. As Seth�s program establishes itself, the big men will be there for the plucking too.

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