AggieDruggist89 said:

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I live near Blacksburg and work with many Hokies. Even went to watch the Duke game. My employer is a fairly large sponsor of their basketball program and the guy who I went to the game with is a passionate Hokie. He said he heard we are doubling Buzz's salary. All hearsay and I have nothing to validate any information about Buzz.

Another Hokie who came for a meeting was pretty unhappy to see A&M things in my office.

It's an interesting time for an Aggie in Hokie land.

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Just imagine if we had poached Bud Foster a few years ago AND then took Buzz. We have a lot in common with Va Tech, but I think there would have been some bad blood brewing.

A&M poaching a successful ACC coach would be funny considering who poached Turgeon, but I'm hesitant to believe it will happen. Hopefully the best backup option isn't the Loyola Chicago coach.

I'm obviously pumped about the (very real) possibility of getting Buzz, but I'm also concerned about what happens if for some unforeseen reason he decides to stay at VT. What is the backup plan? Almost any coach we would offer would be way better than BK, but who we could get if Buzz says no worries me.

Junkhead said:

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Supppsedly Beard was considered per the premium board.

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Not surprised.

I'd wager we're going to pay Buzz top 5 salary - about half of what Jimbo makes; 5-6 year deal.

DukeMu said:

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Junkhead said:

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Supppsedly Beard was considered per the premium board.

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Not surprised.

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I meant per a Staff post on the premium board, not some knucklehead.

Buzz is still getting all the Buzzzzz.........!

Tamu_mgm said:

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expresswrittenconsent said:

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Buford T. Justice said:

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100%
Salary was the reason that we didn't pursue him harder. At the time, he had a higher salary at Marquette than Sherman had at A&M.

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yep, and a big buyout. The timing was bad for us - we were much "smaller". Our move to the SEC not only made us more money as a player, it made Marquette a much much worse job (their conf lost ESPN deal which meant all games were on fs1). The point va tech got him we could have fired Billy, but Hyman extended bk instead and gave the famous "manage expectations" interview.

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Geez, way to reignite my burning, angry vitriol for that POS Eric Hyman, who set our athletic department back.

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That guy was the worst... probably better to have kept $BB, Liked his briefings to Aggie minions.

cc10106 said:

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A&M poaching a successful ACC coach would be funny considering who poached Turgeon, but I'm hesitant to believe it will happen. Hopefully the best backup option isn't the Loyola Chicago coach.

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But he gets A&M.

EXCELL said:

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Quote:

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What you say when you don't know squat but should know since it's your job ...

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Adam Schiff type super generalized, non-specific, trust-me-I'm-in-the-know statement made when you want to know something special but don't.

Sen Joe McCarthy used to wave a paper with a "list" that nobody saw and for which there was no substance. A fabrication.

Same thing here ...

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You think it's more likely than not that Billy is making stuff up rather than having heard something from someone in the athletic department?

Thamel:

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4. What will Texas A&M do?

As far back as last season, Buzz Williams has had an open invitation to return to Texas A&M. It's the job where he'd always been forecasted, and it appears close to an inevitability he'll return to the place he served as an assistant from 2004-06. (Don't be surprised if LSU interim coach Tony Benford ends up on his staff.)

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock is wise enough to realize the potential of this that he's been calling around about background on candidates for weeks. He's smart, which means he certainly wouldn't be surprised by the move. No one would be. Not only will it happen, it's expected to happen soon after Tech loses. Whenever that may be.

The most obvious part that this search is laser-focused on Williams comes from the fact it has been completely silent otherwise. No interviews. No candidate buzz. Only Buzz. (Sampson is the only other half-hearted name.)

Interesting that Tech was in the same pod in San Jose as Irvine's Russell Turner, who is a Virginia native. Turner impressed coaching but flopped in his admission of talking trash to an Oregon player.

A fascinating curiosity: How would two Hokie wins in Washington this weekend change things?

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DukeMu said:

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I'd wager we're going to pay Buzz top 5 salary - about half of what Jimbo makes; 5-6 year deal.

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According to this Buzz already has $3m base with 290K kicker. I don't see getting him to move for less than Tony Bennett's deal at UVa which is $4.15m with a $1.45m kicker. But you have to go over $4.06m base to be top 5...and Jimbo makes 7.5m per year...

I had recently noticed on the Virginia Tech message boards, some posts that their 'insiders' had said Buzz told the V-Tech AD that there was no need for them to meet to talk about a possible counter offer, because his mind was made up. Some posts also had mentioned what Thamel is now saying, that an invitation was extended to Buzz a long time ago before even the beginning of last season. Who knows how accurate that all is, amd Buzz apparently does not have an agent and handles everything himself. But they seem prettty convinced he is gone over there.

If he really wants this move to A&M I wouldn't think it would take $4 mil + to get him here. He needs money for assistants as well.

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It just means more, that's what the SEC commercials proclaim. No one ever really thought those declarations were about basketball, especially as the league drifted through the backwaters of relevancy through large swaths of this decade.

Back in 2016, the SEC received just three NCAA tournament bids. In a short window, the league has shown just how much more basketball means.

Not only did the SEC get seven teams in this NCAA tournament, four of them have advanced to the Sweet 16. That flurry of success has prompted a flurry of alternate activity, as the league also leads college basketball in open jobs by a large margin.

Alabama, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M now all have openings.

An opening at LSU appears imminent, as the university appears to be daring Will Wade to speak with them or he'll be fired for cause.

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AggieDruggist89 said:

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I live near Blacksburg and work with many Hokies. Even went to watch the Duke game. My employer is a fairly large sponsor of their basketball program and the guy who I went to the game with is a passionate Hokie. He said he heard we are doubling Buzz's salary. All hearsay and I have nothing to validate any information about Buzz.

Another Hokie who came for a meeting was pretty unhappy to see A&M things in my office.

It's an interesting time for an Aggie in Hokie land.

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Living just up the road from you, I'm in a similar position. My office Aggie gear hasn't gone over so well the past week with Hokies...

I think Buzz could be coming here for less than people think. Corey his wife wants to be back in Texas. Something I reported on in 2011 and again in 2014.

FWIW

Who is Russell Smith?

Sports talk guy from Knoxville

Someone counting on Duke winning.

i guess we have to root for duke?

BlueDeviledAg said:

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i guess we have to root for duke?

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You are BlueDeviledAg. Of course you root for Duke!