The Moment Virginia Tech Basketball Changed Forever

As a sports fan, you will always remember your team's monumental moments. Glued to the old couch in my parents' living room, I watched a live press conference as Tyrod Taylor committed to Tech. Due to a third-grade bedtime, I pretended to be asleep and desperately clung to Bill Roth's radio call while Michael Vick lead a furious third quarter comeback in the Sugar Bowl. I nervously practiced my trumpet before a high school band competition when Frank Beamer kicked Michael's brother off the team a few years later.

It a personal thing, different for everyone. Some memories fade, others get replaced by something more recent or prominent, but then there are the ones you know you'll remember forever.

I will never forget the day that Whit Babcock hired Buzz Williams; the moment Virginia Tech basketball changed forever.

My girlfriend and I were driving on a particularly desolate patch of road between Blacksburg and Richmond, and all of a sudden my phone exploded with texts like "OMG BUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZ!!" I scrambled to Twitter, saw four separate writers confirm the rumors and spent the remainder of the weekend sporting the type of smile usually reserved for someone who just lost their virginity.

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team's last seven years is succinctly summarized by a Seth Greenberg-lead plateau and a Jim Weaver-lit, James Johnson-inherited dumpster fire. Yet despite the fact this team hadn't been in the national conversation since 2007, Whit Babcock went out and made a hire that was finally going to make Hokie hoops reverse course. He finally made the athletic department commit to the program.

The most important job that Buzz had upon arrival in Blacksburg was recruiting. It was obvious that he needed to give his attrition-riddled program a face-lift, and do so quickly. He's done a remarkable job not only signing highly touted players, but bringing in highly touted players that fit what he wants to do (kind of the opposite of the now-infamous Hokie class of 2011).

VT hoops coach Buzz Williams said that as long as he is here, he and his staff will recruit every single day— Jimmy Robertson (@jrobIHS) November 12, 2014

In my opinion, his most important job was a different kind of recruiting. Buzz Williams will always have the ability to go out and get the players he wants. He's just that kind of coach, a guy who can sell you on himself. As much as he needed to reel in prospects, Williams needed to bring the fans back into the fold more. Phrases like "culture change" get thrown around so much that they start to become a cliche, but that is exactly what Buzz had to undertake the minute he took the job.

By the time Buzz and company take the floor on Friday night, it will be exactly 34 weeks (one week short of eight months) since his hiring was announced on March 21st. Since that day in mid-spring, there have been nothing but positive stories coming out of Cassell.

Watch Buzz wow students at a pep ralley!

Buzz signed a top-25 class in his first month on campus!

Watch Buzz's team go through boot camp! They're so gritty!

Buzz signed a top-25 class again!

All of the above is the result of one kind of recruiting effort or another.

But here's the thing. When the first whistle blows and the Hokies officially tip off against Maryland-Eastern Shore, all of that stuff goes away. It's easy to get swept up into the Buzz Williams hype machine during the offseason, but now it's time to play the games. Now comes phase two of the Buzz Williams experience.

I think that when talking about Buzz phase two, it's important to start with one very simple fact about the Hokie basketball squad this season: this team will struggle.

It's undersized and full of young guys, a combination that has killed teams with more talent. It's also plays in the ACC, the toughest conference in college basketball. There will be growing pains, there will be mistakes and quite frankly there will be ugly basketball. If you were hoping for a better television product than the one that you saw over the past three years, you will be severely disappointed.

This isn't an article to slam the Virginia Tech basketball team. It's not one to bring anyone down as a fan or say that they shouldn't be excited for this team. What I said above was just a disclaimer to what I'm about to say.

I think that they're going to be much better this year, we just have to embrace the ugly. Embrace the growing pains. If this team, under this coach, will ever find success, it will be by doing both of those things.They'll succeed by diving on the floor, by packing the paint and by playing a game more physical than one we've seen on Saturdays this fall.

It's going to be a grind, it's going to be tough to watch, superficially it will look no different than the past few years. However, this season there is one important distinction. Playing ugly is going to be the plan.

That's the only way that I can see the team have any semblance of success this season. They need to try harder than their opponents, Buzz needs to out coach his counterpart every night and the entire team needs to focus on the little things. If they do all that, the games will be ugly, borderline unwatchable, but will also be the biggest sign of an improved team. If grinding out games is the gameplan, it means that your team can be in most of its games, whether they should be or not.

This has been an infuriatingly consistent theme with Jamie Dixon's Pittsburgh teams, Virginia teams under Tony Bennett and early Greenberg-coached Virginia Tech teams. They grind games out and adhere to "the system". While the system for each of those coaches is different, the general principles are the same. Attention to detail, doing all of the things that their opponent won't and grinding out wins.

It's not a fun way to watch basketball, and for many people it probably won't look like the brand of "Buzzketball" they envisioned in March. But I'm confident that if this team plays the way I described above, ugly and attentive, they won't finish in the basement this season.

That may be a low bar to set, but considering what we've seen over the past three years it's both appropriate and attainable. Buzz already sold us on what the program will look like two years from now, but now it's up to us to watch them get there, growing and improving right before our eyes.

It may not look good now, but I don't think I'm alone in saying that it will all be worth it.