Buzzketball Season One Comes To An End Against Miami 49-59

"Timeout, Virginia Tech."

You could hear the Greensboro Coliseum PA announcer roll his eyes as he said it. Buzz Williams stopped the clock with just over a half minute to go, his team down nine against Miami in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

Miami waited patiently as Williams drew up his last out of bounds play of the season. In what was possibly the most fitting end to his first year in Blacksburg, Williams' play worked to perfection, right up until Adam Smith had the ball taken away at the rim.

The final moments dripped away and Tech finally succumbed, 49-59.

As the final score indicates, there wasn't much offense to be found in the greater central Carolina area on Wednesday night. The Hokies came out looking tired, understandable after their racetrack worthy photo finish the day before. Their opponent came out looking like a nervous bubble squad who knew exactly what was on the line. Even the crowd was subdued, giving about as much fanfare as this brick-fest deserved.

It wasn't for lack of effort, though. The men in orange did their best to keep themselves within an arms reach of Miami at all times. Christian Beyer came up with a big series of post buckets in what turned out to be his final performance, and Devin Wilson had a handful of fast break layups that kept the Hokies in the game.

That being said, there were plenty of mishaps to go around. Tech turned it over nine times, only made eight trips to the free throw line (and only hit four of those) and couldn't buy a bucket from behind the arc. The last point is what did them in the most.

The best three point shooting unit in the conference only hit 20 percent (3-15) of their deep balls, and for one of the first times in months were seemingly never able to capitalize on open opportunities.

Buzz's bunch did what they had to do on defense and didn't let the Hurricanes beat them at their own game. In last Saturday's shellacking, the Hokies gave up oodles of points off long range jumpers and had to correct that if they were to have any chance to win four days later. The team was able to do just that, but it still wasn't quite enough.

And now we're staring in the face of Buzzketball volume two. The feel good initial showing has officially come to a close, and we all must move forward. While this scrappy, never had a chance roster was fun, now is when the real basketball begins.

Next season, Buzzketball won't be a program on crutches, and we won't evaluate them as such. They will have all 13 of their scholarships filled, and with the additional recruits comes a talent boost. All of the freshman who have been topics of conversation over the last few months will be older and will (hopefully) show signs of maturity and growth.

There will be about 10 players who already have a working knowledge of Williams' system, and more importantly who know what he expects out of each man. The "let's get to know each other" aspect of this experience is over, the roster is full of guys whom Buzz brought to Blacksburg.

For the fans, the hard part is over. Watching these dudes, brimming with potential and more raw talent than we've seen in a long while, slog their way through a tough 2015 is behind us. It's time to raise our expectations and actually look forward to what will happen next year with more than just morbid curiosity.

I know with this loss means that 99 percent of us will turn our full attention to spring football, and probably won't give the basketball team more than a passing thought until November. It's understandable and I wouldn't expect anything less.

But you know who's going to get to work tomorrow? You know who's hitting the gym in the months between now and next winter? The guys who are in the process of turning this program around.

The 2015-2016 Virginia Tech men's basketball season starts today, and I, for one, can't wait to see what happens.