Recruiting players who can compete at the highest level of college basketball is a process that requires months or even years of research.
Finding players that can coexist and embrace the mentally taxing challenges of the Atlantic Coast Conference takes incredible foresight and judgment of character.
Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg has found the ideal mix this season with freshmen Ben Boggs, Erick Green, Manny Atkins and Cadarian Raines.
With the 2009-10 regular season hitting the home stretch, these four rookies have come a long way since they arrived on campus at the beginning of last summer.
“In the summer, nobody is really here,” Boggs said. “We would hang out a lot, play video games. ... That’s when we became good friends.”
As those important relationships began to form, the days of high school supremacy faded from each of the players’ minds.
One of the more difficult aspects of the transition for such high-caliber players is going from being the local star to simply a role player in college.
In the case of Boggs and Green, both committed to the Hokies during their junior years of high school, a small indication of the type of attention they received earlier than most prospects.
“They were the first school to recruit me during my freshman year,” Boggs said. “That was one of the big reasons I decided to come here.”
Even though the group did not really get to know one another until arriving in Blacksburg, the roots of some of their friendships can be traced back several years.
Boggs and Green first met in eighth grade while playing against each other in an AAU tournament. Two years later, the pair roomed together at one of Greenberg’s summer camps.
Raines crossed paths with Green and Boggs through the AAU circuit as well.
Atkins, the lone freshman who does not hail from Virginia, had to wait until he arrived on campus to establish such bonds with the other newcomers.
“We spent the summer lifting weights, working out. ... That’s when we were getting a bond together,” Atkins said. “We did almost everything together.”
Entering preseason practice, Raines was expected to compete for playing time at forward behind sophomore Victor Davila.
Those expectations took a turn for the worse when Raines suffered a fracture in his left foot, which sidelined him for two months.
He finally got his first college experience on Dec. 6 when Tech hosted Georgia. As the weeks passed, he became healthy and began to see more playing time.
“In the summer time he was looking really good, but after the injury it took him a while to get back into shape,” Atkins said. “As the weeks have been going on ... he looks ready and back where he started.”
One guy that understood exactly what Raines was going through was Boggs. During his senior year of high school, Boggs suffered a broken leg, which kept him out for the rest of the season.
“You’ve got to be proud of how (Raines) battled through that injury to get back and play this season,” Boggs said.
Of all the newcomers to the Hokies this season, nobody has been under more scrutiny than Green.
The point guard from Winchester, Va., was expected to improve enough in the early season to allow Malcolm Delaney to not have to bring the ball up the floor as often. If Delaney were able to play more shooting guard rather than point guard, his production level could skyrocket.
After a slow start, Green’s minutes dramatically increased in December, and he is now beginning to live up to those expectations a little more.
He has played 12 minutes or more in 12 of the team’s 20 games.
Even as this group gains new experiences almost daily, there is still one part of the college basketball lifestyle it has not been introduced to: losing at home.
Entering Thursday, the Hokies were 10-0 in Cassell Coliseum this season.
“Playing at home is great, we definitely have a home-court advantage,” Boggs said.
As coach Greenberg is not afraid to say, the most difficult thing to do in the ACC is win games on the road. The environment at other programs’ home arenas can be very intimidating, especially for a freshman.
The Hokies’ first ACC road game this season was against defending national champion and perennial elite program North Carolina.
“(Playing at UNC) was definitely something I have never experienced before,” Boggs said.
Boggs’ playing style has quickly endeared him to Hokie fans. His poise and effort on the defensive end has earned him most of his playing time.
“(The coaches) just want me to work hard, play my hardest, try to be a good defender, and bring energy,” Boggs said.
Similar to Boggs, Atkins has made a name for himself as the traditional “scrappy” player.
Convincing incoming freshmen to become hard-working role players can be difficult, but persuading Atkins to take such a role was easy.
“I didn’t really look at being a star player (in high school) as someone who slacks off,” Atkins said. “I feel like if I don’t go hard, I won’t play the way I do. That’s just me … that’s my game.”
A player’s impact cannot always be measured by a box score. There are tipped passes, jump balls, charges taken, and many more parts of the game that do not show up on the stat sheet.
Those are just a few of the many things that make this young group an important and promising bunch.