Virginia Tech G/F Manny Atkins to Transfer

by furrer4heisman on May 16, 2011 7:40 PM EDT in Virginia Tech Basketball

Atkins' offensive contributions would have presumably increased next season, as he was projected to at least contend for a starting spot.

He was one of only two small forwards on the team's roster last year, along with Eddie, and would have been one of only five players returning next season who had played in more than nine games in 2010.

Bummer. Manny Atkins played well down the stretch and event though he averaged just 4.9 ppg, that number balloons over 14 if you average it on a "per 40 minutes" basis. However, just because he performed well when Jarell Eddie was suspended doesn't mean his playing time was guaranteed to go up.

The Hokies have a much-heralded recruiting class arriving on campus this upcoming season, including the star of the class: Small forward Dorian Finney-Smith. Add in athletic power forward C.J. Barksdale and there's a good chance Atkins would have found himself toward the end of the rotation, in the same position he was in last season.

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NOOOOOOO!

This sucks!

by chicagomaroon on May 16, 2011 7:43 PM EDT reply actions

hard to say

I really struggle with this. I can’t imagine that Manny wasn’t going to be playing a bigger role next year with the way he performed down the stretch. Frankly I take him over Dorenzo Hudson right now. But that’s my opinion. In reality, the only thing I can imagine is that CSG sat him down and gave him the straight skinny – which is that JT Thompson is coming back, DFS is coming in and Manny was probably only going to get 10-15 minutes/game. Atkins can do better than that somewhere else and I wish him the best. I really like his game.

MadJay
www.techsuperfans.com

by MadJay on May 16, 2011 9:51 PM EDT reply actions

over Zo?

No, we have almost no experience at guard, and that’s a must in the ACC. Lots of potential coming in, but I feel much better about next year knowing that Zo will be back. Unless you’re looking at 2 years of Atkins over 1 year of Zo, in which case I might agree, I don’t know.

This is a huge loss. Atkins would bring things to the table that I don’t expect from anyone else on the team next year. A coach can always use that extra dimension of possibilities. And he was such a hard worker. We may miss that in 2 years (what would have been his senior season) even more than we will next year.

by hokiegrad on May 20, 2011 9:10 AM EDT up reply actions