Will there be pressure on Devin Wilson next season?
By Tim Thomas
Feb 22, 2014; Blacksburg, VA, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies guard Devin Wilson (11) drives into the lane against North Carolina State Wolfpack guard Tyler Lewis (12) in the second half at Cassell Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Michael Shroyer-USA TODAY Sports
Devin Wilson entered the 2013-2014 college basketball as a young freshman looking to just be the starting point guard on a Virginia Tech basketball team that was expected to finish around the bottom of the ACC. The Hokies did end up finishing at the bottom of the ACC but Devin Wilson got better and better over the course of the season and ended his solid freshman season with All-ACC Freshman honors. Of course, the safe assumption became that Devin Wilson would be the starting point guard for as long as he was in Blacksburg.
However, that has changed.
The first change happened when James Johnson was fired and Buzz Williams was hired as a change of coaches can lead to some roster turnover. However, there were no signs that Williams was ready to go get a point guard that would replace Devin Wilson especially with Wilson being one of the premier players on the roster. Another big move would follow that would improve the Virginia Tech roster as a whole but put Wilson in an interesting spot.
Mar 9, 2014; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins guard Seth Allen (4) drives to the basket against the Virginia Cavaliers at Comcast Center. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports
Point guard Seth Allen made the decision to transfer from Maryland and chose the Hokies over a number of other suitors. Seth Allen has had tons of success at Maryland and will have to sit out this fall but he will still have two years of elligibility. Allen will not be transferring to Virginia Tech to sit on the bench and that makes Devin Wilson’s situation a lot more interesting than anyone imagined.
Wilson and Allen will both be juniors once Allen is elligible to play and both players will want to be the starting point guard for the Hokies. Both players would be undersized at shooting guard and the Hokies have so many shooting guards on the roster that sliding one of the two over to shooting guard doesn’t make sense. Both of these players shot below 41% from the field this past season and are definitely more point guards than shooting guards. However, both of these players are quite different.
Devin Wilson is more of an old-school point guard that is a decent shooter but is more of a pass-first player to set up his teammates. Wilson averaged 4.8 assists per game this past season and there is a very good chance that he could average 5 to 7 assists as a sophomore. Wilson also is willing to attack the basket and then either go for a layup or kick it out to an open shooter across the paint or beyond the arc. Devin Wilson is not a very good shooter but his passing and toughness make him a guy that deserves a spot.
Seth Allen is not a pass-first point guard but Allen is a decent three-point shooter that averaged 38% from beyond the arc this past season. Allen also is more of a scorer with an average of 13.4 points this past season for Maryland. Allen’s style also is probably part of the reason why he averaged 1.2 turnovers less per game than Wilson this past season. Allen also has had more time to develop into a player that avoids mistakes unlike Wilson who got thrown into the fire as a starting freshman point guard that averaged almost 35 minutes a game.
In my opinion, Devin Wilson is the guy I would want as the starting point guard with Seth Allen in more of a sixth man, change of pace role. However, Wilson is now in a position where he will likely be going against Allen in practice this fall as he tries to not only improve his own game but prove why he should be the starting point guard in the 2015-2016 season. Devin Wilson has gone from being in a position of being a key starter for the next three years to being a guy that could lose his starting spot in two seasons.