Nahiem Alleyne, one of the top shooters in the ACC, will enter the NCAA transfer portal after three seasons with Virginia Tech. Alleyne played in every coach Mike Young coached at Virginia Tech.
A three-year starter, Alleyne appeared in 90 games, making 84 starts. For his career, Alleyne averaged 9.7 points and 1.5 assists per game. Alleyne has 871 career points to go along with 153 3-pointers, one of the top marks in program history.
While shooting 40.8 percent on 3-point attempts (42-of-103 3PA) in the 2020-21 season, Alleyne averaged 11.1 points per game. After getting off to a sluggish start in the 2021-22 season, Alleyne still finished the year shooting 37.3 percent on 3-point attempts (62-of-166 3PA); he averaged 9.6 points per game.
Alleyne is an explosive movement shooter, who does most of his damage from beyond the arc: 53.3 percent of his career field goal attempts came from beyond the arc (38.7 3P% career).
This made Alleyne an excellent fit for Young’s detailed half-court offense, which features a variety of off-ball actions designed to target the 3-point line.
Young did a really nice job blending the shooting skills of Alleyne and Hunter Cattoor, one of the top movement shooters in the country. Here’s some Floppy action between Alleyne and Cattoor — with Alleyne flying out for an open 3.
Alleyne really is a pure catch-and-shoot player, although he can handle the ball some on second-side actions: pick-and-rolls and dribble-handoffs.
On this possession, Alleyne runs Chicago action (pindown screen into a DHO) with Justyn Mutts; he turns the corner and finishes in the paint.
He’s a great free throw shooter (80.7 FT% career), but Alleyne doesn’t get to the rim all that much, nor does he create a lot of fouls.
Moreover, Alleyne posted an assist rate of just 8.7 percent this season.
Mad Maddox
Losing Alleyne is a tough blow. However, the Hokies have a piece waiting in the wings to shoulder a larger load on offense: Darius Maddox.
Darius Maddox: 52 3P% (8 3PA per 100), 55 2P%, 82 FT%
Virginia Tech: +201 in 451 mins with Maddox on the floor (+29 points per 100 poss), per Pivot Analysis
VT: +31 in 709 mins with Maddox off the floor (+3 points per 100 poss)
Should be in the conversation for ACC 6MOY
— Brian Geisinger (@bgeis_bird) March 1, 2022
During his sophomore season (2021-22), Maddox emerged as an important reserve for Virginia Tech. Maddox averaged only 17.0 minutes per game, but he shot the cover off the ball: 230 points (6.4 points per game) on 160 field goal attempts (65.5% true shooting).
Maddox shot a blistering 50.6 percent from beyond the arc (40-of-79 3PA).
Maddox provides a lot of the same movement shooting capabilities as Alleyne.
He also provides a little offensive juice as a midrange shooter, too. Alleyne shot 51.9 percent on 2-point attempts this season, including 47.1 percent on longer 2-point attempts, according to Bart Torvik’s shot data.
Assuming Cattoor returns, too, Virginia Tech will still have two superb 3-point shooters on the wing, working with talented sophomore point guard Sean Pedulla.