Changing of the Guard at Virginia Tech
I used to refer to him as MD, the doctor. More than the fact that he could “operate” on opposing defenses, he was the mental and physical leader of the Virginia Tech surgery room. All the other players deferred and answered to him on any given play, every single night. Just as you don’t see a nurse trying to open up a patient’s gallbladder with the doctor in the room, you never saw fellow Hokies try to run the offense when Malcolm Delaney was on the floor.
The problem for the 2011 Hokies is that their hospital is without a Chief of Medicine now. Delaney has graduated, moved on. So has inside threat and double-double machine Jeff Allen, as has defensive specialist Terrell Bell. This is very much a rebuilding squad, a young team who will look to point guard Erick Green and top recruit Dorian Finney-Smith to tell them where to place the incision.
Head Coach Seth Greenberg has done this before. When Zabian Dowdell moved on, it took a season or two but Malcolm Delaney took over as the team’s leader. Now with the departure of Delaney, it appears to be Green’s turn. He came on strong last season as a situational scorer capable of running the offense for stretches. With young players around him, the roster has a chance to retool and grow together as a unit, a byproduct that may be very beneficial to a team trying to compete in the ever toughening Atlantic Coast Conference.
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