Who better to start this series with than the Hokies own Malcolm Delaney? Delaney has been the spark this Virginia Tech basketball team has needed to advance this program to more of an elite level. Without his services over the past few years, the Hokies may not have even made the NIT.
Entering his senior year, Delaney should be the odds on favorite to win the ACC Player of the Year award. Of course, he’ll have some stiff competition from Kyle Singler at Duke as well as a few others but if he continues to improve his shooting he’ll be tough to beat.
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A Look Back at Recruiting
Delaney was a rated as a four star point guard by most recruiting services and was part of a massive seven player 2007 recruiting class by Seth Greenberg. Delaney has emerged as the only player really worthy of that rank out of that class seeing that Jeff Allen has struggled lately, Gus Gilchrist transferred, Hank Thorns transferred, Darion Pellum never made it to campus, Dorenzo Hudson has flourished but not quite up to his four star ranking, same with JT Thompson who was a four star on Scout.com, and Terrell Bell has probably played above his three star ranking.
Obviously, it was a major class for Coach Greenberg but Delaney was really the only true game changer from that group. The Hokies had to stay on Malcolm for a while until he finally decided to commit to Virginia Tech in September of 2006. At that time to Hokies had already signed Allen, Gilchrist, and Thompson.
Surprisingly, Delaney didn’t boast very many scholarship offers from higher echelon programs. He claimed to hold a verbal offer from Indiana but that was never proven. Instead, he chose the Hokies over offers from Maryland, Clemson, and Iowa State.
Stats
As you can see from the chart above, Delaney has improved greatly from year to year thus far. Obviously, it’s going to be tough to score more this season but I have a feeling you may see his shot selection improve as well as his field goal percentage.
Career Bio
Delaney is a three-year starter for Virginia Tech and enters his senior year as the ACC’s top returning scorer from a year ago. The Baltimore native has close to unlimited range and plays “big in big games” according to head coach Seth Greenberg. As a freshman, Delaney averaged only 9.6 points per game. However, he almost doubled that in his sophomore year and more than doubled it in his junior season.
2010-2011 Season Outlook
This year, Delaney returns for his final season in a Virginia Tech uniform before hopefully he heads off to the NBA. In order for the Hokies to accomplish their goals they’ll need to Delaney to stay healthy this year as well as become a better and more productive shooter. He doesn’t necessarily need to score any more points but he does need to raise his field goal and 3-point percentages.
I have a feeling that Tech fans are in for a real treat this year. Delaney knows this is his last chance to impress the NBA scouts before starting a pro career plus there is a lot of unfinished business left before he departs onto the next stage in his life. If Delaney can improve some this season and stay healthy for the majority of it, I have a feeling this Tech team may be a sweet 16 dark horse come March.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Don’t be so hard on Zo! You’re essentially saying Bell is the best player between him, Zo, Allen, and JT if he’s worth more than a 3 star but they haven’t been quite up to 4 star level. I love Bell, and I’d take him over JT, maybe even Allen (well…probably not), but certainly not over Zo. Just glad we have them all, though.
I’m not being hard on Zo, honestly without last year we might not have won as many games as we did. He was a huge reason why we were in the NCAA talks in March. However, he was possibly the “best” recruit in that class according to some but it took him 2 years to materialize. Of course, looking back Seth should have probably redshirted him since he didn’t enroll till December but hindsight is 20/20. I just hope Hudson can keep that momentum rolling into this year, if he can we will have one dangerous backcourt.
Zo probably struggled because Seth only has three major scorers in his offense. That is the way it is. Once AD Vassallo left it was his turn. You don’t make a mistake and play that well either you have it or you don’t.