BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA – Coming into this season, the Virginia Tech basketball team, like every other in college basketball, had a few major question marks. However, juniors Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen did not exactly fall in that category.
Delaney and Allen combined for 38 points, leading Virginia Tech to a win in its season opener against Brown 69-55 Sunday evening in Cassell Coliseum, improving head coach Seth Greenberg’s record in season openers to 7-0 as a Hokie. Virginia Tech never trailed, and Brown did not get within one possession of the Hokies in the second half.
“We weren’t really worried about (losing),” Delaney said. “Last year, the games like this, it was close, and we actually had to win the game. I didn’t feel as though we were going to lose this game at any point.”
Virginia Tech (1-0, 0-0 ACC) sophomore Victor Davila made a free throw with 1:08 to play in the first half, capping off a 16-5 run over the span of 11:38 to push the lead to 34-19, putting the Hokies in control for good. Brown (1-1, 0-0 Ivy League) cut the deficit to 45-40 on a lay-up by freshman forward Andrew McCarthy with 11:37 to play in the game, but the Bears never got closer than that.
While Brown did not pose a serious threat to spoil Virginia Tech’s opening night, the Bears certainly caused a few headaches for the Hokies’ defense. Brown used its Princeton style offense to methodically attack Virginia Tech, patiently waiting for a good shot and making the Hokies defend for the majority of the 35 second shot clock.
“You have to give Brown credit,” Greenberg said. “They spread us out and made us guard 25 seconds a possession and, basically, waited for us to make a mistake.”
One area of concern for Virginia Tech entering this season has been defending the post, especially considering the plethora of quality big men in the ACC. The Hokies did not really do anything to put that issue to rest as Brown’s 6′8″ center Matt Mullery had 13 points and the 6′8″ McCarthy pitched in 14. The pair of big men combined to shoot 12 of 21 from the field.
“They kind of confused our post players with what they were doing,” Delaney said. “They were doing a lot of screening with their post players and we’re not really used to that.”
Offensively, the Hokies put forth a better effort, shooting 46% from the field while only committing eight turnovers. Delaney led Virginia Tech with 21 points on six of 12 shooting. Delaney, who was second in the ACC last year in minutes played per game (36.5), logged 38 minutes and also dished out four assists.
Allen scored 17 points, 13 of which came in the second half, despite being hampered all preseason by injuries. He has missed practice this preseason with a knee injury and most recently with a bone bruise in his right wrist, causing him to miss everday of practice this week except Saturday.
“The whole week, we just shut him down,” Greenberg said. “We have to shut him down. That’s just the way it is.”
A lot has been made of who would step up to help Delaney and Allen and fill the scoring void left after the program’s fifth all-time leading scorer A.D. Vassallo exhausted his eligibility last season. Sunday, Virginia Tech attacked that problem by comittee as the Hokies got contributions from Davila, Terrell Bell, and Dorenzo Hudson, each of whom scored eight points.
“The third scorer doesn’t have to be one person,” Delaney said. “We have got people who can score. Last year, they didn’t do that because they were in different postions, but they got different roles this year.”
Two freshmen saw their first collegiate action for the Hokies. Freshman Ben Boggs played ten minutes and scored two points, while Erick Green played three minutes in the first half and made a three pointer.
Sean Bielawski
