Saying Goodbye: Malcolm Delaney

In this world of NBA Draft early entry and one-and-done freshman, it is difficult to become attached to a college star. They simply don't hang around long enough. But when they do, that player becomes the fan favorite. There is nothing like watching a kid develop from a overwhelmed freshman into star as a senior. Those are the players that the fans connect with.

We reached out to some of the blogosphere's best, and over the next couple of weeks we will be running a series of posts saying goodbye to some of the country's best seniors.

Our seventh installment of "Saying Goodbye" provides a farewell to Malcolm Delaney, one of the best players in the past decade to play four seasons and never make the NCAA Tournament. This post comes to you courtesy of the good people at Gobbler Country, the Virginia Tech SBNation blog. You can hit them up on twitter at @GobblerCountry

If you want to know what it was like watching Malcolm Delaney play for four years, just take a look at Virginia Tech’s regular season games against North Carolina and Duke this past season.

Against the Tar Heels, Delaney was superb, but when the game was on the line took an ill-advised three that ultimately cost the Hokies the game. Against the Blue Devils, he was absolutely atrocious for 35 minutes, then made a clutch three that gave Tech an upset of the nation’s No. 1 team.

It was a season and career of highs and lows for Delaney. And no matter what you want to say about his abilities, you have to admire guy who is always willing to take the last-second shot. You had to take the good with the bad with the kid.

Unfortunately for Delaney, there is one thing he’s going to be known for beyond the clutch makes-and-misses: He never played in the NCAA Tournament. Even though he gave the program several high points it hadn’t seen in decades, there will always be that asterisk affixed to his time at Tech.

Fair or not, Delaney shoulders much of that burden, which he shares with head coach Seth Greenberg. For every last-second make-or-miss on the Hokies’ Late-February-Early-March roller coaster there was Greenberg with another letter to the school paper imploring the students to support the team or claiming a grand conspiracy against Virginia Tech’s basketball team.

Whether by design or not, Greenberg’s grandstanding took the spotlight off Delaney and onto himself. But while a lot the frustrations Hokie fans have felt since an outstanding team (emphasis on team) made the tournament in 2007 can be blamed on Greenberg, there’s at least some that can be projected onto the team’s best player.

Virginia Tech under Greenberg has never really had a discernible offensive system or game plan and that was exacerbated with Delaney as the Hokies’ only real scoring option late in his career. That led to a lot of end-game plays that involved Delaney isolated at the top of the key with the other four Hokies standing around in wide-eyed wonder as Delaney dribbled around for the final 20 or so seconds of the game before committing a game-ending turnover or chucking up a low-percentage perimeter shot.

Things would have been different if Delaney hadn’t been forced to be Superman most of the time. Instead, as a point guard, Delaney had to compensate for a team during his senior year that was depleted by injuries, transfers and suspensions.

The result was an inconsistent team led by an inconstant star that found itself in the NIT for a fourth consecutive season. And that will be Delaney’s legacy. He never made The Tournament and he never made it to New York for the NIT semifinals and what limelight it provides to those who were uninvited.

When you take stock of Delaney’s career you have to weigh what was expected of him against what has come to be expected from a program that is used to one tournament appearance per decade. The Hokies don’t have much basketball history to speak of and Delaney is certainly one of the most talented players to come through Blacksburg in the last three decades.

The flip side is that Delaney was supposed to build upon the foundation that players like Coleman Collins, Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell set with their appearance in The Tournament in 2007. Delaney’s career was supposed to end with three or four trips to the Big Dance, not zero.

So, there were two sides to Delaney. At his best he was a game-changer who was able to recognize when he was having an off night and distribute the ball effectively to those who were and was able to be cold-blooded in the clutch when all seemed lost for the Hokies.

At his worst he was a flopper who didn’t come close to making his teammates better and tried to do too much in the waning moments of close games.

As always, you had to take the good with the bad with Delaney. You have to be thankful for where the program is now compared to the early 2000s and at the same time wonder why he was never able to get the Hokies into the NCAA Tournament.


More from "Saying Goodbye"

2011: Josh Harrellson, Kentucky
2011: DJ Kennedy, St. John's
2011: JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore, Purdue
2011: Matt Howard, Butler
2011: Keith Benson, Oakland
2011: Preston Knowles, Louisville