Seth Greenberg essentially uses three positions on the basketball court: the point guard, two wings, and two post players. Occasionally, some players will jump positions, such as when Delaney plays off the ball at the wing position. Allan Chaney is a guy that has the skill set to play the wing, although I see him spending more time in the post to give the Hokies much-needed height. Listed below are the players sorted by position, and what I see the pre-season pecking order to be. A quick glance and you'll see that Coach Greenberg likely has the most talented bench from top to bottom he's ever had.
| 2010-2011 Roster by Position | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point | Wing | Post | |||||||||
| M. Delaney | 6'3" | 190 | SR | D. Hudson | 6'5" | 220 | SR | J. Allen | 6'7" | 230 | SR |
| E. Green | 6'4" | 185 | SO | T. Bell | 6'6" | 205 | SR | A. Chaney | 6'9" | 235 | SO |
| T. Garland | 6'1" | 165 | FR | M. Atkins | 6'7" | 200 | SO | V. Davila | 6'8" | 245 | JR |
| 2009-10 starter | J. Eddie | 6'7" | 210 | FR | JT Thompson | 6'6" | 210 | SR | |||
| New addition | B. Boggs | 6'4" | 200 | SO | C. Raines | 6'9" | 240 | SO | |||
Point
The man who garnered fourth team All-American honors and lead the ACC in scoring is back for one last try at that elusive ACC championship and NCAA Tournament berth. Delaney will continue to lead Tech from the point position while trying to improve on his assist to turnover ratio and shooting percentage.
The biggest issue at the point position is managing wear and tear on Malcolm Delaney. Taking out the Longwood game in which Delaney played only 1 minute, he averaged 36.8 minutes per game, which would have been the most in the ACC. While you want your star point guard in the game as much as possible, Delaney would probably benefit from a health and stamina standpoint to drop that number to around 34-35 minutes per game. Although Green struggled with his shot for most of the season, he was a capable point guard in the limited action he saw last year. I don’t expect Eric to lose many minutes to Garland as Green will continue to learn to run Tech’s offense this fall. Garland is a very capable scorer and could see some action at the wing position as well.
Wing
With the addition of 6’7” forward Jarrell Eddie and the emergence of All-ACC guard Dorenzo Hudson, the position that was a major concern early last season has quickly become a strength. Dorenzo Hudson anchors the group at the starting 2 spot. Despite an injured foot that bothered him for much of the ACC schedule, Zo still managed to grind out an impressive 16.7 ppg. Terrell Bell is a long armed forward who should maintain the majority of the playing time at the 3. Bell has relished the role of a defensive workhorse and a rebounding machine from the wing. He only got better as the season progressed, averaging 7.2 rebounds and shooting 43% from 3-point land over the final 14 games.
Behind starters Hudson and Bell, the Hokies have two tall and talented young players in Manny Atkins and Jarrell Eddie. In limited playing time last year, Atkins showed the ability to knock down the 3 ball (shooting 35%) and flashes of great play. He performed admirably in his first start against Georgia Tech. Jarrell Eddie is a 4-star recruit who can stroke it from deep or drive around defenders to the basket. Both have the skills to be starting caliber ACC players and should provide a spark off the bench from the wing position, something the Hokies haven’t had much of in recent years. Ben Boggs is a workhorse with a high basketball IQ. Despite the talent in front of him, don't underestimate his ability to contribute significantly to the team this year.
Post
The post position is arguably the deepest and certainly the most difficult to predict how the minutes will be divided at this point in time. Senior Jeff Allen is firmly entrenched as the starter for the 4th consecutive year. Jeff's numbers actually decreased last year due to reduced playing time because of foul trouble. In fact, he averaged the fewest minutes of his career last season. Jeff is a terrific weapon for the Hokies...when he's on the court. In games he played at least 30 minutes last season (12 games), he averaged 16.2 ppg. Greenberg started pulling Jeff out of the game after his first foul, instead of his second, and it was largely successful, as Jeff averaged 30 minutes per game over the final 7 contests. If Seth can keep Jeff on the court for 30 minutes a game, the Hokies become a much tougher team to beat.
Behind Jeff, there are 3 players that could potentially start for the Hokies next year. Based on the rave reviews of sophomore transfer Allan Chaney, he appears to be the frontrunner to start at the second post position. Chaney is a 6'9" forward with a similar skill set to Jeff Allen. Imagine, for a moment, the Hokies having Jeff Allen and a slightly taller version of Jeff Allen on the court at the same time. That's a frontcout to rival any ACC tandem. However, Chaney hasn't played in a college basketball game since March 2009, so it will be interesting to see how he adjusts, especially early on. Junior Victor Davila has started 43 games over the past two years and will not give up that spot easily. Victor is an excellent offensive player with his back to the basket, and a good offensive rebounder. Yet he often doesn't bring the same production to the other end of the floor, where he only had a total of 25 defensive rebounds in ACC play last year (JT Thompson had 51 in the less minutes played). I would not be surprised if he began the year as the starter, but he will have to improve defensively to hold on to the starting spot this year. Finally, we have sophomore Cadarian Raines. At 6'9" and 240 lbs, Cadarian is a big, physical presence in the middle that the Hokies don't often have. Raines has had a rough start to his career fighting the injury bug, but if he can stay healthy, he can really help the Hokies against some of the bigger frontcourts on the schedule.
Senior JT Thompson rounds out the group. He's the classic tweener, a power forward in the body of a wing. JT has been constant spark off the bench as the 6th man during his career and should continue to do so. Thompson has one of the more consistent mid-range jumpers on the team and is a very aggressive rebounder.
Last but not least, if you've never seen them in action before, here are some highlight clips of the Hokies' new players for 2010-2011:
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