Chaney In; Thorns Out

I had a gut feeling that it was going to happen, but I orginally thought that Hank Thorns would be leaving the program to make room for Lamont "Momo" Jones. Well, Momo decided to pull his verbal commitment to Virginia Tech, but another guy who played for Florida last year decided that he likes the cut of Seth Greenberg's jib, as they say. That man (boy?) is Allan Chaney, a 6'8" center/power forward who averaged 3 points and 2 rebounds in 10 minutes per game last season.

I am not sure how much I like this move. I will admit that I have been as critical of Hank Thorns' play as anyone, and I still maintain that Hank Thorns is not an ACC-caliber player. However, the addition of Erick Green next season was supposed to ease our woes at the point guard position, where we only have two players who can handle the ball, and one of them, Malcolm Delaney, is possibly more useful as a 2-guard. From this article, it appears the decision to transfer out of VT was entirely Thorns' decision. "Little Hank" is sure that he is an incredible scoring option, but that Seth Greenberg has kept him on a leash. The truth of the matter, though, is that Little Hank can't drive the ball to the hoop because he gets blocked or throws up a wild shot every time. His only potential for scoring comes from behind the 3-point arc, where Thorns was a woeful 19%. Those stats aren't the kind of stats that are going to get your coach to green light your whole offensive package.

Little Hank has not decided where he will transfer to.

It seems to me that Dorenzo Hudson's play late in the season will help to ease the loss of one of our few ballhandlers, but it's not because Hudson can handle those responsibilities (he has absolutely no handle whatsoever). Hudson's improvement on the offensive end towards the end of last season will help keep him in the starting lineup, where Delaney will continue to claim the starting point guard role. However, if either Delaney or young Erick Green go down with an injury, the Hokies are toast. No one else on that roster can handle the rock.

We need to turn Jeff Allen into a point-forward, Lebron James style! Hey it could happen, right? I'm actually only half-kidding... I do think Allen might be our best ballhandler behind Delaney and Green. I haven't seen Ben Boggs handle the ball, but he might have some ability there.

Chaney will prove to be extremely helpful next season when he is able to join the Hokies. He has to sit out a season under NCAA transfer rules. By 2010, our stable of big men will be: Jeff Allen, Victor Davila, Cadarian Raines, and Chaney. So you can see that without the addition of Allan Chaney, Greenberg would have had to do some serious recruiting for a big man for next year's team. We are in good shape for the future, as long as Chaney's supposed attitude problems in Florida don't show up again while he plays for Virginia Tech.