COLLEGIATETIMES
wednesday november 12, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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To see how this issue was created, check out our Web site Friday for behind-thescenes video footage of the CT newsroom, including a trip to our printing press in Bluefield, W.Va.
Delaney brings new attitude AFTER TURNING LAST SEASON AROUND WITH HIS WORDS, HEART AND GRIT, MALCOLM DELANEY HAS A NEW TEST THIS SEASON: LEADERSHIP THOMAS EMERICK
news
ct sports editor
FACULTY AWARDS NOMINATIONS DUE IN FEBRUARY The timeline for faculty and staff teaching awards has been announced. Nominees for the Wine Award and nominees for the 2009 certificates of teaching excellence must be submitted by February 6, 2009. Go to www.ate.ceut.vt.edu/ to nominate. Nominations for the university Sporn award for teaching introductory subjects is due Feb. 1, 2009. Only students can nominate excellent teachers for classes of 1000-2000 level subjects. Go to www.odk.org.vt.edu/ spornap.html to nominate.
SILHOUETTE OPEN MIC NIGHT The Silhouette literary magazine will host an Open Mic at 8 p.m. tonight at Gillies Restaurant. Poets, acoustic musicians, short fiction writers, and other performers are welcome. The Silhouette and the Collegiate Times are both members of the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech.
CHICAGO KLEZMER ENSEMBLE CONCERT The world-renowned Chicago Klezmer Ensemble will perform a free concert 7 p.m. tonight in Squires Haymarket Theater sponsored by the Council of International Student Organizations for International Education week. The group’s influences range from Slavonic, Ottoman, American Jazz and Greek music.
weather RAINY
JEFF SLOYER/SPPS
Then-freshman guard Malcolm Delaney glides to the basket against Maryland. Delaney’s emotional response to a drubbing by North Carolina coupled with gutsy play have valuted him into team leadership.
Town, Tech students discuss downtown plans GABRIEL MCVEY
ct news reporter
high 53, low 38
corrections The Collegiate Times’ article “With new hire, Tech dining aims green,” (CT Nov. 11) contained an error. D2 Dining Hall, not the entire university, wasted roughly 1200 pounds/day during the study cited therein when students used dining trays while D2 wasted about 750 pounds/day without trays. The Collegiate Times regrets this error. If you see something in today’s paper that needs to be corrected, please e-mail our public editor at publiceditor@collegiatetimes.com, or call 540.231.9865.
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Classifieds..............5 Sports....................4 Sudoku..................5
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 103
Freshman-heavy college basketball teams don’t typically react well to a 39point road loss, let alone 18-year old guards who lack a clear position on their squad. Next thing Tech basketball coach Seth Greenberg knew, point-slash-shooting guard Malcolm Delaney had told the postgame media that “people have to change their attitude on this team.” “I thought that was a defining moment for our season,” Greenberg said. “I walked into that locker room and there was not a lot of talking. Actually that was an instance where I was going to wait for us to get back before I really addressed the team. ... I think his statement was a lot more powerful than me making that statement, because it was one of their peers.” If this point at the bottom of Tech’s 2008 plummet didn’t announce Delaney’s new role to the world, the way they pulled out of it did. The Hokies would rebound from that Feb. 16 embarrassment at North Carolina and the three-game losing streak it capped to then tear off wins in four consecutive games and seven of their final 10 contests. “If I had to pick the leader of our team it’s by far, without a doubt, Malcolm Delaney,” Greenberg said. During this time, Delaney would assert himself, though just a freshman, as arguably the team’s key ball-handler, big-game scorer, pressure shot-taker and defensive menace. “He can do so many different things; he can defend, he can make shots, he’s competitive, he’s got a high basketball IQ, does a really good job of reading screens,” Greenberg said. “Whether he’s at the point or the two we want him to be aggressive offensively.” Delaney heads into opening night fresh off a first year in which he recorded 24 starts, 9.6 points per game, 3.1 assists per game, 28 steals, a team-high 79 percent free-throw percentage and a 40-percent mark from beyond the arc. He’ll continue to shift between the point guard position (“the one”) and shooting guard (“the two”) regularly within the span of a game. “It’s tough, because that’s two totally different positions in our offense and you’ve got to know two positions,” Delaney said. “But I’m comfortable with both now. I’ve really adjusted to point guard and shooting guard is my natural position.” Greenberg is confident that he can handle the semantics. “He’s a guard,” Greenberg said. “We can call him a point guard, we can call him a two guard, you can call him a combo guard, you can call him a hybrid. You
guys can use any adjectives you want, but (he is a) really good basketball player.” Delaney will face yet more adaptation this year as Tech plans to run more of a full-court game aiming at increased transition off of missed shots. In Tech’s offense, the fast break is predicated on the point guard — be it Delaney or fellow sophomore Hank Thorns. “Sometimes Malcolm and Hank can be on the floor at the same time,” junior forward Lewis Witcher said. “So it makes it a lot better for us.” Whether Tech flies coast to coast or slows down in the half court, Delaney must improve his vision to take his skills at “the one” to the next level. “(The key skill for Delaney to improve is) making plays for others, seeing plays before they happen,” Greenberg said. “The great point guards see plays before they happen. They see the game almost in slow motion. ... The Chris Pauls and those guys, they see guys open before they even know they’re open.” Don’t let his assimilation into the position of giver fool you. Delaney can and has thrown daggers from close and long range alike — and this composes a facet Tech’s offense will need. There is compromise, however, for a player who scored at least 13 points in each of his final five games last season despite being less than a year removed from high school ball in the Baltimore area. “It’s a process, but I want him to be a scoring point guard,” Greenberg said. “He’s got to score points.” No matter how Delaney’s assist-topoints distribution tallies, the category of greatest importance to Tech’s success is unquantifiable. Perhaps more crucial than any key shot he sunk in 2008 remains that fateful day in Chapel Hill, N.C., when he lifted his team up in surprising and blunt fashion. “He spoke for the team,” sophomore forward Jeff Allen said. “People did have to change their attitudes so we could become a better team, which we did.” “Everybody kind of reacted from that and took it upon ourselves the next day,” Delaney said. “We had one of the best practices we’d had all year and from that point on we had a total change in our season.” Rotating six freshmen last season, the way this class seems to have meshed with the each other and the rest of the team creates a perfect environment for Delaney’s outspoken attitude to flourish. “You can either take it and run with it, or you can cry and pout about it,” Thorns said. “We’re all friends so hopefully you take it as good criticism and learn from it. If you have something to say I’d rather have you say it than hold your tongue. That’s the type of team we are and we don’t hold our tongue for nobody.”
Blacksburg planning personnel held a public comment session soliciting input from Tech students on the Blacksburg Comprehensive Plan for future land use last night in the Architecture Annex at Virginia Tech. Town Planner Karen Drake held a question and answer session followed by a public comment period
answering a series of questions from undergraduate students as part of a series of periodic public consultations from Blacksburg residents from senior citizens to college students. The first question on the comprehensive plan was about bicycle lanes on main thoroughfares. “We have a map called Pathways to the Future. It has all off the real and proposed bikeways, sidewalks and greenways as well as trail connections,”
Drake said. “There is a master plan for a loop system whether you’re commuting from point A to point B or just out for a ride on the Huckleberry you’ll be able to access any place in town. The real question is how do you fund all of this?” Several students asked about what the town planned to do about empty storefronts in the downtown commercial district. “Rents are a private sector concern,
Town to solicit input on future of Henderson Lawn development GABRIEL MCVEY
ct news reporter Blacksburg planning officials will hold a public comment session on Nov. 20 to solicit input for the upcoming renovation to the Henderson Lawn and College Avenue areas. Town Planner Karen Drake, Town Planning Director Anne McClung and Mayor Ron Rordam, among others, will attend an open session at the Blacksburg Municipal Building on November 20 at 5 p.m. The purpose will be to present the options available for the renovation project and solicit public comment to determine the best available options for future action. The College Avenue renovations have been long in the making. “We began this project with funds from the 2005 federal grant to the Virginia Transportation Improvement Program,” Drake said.
Drake said the project’s goal was to develop the College Avenue promenade, “the university’s main interface with the town.” “What we’re trying to do with this project, First and Main, and other projects like the downtown facade renovation is make downtown a destination instead of a throughway,” Rordam said. Officials are considering several courses of action. “We have several things we’d like to do to make this a more pedestrianfriendly area,” Drake said. “We can widen sidewalks, include the possibility for outdoor cafe dining, we can install benches and artwork.” The overall appeal of downtown is the goal, and is part and parcel of a concerted effort to beautify and reinvigorate Blacksburg’s ailing downtown commercial district. “We’re excited about some of the new developments that will make downtown more appealing,” Rordam said. “We have the Lyric, which has been a growing concern
for years, and soon we’ll have the Virginia Tech Performing Arts Center in 2011 or 2012.” “The idea is to combine projects,” Drake said. “We’ve contracted Anderson and Associates to do the design work and all we need is a few key suggestions.” Drake said the catch was that not all the ideas would work together and people would have to make a choice. “The right-of-way for College Ave. isn’t changing,” Drake said “People will have to decide if they want widened sidewalks, they’ll have to give up parking or we’ll have to have one-way traffic in some areas.” Rordam said it was important for residents to come and make their voices heard. “This is more than just proposals.” Rordam said. “We want to receive ideas from the public and see what the community wants to see there.” Drake said the meeting’s particulars would be published in an upcoming Blacksburg Alert e-mail.
owners have a right to develop their property,” Drake said. “The town can control some things, like setbacks and other zoning restrictions but whether it gets built or not is out of our hands.” In regard to parking Drake said that along with the Kent Square parking structure more parking is to come. “There is more parking on the way, because of the Performing Arts Center,” Drake said. “It’s planned for what I call the Donaldson Brown
parking lot, but that’s Tech property, it’s part of the College Ave. promenade that we’re working on with them.” Drake also said Blacksburg planned to develop some existing properties in an environmentally sustainable way. “Blacksburg now has the old Doc Roberts tire company,” Drake said. We’re looking to have that building certified gold as the most environmentally-sustainable and –friendly way.”
Veteran’s Day Vigil
BILLY CLAY/SPPS
Freshman cadet Olufikunmi Ajayi stands guard next to a monument of Virginia Tech alumni killed in action. The Corps held a 24-hour vigil at the monument yesterday, ending in a ceremony last night.
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