Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Working hard, it shows
Aaron McFarling
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BLACKSBURG -- This wasn't a gimmick. There was no arrangement, no elaborate design to get the guy the ball. This wasn't about cheap glory or a heart-warming story, about making sure senior night brought a moment of fame to the local kid and a sparkly tear to a mother's eye.
No, none of that. This was a normal play in the normal motion offense. Nuts-and-bolts Virginia Tech hoops. A play Marcus Travis has run hundreds of times in practice during his four years as a Hokie.
And when his defender made the wrong move, Travis pounced.
A layup. That's all it was. One basket. A 2-0 lead in an eventual 80-58 Tech victory over Wake Forest on Tuesday night.
But oh, how it said so much.
Know why? Because Marcus Travis was ready. And not just in an emotional, this-is-my-one-big-chance sort of way. More importantly, he was ready physically, he was ready mentally, and he was ready fundamentally -- dribbling, defending, passing, all of that.
In short, this former walk-on from Blacksburg High School looked like a solid Division I basketball player. And that says something big about all the stuff we don't see.
Oh, sure, guys can tell us they work hard every day in practice. But how would we know for sure? After all, has anybody in the history of college basketball admitted to not working hard?
But when somebody who's been in the program four years finally gets to play, and not only does he play but he contributes, he slides in and looks like all the rest of 'em, you know they're all working hard. You know the others are making him better -- and vise versa.
That's why you didn't raise an eyebrow when coach Seth Greenberg left him in. The first media timeout -- which serves as the end-of-recess bell for most honorary starters -- came and went, and Marcus Travis was still out there.
"He's meant too much to this program to just play him and take him out," Greenberg said. "We were going to play him. He works so hard every single day in practice, and he has so much respect of his teammates."
That's really sweet and touching and great. But here's the thing Greenberg didn't mention: While Travis was in the game in the opening 6:30 of the first half, the Hokies outscored the Demon Deacons 15-3. That qualifies as one of the best stretches of basketball Tech has played all season.
Seth's no fool. You don't leave the guy in just because he's a great fella, even though he is. You leave him in because it's WORKING.
"The main point was just coming out here and fitting in," said Travis, who played 12 minutes Tuesday, nine more than he had in any other game this year. "It's not always about people who don't play. There's All-Americans that sit on the bench at Duke, so I definitely don't have a problem with it."
Shoot it. That's what everybody kept telling Travis in the week leading up to this game. When you get the ball, let it fly. You don't know when you'll get another chance like this.
"I was like, 'First of all, I want to come out and play defense,' " Travis said with a smile, noting that Wake's Jeff Teague is a tough matchup for anybody, much less a first-time starter. "I just didn't want him to put 10 up on me in the first four minutes and then I'd have to hear about it."
You know what happens when you think like that? Good things. And maybe, just maybe, a defender makes the wrong move. You pounce. You score. The other senior -- in this case, Deron Washington -- has a career night, scoring 22 points. You win big.
And we can all talk about how nice senior night was, because it was. But we can also say something else: This was bigger than one night, two players and one home goodbye.
This was about a basketball program doing things the right way, day after day, and proving it yet again.
