A Tech Cager is Suspended

It was a shame the Virginia Tech Basketball team had to suspend Deron Washington for a game, but AD Weaver and Coach Greenberg certainly couldn’t condone Washington’s kick in the face to Duke’s Lee Melchione as they untangled themselves after an on-court spill. You could tell Washington was acting solely from frustration with neither spite nor malice, and was sincerely contrite afterwards. And who wouldn’t have been frustrated? – frustration has been palpable throughout the Cassell all season. Not only have expectations been running unfulfilled but tragedy has been everywhere. One teammate’s father is dying of cancer, another teammate has cancer, and two players have suffered heartbreaking family losses.

And they were playing Duke, the team that pulled a miracle with a desperation 40-foot shot at the buzzer a few weeks earlier to spoil what seemed destined to be Tech’s biggest victory ever by beating them by a single point in Durham. When the Hokies needed many prayers answered, Duke got one instead. Looking across the way to their intense Hall of Fame coach and to their best player who as a local product, in another era, might have considered going to Tech, it was easy for any member of Hokie Nation to feel cursed by the Blue Devil.

But doing the right thing in response to a difficult situation is always ultimately its own reward, as in the grander scheme of things the game is about more than “W”s and “L”s. In sports as in life, wins and losses are temporal, but sportsmanship, integrity, and honor are forever, especially for a basketball team whose players aren’t going to the next level, baby.

Anyone who suggests that if Coach Greenberg continues to work hard, do the right things, and support his players, good things will happen someday, is wrong. Good things are already happening.