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Closing The Book On Erick Green

As sad as it is to see Erick Green leave Virginia Tech, it's something that we all knew was coming. Now that the NCAA basketball season is finally over and the moment is here, let's look back one last time for a parting glance at Erick Green.

By chicagomaroon
Streeter Lecka

Obviously we've written a lot about Erick over the years, but with the phenomenal year he put together in 2012-13, we wrote about his nightly exploits ad nauseam with several, long, impassioned essays detailing his accomplishments and his impact on Virginia Tech basketball. This is not one of those essays though. For brevity (something I am not very good at), we'll keep this rather short.

Back in early March, we remarked about his performance on Senior Night at Virginia Tech, and looked back in a career retrospective of one of Virginia Tech's all-time greats. A week later, we were able to call Green the ACC Player of the Year. But then, once the Hokies' season was over, we begrudgingly looked forward to see what it would take to replace Green, and if it could be done.

Before we make peace with Erick's departure, however, I think it's necessary to take a look at some of the things he has accomplished throughout his Tech career.

#10 All-Time In Scoring At Virginia Tech With 1742 Points

#9 All-Time In Assists At Virginia Tech With 326 Assists

#7 All-Time In Free Throw Percentage With .804

#5 (Tied) All-Time In Single-Season Scoring Average At 25.0

#4 (Tied) All-Time In Single-Season Field Goals Made With 261

#3 In Single-Season Free Throws Made With 218

#1 In The Nation In Scoring Average At 25 Points Per Game

#1 In The Nation In Scoring With 801 Points

Single-Season Scoring Record At Virginia Tech With 801 Points

3-Time ACC Player Of The Week

2nd Team All-ACC (2011-12)

1st Team All-ACC (2012-13)

ACC Player Of The Year (2012-13)

3rd Team All-American

VASID Player Of The Year (2012-13)

VASID 1st Team All-State (2012-13)

Career Record: 74-58 (only counting games in which he played)

Scored Double-Digits In 63 of his last 64 games

Scored Double-Digits In All 32 Games As A Senior

Shew. That's quite a list of accomplishments. Although, according to long-time Virginia Tech and IMG broadcaster Bill Roth, Green's jersey would not fit the requirements to be retired under Virginia Tech's current policy:

If true, that would be a pretty big injustice to Green, although there are several other guys on that list as well (ahem...Zabian Dowdell and Malcolm Delaney...ahem...). Also, I find it tough to stomach that Green was on the 3rd Team of All-Americans while Mason Plumlee of Duke and Shane Larkin of Miami, two of the players Erick Green beat out for ACC Player of the Year, found their way onto the second team. All I can say is that it's a function of team-performance bias and members of the media that didn't get to see Green play this year voting on the teams. It does help, however, if your team plays deep into March/April, as those voters get to see you play. That's my only gripe about it, though if you want a better argument, you should look at Niemo's from TechHoops.

So there's where we'll end. With a tear in our collective eye, we bid farewell to one of Virginia Tech's all-time great basketball players. Where will we rank him? That's the question now. Expect a post (or series of posts) of that nature to drop sometime this summer. In the mean time, we'll have AT LEAST two more posts to wrap up basketball season before we move on.

For all your Virginia Tech basketball news, analysis, and now archives of Erick Green love letters, you've come to the right place: Gobbler Country.

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