There are rumors, and then there are things that you just wish were rumors ... but they're not.

I returned from a three-day hiatus to the news that Jenis Grindstaff is transferring away from Virginia Tech.  Actually, as I came to find out, that statement is not correct.  Eventually, Jenis will transfer somewhere, but the truth now is that he's not transferring - he's leaving.  His ultimate destination is yet to be determined, but for now, he will head back to North Carolina, back home, after exams are over this semester.

The sad truth is, most of you out there don't care.  The thousands of empty seats in Cassell Coliseum for each home game are testament to the fact that men's basketball, somewhere in the last ten years, has fallen from grace at Virginia Tech and is now only back page news to what the football team is doing.

But for those like me, whose passions for Virginia Tech basketball were formed in the fire of a mid-80's cauldron known as the Metro Conference, and its accompanying rivalries with Louisville and Memphis State, or for those of you who go back even farther, to the Allen Bristow teams of the early 70's or the Tech teams of the 60's, this does matter.  For those of us who are still paying attention, those of us who follow the team and plunk down our $10 every time there's a home game, this is very bad news, indeed.

The first question that comes to mind, of course, is why.  Why is Jenis leaving?  We can speculate until we all turn blue in the face, but only Jenis, his close friends, and his family members perhaps know for sure.

It's a quick and easy answer to say that he left because of the losing.  But players rarely leave simply because a team is losing, particularly when the future looks better, like it does at Tech.  No, the reasons that players leave are often as varied and as complex as the reasons why they choose to go to a school in the first place.

But one thing is true:  when a team is losing, any other problems that occur are magnified ten-fold.  Losing makes all the other irritations, large and small, a lot harder to take, and we can only assume that in the case of Jenis Grindstaff, his reasons for leaving outgrew his reasons for staying.  And the losing didn't help.

Naturally, rumors are flying, and Jenis isn't doing anything to quell them.  He is simply saying words to the effect that it's in his best interests and in the best interests of Virginia Tech basketball to part ways.  He doesn't know exactly what he's going to do in the long run, but in the short run, he's going home.  For good.

In a situation like this, although I personally hear a lot of things from people close to the program, I prefer to respect the private lives of the players and coaches and to not pass on those things, which could either be true or false, or just someone's perception of a situation.  But I have seen some of the theories that are being advanced on the message board as to why Jenis is leaving, and I wanted to shoot two of them down, based on the information I've received:

Theory #1:  there is a problem between Grindstaff and Coach Hussey.   From what I can tell, there is not a "problem" between Jenis and Coach Hussey.  Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.  I think the two get along just fine.  If I remember my recruiting history correctly, Coach Hussey recruited Jenis and was one of the main reasons he came to Tech.

Theory #2:  Jenis thinks he's too good for Tech.  Absolutely not.  Sure, Jenis was a highly touted recruit, one of Tech's biggest in years, but believe me, his head is not too big.  Anybody who knows anything about Jenis knows that he is a level-headed kid with solid values.  We loved his character when he signed with us, and he hasn't changed a bit, so don't even go there.

I seriously doubt that Jenis is transferring because he thinks that his star will shine brighter at one of the ACC schools that recruited him late in the ball game, after he had already signed with Tech.  Transferring is a huge risk for a college athlete, because they either lose a year of eligibility (if they go to another 1-A school), or they disappear in the ranks of the lower echelons of the NCAA.  Kids almost never transfer because the grass looks greener somewhere else, because losing a year of eligibility and then trying to get acclimated to another coach, team, and system almost never works out for the better.

So why is he leaving?  We need to face facts that things don't always work out for every player that goes to a school, and the reasons, as I said earlier, are often varied and complex.  Most of the time, "things don't work out" very privately.   A player might simply never make an impact, and then disappear silently.  This most often occurs in football, where there are about 85 players on scholarship at any given time, and they come and go literally a dozen at a time.

In basketball, where only 13 players are on scholarship, it's harder for a player to hide.  And when you're a star recruit, one of the biggest recruits in recent memory, and a team is building its future on you and a couple of other players, it's impossible to hide.  And whereas a single player rarely makes a big difference on an 85-player football team, a single player often makes a difference on a 13-man basketball team.

Regardless of the reasons why Jenis is leaving, I'm disappointed and saddened by it.   I was looking forward to seeing Jenis teamed with Rolan Roberts and incoming recruit Dennis Mims for three more years.  With Kenny Harrell and other promising players already in the program, the future looked bright.  Now, one of the main cogs in the machine has gone walking, and it's going to take me, as a Tech basketball fan, a little while to adjust to that.

The other effect this has is that red flags immediately go up.  When a seldom-used player transfers, no one loses any sleep over it, but when a top player, a prized recruit, transfers out, the heat gets turned up on the coaching staff, and people start wondering what's going on.  After posting a ten-win season in his debut, Bobby Hussey doesn't need the kind of pressure that Grindstaff's departure is going to bring.

As one person who emailed me said, "The fans and the media are going to have a field day with this."  (what's implied is that if a little-used player like Jesus Rodriguez, Jermaine Kilgore, or David Whaley moves on, it's barely a blip on the radar screen).  Suddenly, Joe Hokie is thinking about all the long faces on the Tech men's basketball team last year, and he's wondering if it was just the losing that made those faces long ... or something else.

For me personally, I'm starting to wonder what Tech recruit Dennis Mims thinks of all this.  In November, he signed with the Hokies, and since then, while his high school team was winning a state championship, he has watched Tech dive bomb to a 10-17 record, including embarrassing losses to VMI at home and a season sweep by LaSalle.

Fans are staying away in droves as playing in the no-name Atlantic 10 continues to choke the life out of attendance at Cassell, and perhaps out of the Tech men's basketball program itself.  The weekday crowds have been whittled down to a hardcore group of about 3800 fans who will go to see Tech play anybody.  God only knows if even a 20-win season will ever fill the place up again.  It didn't the last time, in 1995-1996.

For someone like me, who shows up for every home game, I'll miss Jenis Grindstaff, because I like him, and because he once made me choke on a Coke with one of the most incredible no-look passes I've ever seen (actually, he did that more than once).  A very special player just walked out the door, and it ain't like we've got a bench full of them.  So yeah, I'm bummed.

But I also have a policy in situations like this.  I allow myself to whine publicly only once, and then I get over it.  So good luck, Jenis.  I'm sorry you're leaving, and I wish you well.  And that's the last I'm going to say on the subject.

TSL News and Notes Archives