We’re getting ramped up for football season around these parts, but the other major sport at Virginia Tech — men’s basketball — will start their preseason in October.  That’s not far away at all.  Naturally, before the preseason even had a chance to get started, the Hokies suffered their first major injury.

Rising redshirt-senior Ty Outlaw tore his ACL a couple of weeks back, and his senior season is in jeopardy.  Though Outlaw would be eligible for a sixth year, let’s take a moment and see how his loss potentially impacts the Hokies in 2017-18.

First, I hate it for Outlaw.  He sat out the 2015-16 season with a heart condition, and there was a legitimate chance that he might never be able to play basketball again.  He was cleared for the 2016-17 season, spent most of the year as a backup, and then caught fire late after Chris Clarke went down with his own ACL injury.  It’s a shame that something like this had to happen to Outlaw, who worked very hard to make it all the way back.

Outlaw has his faults as a player.  He’s mostly one-dimensional offensively, and he struggles on the defensive end.  But man, he can really shoot it, and he’s a pretty solid rebounder as well.  He was going to help the Hokies again in 2017-18, though likely not in as big a role as he played in the latter stages of this past season.

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