Ten Greatest VMI Basketball Players: Number 2

Well after today, it should be quite clear, if you're anything more than a casual VMI basketball fan, who the number one player on this list is. But of course I won't give it away, and in the meantime, here's #2 on the list.

Hometown: Charleston, WV
High School: South Charleston HS
Years at VMI: 1983–87
Position: Small forward
-1986 & 1987 SoCon Player of the Year
-1985 SoCon Tournament MVP
-2nd all-time VMI point scoring leader

For nearly 21 years, VMI forward Gay Elmore was at the top of basketball's most important statistic: scoring. Elmore mastered the art of shooting the basketball in his four years as a Keydet, and until as recent as six years ago found himself found himself as the leader of virtually every point-scoring related category.

A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Elmore played high school ball at South Charleston HS, just west of the city in the Spring Hill neighborhood. As a Rat at VMI, Elmore averaged 18.3 points per game, easily leading the team, as well as 5.7 rebounds.

In his sophomore season, Elmore led VMI on a surprising run to the Southern Conference championship game, with narrow upsets of Western Carolina (65–63) and powerhouse Chattanooga (71–69), who had gone 14–2 and 24–7 to that point in the regular season. Both games went into overtime. The Keydets failed to overcome Marshall, however, and lost by a close 65–70 margin, despite Elmore's 17 points. The tournament performance earned him SoCon Tournament MVP honors, incredibly rare for a losing player to accomplish. VMI that year had its first winning season since 1978 and the days of Ron Carter, not two seasons removed from a disastrous two-year stretch in which the team won three out of fifty games.

Elmore averaged an even 20 PPG that year, and continued to improve. By his senior year he was scoring over 25 per game, at which point he earned his second SoCon Player of the Year Award, becoming just the tenth player in league history to earn the award multiple times at that point. The team, however, struggled in his final two seasons, and never made it beyond the tournament quarterfinals.

Elmore ended his career as the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,422 points, an achievement surpassed 21 years later by you-know-who. He is currently second all-time in most field goals made and second in career 30+ point games with 15. Elmore was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 6th round of the 1987 draft, and currently owns a law firm (Elmore & Elmore) in his hometown of Charleston.

He now has two sons, Jon and Ot, currently on the VMI basketball team, and if those two are anything like their father, it should be quite a sight to see.