The Hokie Hotline (football and basketball season)
When: every Monday from 7:00-9:00 during football season, 7:00-8:00 during basketball season.
Click here for a list of radio stations, and to find the link for listening to the show on the Internet (look to the right on the hokiesports.com page that loads when you click the link). You can also watch the archive on hokietv.com.
Seth Greenberg
Seth Greenberg began the show by saying the team was disappointed with the loss to
UVA. They played extremely hard, but not always well. They defended well most of
the time. They played with a pretty good purpose and they took care of the
basketball. Shooting 12% from three-point range and 60% from the free throw line
is going to put you in a pretty big hole.
Greenberg mentioned that the team and coaches went over the game tape Monday,
and they got a lot of good shots during the game. The team missed a lot of easy
shots, and they also made a couple of defensive mistakes towards the end of the
game. The players will be fine. They took Monday off and school starts on
Tuesday. They will then have four days to get ready for the Maryland Terrapins.
Roth brought up Coleman Collins’ missed dunk that went down to the bottom
of the net, but then bounced back out. Greenberg said he didn’t need to look
at the play, he knew the shot shouldn’t have counted. He was complaining
during the game that Collins got fouled, and that’s why he (Greenberg) got a
technical foul. The net was very tight, and the ball just bounced back out. Roth
pointed out that the nets in Cassell Coliseum have now been replaced.
Greenberg said the team was disappointed, but they are not discouraged. They
are not going to get beaten down by the fact that things just haven’t gone
their way. There are too many games remaining, and Greenberg likes his team. In
Tuesday’s practice you will see a very energetic, positive Seth Greenberg.
There are things that need to be corrected, and that will happen.
Roth asked Greenberg about the new shoes the Hokies have been wearing.
Greenberg said they are from Adidas, who gives everything to Tech for free. They
have given the Hokies well over $100,000 of equipment. The news shoes are called
the T-Mac. Other schools such as Tennessee, NC State and Louisville are wearing
them as well. Greenberg said he talked to NC State head coach Herb Sendek about
the shoe, and Sendek said his players love them. Greenberg recommended to him
that they not wear the shoe when they play at Florida State, because the Hokies
certainly had trouble with slipping on that court.
Greenberg mentioned that they received a new all-black shoe from Adidas on
Monday. They will probably wear those shoes on the road. Adidas is certainly
concerned with the problems the Hokies have been having with slipping. Florida
State scored 14 points off of turnovers caused by Tech players slipping, and
that’s unfortunate.
A caller asked Greenberg what coaches stood out and helped him as he advanced
through the coaching ranks. Greenberg said his coaching career was really
affected by the Five Star Camp. He grew up watching coaching legends like Bob
Knight, and that is what made the light bulb go off in his head. You steal a lot
of things from a lot of people when you are a coach, but in the end you have to
be comfortable with who you are.
A caller asked about recruiting international players, and also asked when
Greenberg would be on the Jim Rome show again. Greenberg joked that he probably
needed a bit of karma right now, so maybe he should call Rome. He said there are
international scouting services that the coaching staff subscribes to, and they
follow up on those reports. The coaching staff also has contacts overseas. Brad
Greenberg was one of the first people to go to Europe to scout for the NBA.
Greenberg was asked about the final minutes of the UVA. He said he would have
liked to see the Hokies defend better, but at the same time you have to give
UVA’s Sean Singletary credit. He is a very good player. UVA didn’t do anything
during the game that wasn’t expected. When Adrian Joseph hit a three-pointer
near the end of the game to give UVA the lead, the Tech coaches warned the
players about that specific play during the timeout.
Roth brought up the lack of point production from Tech’s bench. Greenberg
said they have to get A.D. Vassallo going. He had a tough week last week when
one of his host parents succumbed to cancer. He missed a couple of days of
practice, and has just been out of rhythm since. He had a couple of good looks
on Sunday, but he just missed the shots. Coleman Collins (whose father is very
sick with cancer) is seeing what Vassallo is going through off the court, and
that isn’t helping Collins either.
Bill Roth said in baseball, it is easy to hide a weak hitter in the lineup at
catcher or shortstop, but not a third base. In basketball, you can get by at
center and point guard without scoring if you do other things well, such as
rebound and share the ball. At small forward, you have to be productive, and the
Hokies have inconsistencies at that position. Greenberg said small forward is
the glamour position in basketball. Wynton Witherspoon is going to be very good,
but he is playing hurt and inconsistent right now. Markus Sailes is just not a
scorer, he’s a play starter. That’s just what he does well.
Roth pointed out that the Hokies have been very close to having a great ACC
record. Greenberg said they are close to being 4-0. There are some things you
can control and some things you can’t control, and Tech needs to do a better
job with the things they can control. Things aren’t getting any easier with
teams like Maryland, Duke, Boston College and Wake Forest coming up on the
schedule.
Wake Forest is a perfect example of how the ACC is. Wake has a lot of
talented players, but they have started 0-3 in the league. Greenberg said he had
a long conversation with Skip Prosser about the situation on Monday.
Maryland is the same team that you see every year. They are going to pound
the offensive glass and beat you to death. D.J. Strawberry is a hit or miss
player, but he always plays hard and aggressively. He is very good on the ball
defensively. The Terrapins pose some tough matchups for the Hokies. They can go
with a bigger lineup at times. They have a number of good inside players.
Since the North Carolina game, each player has been required to hit 200 free
throws each day, and as a team they have shot just under 80%. Unfortunately that
isn’t carrying over into games. When the lights go on, things can change.
A caller asked about scheduling, and if the Hokies would continue to play
teams like ODU. Greenberg said no. Tech’s scheduling philosophy is to play a
lot of games at home, very few on the road, and to play neutral court games on
national television with big name teams, such as the victory over Stanford in
Las Vegas this year. It looks like the Hokies are going to play Florida in the
Orange Bowl next year, which would be great. The Hokies need games like this to
build the program. Everyone schedules in the best interest of their university.
Greenberg said the Hokies will work on a few things this week. Maryland will
extend the Tech defense, so that will be a point of emphasis. They will also
work on getting the backside of their offense in motion and bringing Deron away
from the basket to isolate Collins inside. They need to figure out a way to
spread the floor and give Collins some room to carve out some space.
The Hokies will also work on their transition game this week. They need to
score out of the break to make up for a lack of production in offensive sets.
Tech will try to force the break during practice this week, and try to play
faster in transition. They will also tinker with a 1-3-1 defense to help keep
people out of foul trouble.
- Monday was day 416 Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup and day 472 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Black Diamond Trophy.
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