2007-08 Hokie Hotline Notes for 12/3/07

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.

Where: 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 see the show in person at Awful Arthur’s in Blacksburg, and you can also watch the archive on hokietv.com.

Hokie Hotline Notes, sponsored by Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech

Pete
Dye River Course of Virginia Tech has expanded non-resident areas that
qualify for a lower membership rate. For more information, visit RiverCourseGolf.com,
or call 540-633-6732 or 1-888-PeteDye. Play the course this weekend! Click
here for tee times.

• Weaver is proud of how the team finished the season. They beat a lot of good
  teams down the stretch.
• Virginia Tech owes $200,000 because fans didn’t buy all the ACC
  Championship Game tickets from VT. They got them cheaper through others, so the
  Hokies didn’t sell their allotment.
• Tampa and Charlotte are the other cities up the for the ACC Championship
  Game. There will be a couple of conference calls this week that will help
  resolve the situation.
• Weaver thinks the game should be in Charlotte. They have to build the
  tradition of this game. It’s not going to happen overnight. We should know
  before Christmas where the game will be next year.
• Weaver doesn’t think Tech should have gotten jumped in the polls. He thinks
  Tech should be playing Ohio State for the National Championship. The LSU loss
  hurt VT in the two polls.
• A playoff isn’t feasible to Weaver. Fans wouldn’t be able to make all the
  games, and school presidents are somewhat concerned about missed class time.
• The men’s soccer team beat ODU on Sunday, and they’ll play at UConn in
  the Elite Eight of the NCAA Soccer Championships.
• They are still working on the 12th game for football next year. They
  might have to move the date of an early game. Weaver didn’t name names, but he
  said don’t book your trip to a certain early season road trip quite yet. “Hold
  the phone if you’ve bought airline tickets. Let’s leave it at that,”
  Weaver said.

• Seth is really pleased with the players. They have played a very difficult
  schedule. Gonzaga and Butler are ranked in the Top 15. They should have beaten
  Butler. They were one free throw away.
• They had great play from the freshmen in Alaska. They wanted to give them a
  tough schedule to make them realize what it takes to be successful.
• The staff is going to simplify some things. They are thinking too much at
  times. They have to be more aggressive. Greenberg is going to let them play
  through their mistakes.
• It’s tough to develop a team identity when you are playing these smaller
  teams that use a lot of screens and cutting. You have to go small sometimes in
  order to guard them.
• Kyle Hines is a terrific player for UNC-Greensboro. They have already won at
  Georgia Tech. They play some matchup zone, which is difficult to react to.
• The other team’s best defenders are getting A.D. Vassallo and Deron
  Washington. Jeff Allen has a chance to be special. He has a chance to be one of
  the best 15-foot and in scorers that Greenberg has ever been around.
• Tech is going to get back to more of a box set on offense. They want to
  develop more mismatches, like Jeff Allen in the low block.
• There is a chance the time might be changed for the Richmond game on January 3.
  It starts at 7, and the Orange Bowl starts at 8. However, the game is nationally
  televised, so it’s difficult.
• Tech should have played one more game before they went to Alaska.
• Virginia Tech will not be scheduling Radford, where Brad Greenberg now
  coaches. Seth wants his mother to be able to reach the age of 81.
• Hank Thorns is a great kid with a great personality. He has great confidence.
  He is at his best when the game is moving up and down the court quickly.
• This freshman class is just fun to be around. They are a good group. They
  have great trust in each other.
• 2008 recruits: Victor Davila is 6-9, about 245 or 250. He is very physical and has great
  hands. He’s a very good rebounded. Gene Swindle is 6-11, 260. He was 320 at
  one point. He was also a swimmer, if you can imagine that. He reminds Greenberg
  of Aaron Gray of Pitt. Kendall Durant is a 6-2 guard originally out of Maryland. He is a big,
  physical guard who can really guard the ball.
• George Washington, Tech’s opponent this Sunday, has some good players. They
  have Wynton Witherspoon, a transfer from Virginia Tech. Cheyenne Moore is a
  transfer from Clemson.
• Kyle Hines of UNC-Greensboro (tonight’s opponent) would start for almost any ACC team.

• Tech seemed like they came out a little flat about BC, for whatever reason.
  The guys really got excited after Brandon Flowers returned the blocked extra
  point for two points.
• Brown originally chose Tech because he wanted to put his stamp on a school.
  He was certainly able to do that in Blacksburg.
• Brown says he isn’t a factor in recruiting. He’ll talk to prospects on
  their visits to Tech, but he doesn’t actively recruit prospects. He sits back
  and learns how to recruit from the coaching staff.
• Chris Ellis is a senior who has been through a lot. He’s stepped up this
  year. The light has come on. That happens to some people in their last year.
• These players don’t know how to lose. They have built a tradition of winning in Blacksburg. They expect to win every week. That’s why Tech is so
  good at bouncing back from adversity.
• For the players, the best thing about the bowl is all the free stuff you get.
  Plus, you get to go play football in a different place against a different team.
• Kansas likes to throw the ball a lot. They’ve got a good offense. They are
  a good team. They are a very young team.
• The team will be playing together for the last time in the Orange Bowl. You
  know they’ll give a great effort.
• They have a nice group of young players up front. Nekos Brown, Jason Worilds,
  John Graves, Kwamaine Battle and Justin Young are some young players who will be
  major contributors up front next season.

• Cornell Brown has some people interested in him. He’s a great coach, but
  hopefully they can find a way to keep him in Blacksburg. He is great with the
  players.
• Tech wasn’t very good when the season began, but they hung in there and
  got better every week.
• Hite is very happy for Sean Glennon. He came back after a tough setback and
  had a great season. He was the MVP of the ACC Championship Game. He’s a great
  competitor.
• Branden Ore played great in November, but he didn’t play particularly well
  against BC on Saturday. He has already told Hite he is coming back next season.
  They had a discussion with his mother, and he’s going to stay in Blacksburg
  all summer this time around.
• “He’s coming back. There’s no ands, ifs or buts about it,” Hite said.
• Not staying last summer hurt Ore. He didn’t do the things he needed to do
  to get himself ready for the season.
• Hite said there are rumors that Brandon Flowers is coming back. At one time
  he thought Macho Harris was coming out, but he believes he’s coming back now.
  Both of those players need another year of college football, in Hite’s
  opinion.
• Hite thinks the officiating in the ACC this year was outstanding. He sees how
  hard these guys work. They do the best job they possibly can. It’s a lot
  easier when people have instant replay in their living room for every play.
• Danny Coale is going to be a good receiver for the Hokies. Patrick Terry has
  a lot of speed. The staff is excited about working with the young receivers this
  spring.
• Sometimes it seems like Sean Glennon and Tyrod Taylor audible into a running
  play quite a bit. Actually, Tech will call two plays in the huddle. When they
  get to the line of scrimmage, the defensive alignment will dictate which play is
  called.
• Virginia Tech and USC are the only teams in the nation to win 10+ games in
  four straight years. That says a lot about this senior class.
• They will be in the recruiting Dead Period when the Hokies are in Miami. Tech isn’t
  spending much time recruiting Florida anymore anyway. They recruit Virginia, the
  Carolinas, Georgia, Maryland, and the traditional ACC region.
• Wide receivers coach Kevin Sherman is having his gall bladder removed on Tuesday. He’ll be up
  and at it again by the end of the week.
• Tech has some coaches out on the road recruiting right now. Bud Foster will
  go out on Wednesday. Tech has about nine recruits coming in this weekend. They
  will have two recruiting weekends in January.

Monday was Day 1,101 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the Commonwealth Cup.