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! Click
here for tee times.
Seth Greenberg
- Greenberg was pleased with the effort on Monday night. The thing he liked
most was 25 assists on 34 field goals. ACC play is coming up, and that’s why
these players chose Virginia Tech. - 9-6 could easily be 12-3 if a few things had happened. There were a few
nights where the shots weren’t falling, and a few others where they didn’t
take care of the ball. They have defended fairly consistently. That’s a
positive. - Tech has played a competitive schedule. They’ve only had six home games.
Everybody else has played the majority of their games at home. - Tech has a long list of things to improve on, but there have also been
many positives. Once again, for such a young team, they defend well. - Tech hasn’t lost a game that was considered a guaranteed win. Many other
teams are losing games like that. - A.D. Vassallo has made progress. Seth would like to his 2-pt. field goal
percentage to go up a bit. Sometimes his shot selection isn’t as good as it
needs to be. Greenberg stressed that it wasn’t selfishness. Tech has trouble
scoring, and he needs to score. He has freedom. You can’t put reigns on him,
but he does need a little more discipline. - Deron Washington needs to be a lock down defender. He needs to run the
court and slash, and not settle. That’s something they are working on. - Cheick Diakite had a great game on Monday. He played well offensively and
defensively. He played great last season against Maryland, so that bodes
well for this Saturday’s game. - Vassallo has a good and consistent release point on his shot. However,
he’s not getting low enough and stepping into his shot. He’s doing a better
job of that in transition. They have to clean that up with him. - Malcolm Delaney isn’t shooting the ball nearly as well as he’s capable of.
He was a big time shooter in high school. He’s developing into a great free
throw shooter. - Maryland is playing great defense right now. They are long and athletic. You are
going to get different pressures when you play Maryland. They are a better
defensive team this year than last year, even without D.J. Strawberry. - Hank Thorns has made a huge commitment to working hard. He has great
energy and leadership skills. As he gets a better feel and more experience,
he’ll get better and better. - Greenberg has changed practice styles recently. The practices are two
hours, 15 minutes, which is a little shorter than before. They are working
on transitioning into offense and defense. It helps them to think on the run
and to be spontaneous. 
Seth would like to start scoring earlier in possessions. The further that
shot clock winds down, the more your inexperience is exposed.- Greenberg likes to watch college basketball just to see what other people
are doing. There are a lot of things that you can pick up. It’s also a way
to keep yourself in tune. - Tech is running a lot more sets this year than last year. Last year they
let Zabian and Jamon freelance much more than these freshmen. They are
running a lot more sets to try to get the ball to the inside. - Gene
Swindle is a late bloomer that reminds the staff of Aaron Gray. He has
good feet, good hands, and he can run the court. He has a big, physical
body. He has a chance to develop into a very good player in time. - Next year, Tech will host Richmond. They play Charleston Southern in
Charleston as part of a double header. They’ll play in another major
television event. They are trying to find out if it’s going to be the Wooden
Classic, St. John’s in Madison Square Garden, Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, or
George Mason or someone like that in the BB&T Classic. - If it turns out to be Oklahoma, Tech would get a return game from the
Sooners in Richmond, the Hampton Roads Area, or maybe even Roanoke. Tech
will also play in Puerto Rico next year, and they will have more home games. - In recruiting, Tech was being impacted by negative recruiting. People said
Tech couldn’t win, fans didn’t care, and there is no commitment. However,
they’ve proven all three of those wrong. That’s obviously helped out with
recruiting. - Tech hasn’t won many 50-50 games. Only St. John’s. They’ve been very close
to beating teams like Butler and Wake Forest, but they haven’t quite gotten
it done. - It’s been very positive that Tech’s young team has responded every time
they’ve faced adversity, with the exception of the Gonzaga game. They fell
behind ODU by a big margin, but came back. They trailed Wake by 9 at halftime,
but came back. That’s very encouraging. - Greenberg gives his players the first seven seconds of the shot clock to
attack and be aggressive. After that, they need to run their base offense.
Tech needs to play in the low 70s to be successful.
Monday was Day 1,137 of Virginia Tech’s continuous possession of the
Commonwealth Cup.
Tech Sideline is Presented By: