I love Greenberg and what he does for the VT bball program, but I felt that he did not have his best game last night. In the first
half, the offense was in complete disarray, often times after timeouts; and many times I noticed multiple players glancing over to the sideline asking for direction. Secondly, as stated in an earlier post, I did not see an emphasis on going to Allen down low (i’m sure this will change as the season progresses). Lastly, I don’t remember exactly when it happend, but i believe it was after tech got the ball with about 26 seconds left to play and down by 3, but I thought that Greenberg should have called a timeout to sort things out. Delaney had a decent look, but i’m not so certain it was the best shot to take at that time.

Please keep in mind that i have never coached bball in my life, so i’m probably completely wrong.

I think Tech will be good, but poor defensive play and lack of quaility point guard play (I do think Thorns will be good…eventually) will be tough to overcome this season. I was optimistic for an NIT berth before the season began…it turns out that I may be a year early in my prediction.

First of all, I am pretty excited about the season. I think watching Deron, Allen, Thorns, and Delaney will provide ample excitement to get us through some beatings and close losses. We definitely have a dangerous and athletic team that is capable of beating an upper level ACC team when we get hot.

As for last night…I was shocked at how active and succesful we were on the offensive boards. In the beginning of the game we were getting second chances nearly every trip down the court. I have never seen that out of our team. I think we were tired, and it showed in all phases. It can’t be easy to come back from 3 games in Alaska over the weekend. I think this showed in some careless passes and lazy defense.

Which brings me to defense…wow that was bad. The three’s don’t bother me as much as all of the easy lay ups and dunks we gave up. If we are small and quick, we should atleast be able to stick with some guys. Maybe this was partly due to fatigue? Either way, this is a huge drop-off from last year.

I am not really that dissapointed about the loss. We could have easily won that game….it was just a case of Penn State being hot from outside, and us stinking. Basketball is a fickle, fickle game. Neither Vassalo nor Delany hit any of their 3′s, and they had some good looks. So I am not too concerned. When teams are this evenly matched, it usually comes down to who is hotter. That being said, if we ever played PSU again, and we retained our rebounding edge, I would really like our chances.

Now on to my biggest concern: The offensive system. I like Greenberg as a promoter of our program, a motivator, and as a recruiter. Where is the offensive system? Every time we get in a half court set…its ugly. Last year, the excuse was we had Zabe and Deron, who can drive and score or dump off. This year, we don’t have them. We need to run some plays. I even noticed after time outs, we really had no play set up. It was just, get the ball to A.D., and lets face it, he needs help to get open.

Should be a fun season though.