Had a bunch of leftover material from today’s story about Virginia Tech junior shooting guard Dorenzo Hudson, including some items on Hudson’s basketball IQ.

“He has a very, very high basketball IQ,” said Hokies coach Seth Greenberg two days before last Saturday’s game against Boston College. “He processes sets really, really well. Yesterday we put in a set for the Boston College game, which is actually a set that Miami runs. As soon as I starting putting it in, he said, ‘That’s Miami’s through play, right coach?’ I was two passes into the set and he saw it. He jumped right up. He said, ‘Coach just call it Miami. It’s Miami’s through play. He visually processes basketball really well. He learns by seeing things. He has a great memory for things in terms of sets.”

Greenberg mentioned this was important because the Hokies “change up a lot” from game to game, altering their approach and what sets they use depending on the opponent. 

Hudson said he learns best by doing something on the court, rather than seeing Greenberg draw it up or watching the coach discuss it during a film session.

“I’m more of a hands-on guy, so if I’m actually out there doing it, it comes easier for me, instead of him sitting there writing on the board,” he said. “I have to pay attention a little harder than usual. But if somebody is actually doing it one or two times down the court, I actually get it.”

Hudson wasn’t eligible to play until the second semester of his freshman year, so he had to catch up with his teammates.

“When I came in, everything was just drawn on the board, because everybody else knew the sets,” he said. “That was kind of hard for me. Once I told [Greenberg] that, he kind of brought a couple guys in the back [onto the court] with me when the season started and kind of started doing a little stuff on the court.”

On an semi-related note, Hudson’s mom, Marie Allen, talked quite a bit about her son branching out—when his uncle became his legal guardian, when he traveled the country one summer at his uncle’s urging and when he went away to Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham.

Hudson’s year at Hargrave was “the hardest year for us,” Allen said. She still remembers driving him to meet up with his uncle, Rick Taylor, so Taylor could bring him to Hargrave. Neither mother nor son spoke during the car ride, because Allen knew that if they did start to talk, they’d end up in tears.

“I had to turn my back and let him go,” Allen said. “If I saw him cry, I’d cry and he wouldn’t want to go.”

Allen said Hudson didn’t like being away and not being able to check up on her. “He really wanted to come home,” she said.

Why didn’t she let him?

“And do what?” she said. “His life would have been what? Sitting at home with me. There wasn’t nothing I could do for him at home. I can’t be one to hold him back because I didn’t want to see him go.”

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Virginia Tech’s junior shooting guard has a sharp memory for sets opponents run.