Erick Green should have played more
Darryl Slater
Nov 15, 2009
Virginia Tech debuted two of its three freshmen in today’s season-opening 69-55 win over Brown. Guard Ben Boggs played 10 minutes, seven in the first half. Point guard Erick Green played three, all in the first half. Boggs shot 1 of 2 and scored two points. Green hit his only shot, a 3-pointer, for his only points. Manny Atkins, a 6-7 wing, did not play.
Boggs, a graduate of Hidden Valley High in Roanoke, missed most of his senior season after breaking his leg last December. Green attended his first three years of high school in Winchester before playing his senior season against better competition at Paul VI High in Fairfax. Hokies coach Seth Greenberg plans to use Green to spell junior point guard Malcolm Delaney this season.
“Erick Green is gonna be a good player, and I wanted to get him more minutes,” Greenberg said. “I just never felt comfortable enough. I just needed to make myself play him because he would have been just fine.”
Delaney singled out one part of Green’s game that he needs to work on. “He’s got to be more vocal,” Delaney said. “He’s not used to running the team. He doesn’t think people are gonna respect his word because he’s a freshman. But I tell him, ‘You’re the point guard. They’ve got to listen to what you do, because you’ve got the ball.’ I think he’s starting to work on that and he’s getting a lot better.”
Delaney said he didn’t have these problems when he started at point guard as a freshman two years ago. “My personality is different,” he said. “I’m quiet off the court, but on the court, I’m gonna say whatever I want. He’s kind of quiet. The main thing he gets fussed out about in practice is talking.”
He means not talking enough, of course. Greenberg’s take on that point: “I’d like to see him a little more arrogant, quite honestly. I’d like to see him take charge of the team more, not look so in awe of the situation. Erick can play. He can really shoot. He can get in the lane and, like I said, he’ll be good. We’ll get him more minutes. I should have gotten him more minutes in the first half.”
As for Boggs and his leg, Greenberg said, “I think he’s moving all right. The guy has practiced really, really well. He’s not gonna wow you right now running and jumping. What he does is he’s strong, he makes shots and he can feed the post.”
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The Hokies worked on motion offense during their preseason practices, but they didn’t use it much today, because they had a mismatch in the post that they thought Victor Davila could exploit. He shot 3 of 6 and scored eight points.
“We figured Vic could score whenever he wanted,” Delaney said.
Said Greenberg: “We could just throw the ball into the post. It wasn’t like we had to move them around a whole lot.”
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Some other items from today’s game …
* How bad was Brown last season? The Bears ranked 307th of 343 teams in the final Ratings Percentage Index.
* Though the Hokies won by 14, they didn’t really blow away their opening-game opponent for the third consecutive season. Last year, they beat Gardner-Webb 65-62. Two years ago, they edged Elon 69-64. “We just had to get that first game out of the way,” Delaney said. “I think we’ll be good next game.” Said Greenberg: “It’s a starting point.”
* Junior forward J.T. Thompson, a guy who the Hokies will need as complementary scorer, shot 1 of 7 and scored two points in 18 minutes. He missed two and a half weeks of preseason practices because of a high left ankle sprain. “J.T. surely wasn’t himself, although he’s feeling a lot better,” Greenberg said.
* In other injury news, the Hokies learned last week that junior forward Jeff Allen’s right wrist injury is just a bone-on-bone bruise. “We thought it was worse,” Greenberg said. “It really, really hurts when he shoots. It didn’t stop him from shooting that 3, though. I didn’t think Jeff was active enough rebounding the ball.” Allen shot 1 of 4 on 3s and had six rebounds, two offensive.
Allen fully participated in Saturday’s practice – the first time he did that all week. “The whole week, we just shut him down,” Greenberg said. “And we have to shut him down. It’s just the way it is.” Allen also missed a week in the preseason with a sprained right knee.
The Hokies must have a healthy Allen for reasons he demonstrated today by scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds. “Jeff never exceeds my expectations,” Greenberg said. “I think the guy can be magnificent. It’s our job to get him there.”
* Pretty solid game for junior forward Terrell Bell, a new starter who the Hokies need to play well. He shot 3 of 7 and had eight points and seven rebounds. But he started slow, shooting 1 of 1 in the first half for two points. He had two rebounds in the first half. “I feel like I can do better,” Bell said. “The first half was kind of slow for me. I kind of picked it up in the second half. I feel like I’m only gonna get better as the year goes on.”
* Junior guard Dorenzo Hudson also played well: 3-of-7 shooting, eight points, six rebounds. “I was really happy with Dorenzo,” Greenberg said. “I thought Dorenzo played really well. Made great decisions in transition, passing the ball.”
* Something else Greenberg liked about the game: “I was happy with our zone offense. Thought we were pretty good in transition. There are some positives for sure.”
* Several Hokies had mohawk haircuts, special for the first game. “I have a reverse mohawk,” said Greenberg, bald but for a swath of gray hair around the back of his head and above his ears.
* Next up for the Hokies: North-Carolina Greensboro on Tuesday. “If we don’t play any better and with greater purpose on Tuesday, we’ll lose,” Greenberg said. “Plain and simple.”
* Finally, defensive shortcomings, especially in the post, were a big topic in postgame interviews. “I think we have should have took a couple more charges and dove on a couple more loose balls,” Delaney said.
Among Greenberg’s comments about these issues …
“We didn’t have a zip defensively that I would have liked.”
“We didn’t defend the post the way we’re capable of.”
“Obviously, our post defense has got to improve.”
“Our post defense was not exactly what I would have expected.”
“[Davila’s] got to get some rebounds and he’s got to be a little bit tougher in the block.” Davila had three rebounds, two offensive.
“I think we did miss a guy like Raines, a big body in there today.” He was talking about freshman forward Cadarian Raines, a 6-9, 238-pound graduate of Petersburg High who is out, likely until the first week of December, with a broken left foot.
So said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg after today’s win over Brown. That, and more from the season opener.
