Will Wisconsin and Xavier finish the season in the top 50 of the Ratings Pecentage Index? Maybe.

Will Virginia Tech look back on losses to those teams as missed opportunities? Maybe.

But as Tech coach Seth Greenberg pointed out after the loss to Wisconsin on Monday, the Hokies will have plenty of chances to get top-50 wins. Consider last season, when the Hokies finished 52nd in the RPI and missed the tournament. These were their top-50 games ...

Nov. 23 – No. 17 Butler, L 84-78 OT
Nov. 24 – No. 30 Gonzaga, L 82-64
Jan. 24 – No. 7 Duke, L 81-64
Feb. 9 – No. 34 Miami, L 74-71
Feb. 16 – No. 2 North Carolina, L 92-53
March 9 – No. 19 Clemson, L 70-69
March 14 – No. 34 Miami, W 63-49
March 15 – No. 2 North Carolina, L 68-66

So if you break it down, Tech lost four top-50 games by a total of 12 points. And if Xavier and Wisconsin finish in the top 50, the Hokies will have two top-50 losses—by one point (Xavier at the buzzer in overtime) and two points (Wisconsin with 0.9 seconds left in regulation). But the Hokies play in the ACC, so opportunities remain. They just have to take advantage of them this time around.

Here now some postgame thoughts from Greenberg ...

“I thought we got a lot better today. In the last three days, we’ve really improved. We’ve got to guard the ball better, though. And that’s the biggest thing I’m concerned about right now. It really comes down to we didn’t do a very good job of guarding the basketball.“

“I thought Victor again was very good. You can see that he’s going to be a very good offense player. He’s got to rebound the ball and be a little bit tougher on the defensive end.“

“Like I told our guys, we’re a good team. We’re not a great team yet. Hopefully, we can develop into a great team. If we continue to work the way we’re working right now, I think we have a chance to be really good.“

Is it too early to think about March yet?

“You guys are certifiably nuts. It’s December first. Everyone’s gonna lose games. No one’s going undefeated. Maybe one team. No one gets eliminated December first and no one makes the tournament December first. Like I told someone today, we’re gonna play probably 14 games against top-50 teams in our league. We’re gonna have plenty of chances to get top-50 wins. We’ve lost two games on the last play of the game. Does that mean we’re a bad team? I don’t think so. I think we’re a good team that lost two games on the last play of the game. We’re not a great team yet. If we we were a great team, we would have come up with those stops.“

“The Big East talks about 10 teams [getting 10 in the tournament]. We play in a league where we could get 10 teams. Go through our league. Who’s bad? Tell me who’s bad. No one expected Florida State to be good except me. I said at media day. I told you, Berm [Roanoke Times beat man Mark Berman], right? Not that you ever listen to me. But we’re gonna have chances for good wins. And we’re a good team. We’re not a great team yet. We have a chance to be a great team. We get J.T. back and Victor continues to develop and we guard the ball a little bit better.“

Do you feel the team is capable of beating a quality team?

“Well, Mark, let me ask you this. I probably don’t write as well as you do. But I probably coach a little bit better. If they don’t bank one in, is Xavier a quality team? So with point-whatever seconds left, they bank it in. So we lose that game. Does that create a scenario where we’re not capable of beating a good team? If we a get stop on that last possession [against Wisconsin], it goes to overtime. Say we win the game in overtime. We’re fairly close. So I think we have a chance. I wouldn’t say that we’re sitting there getting blown out.“

Does he remind his team that there is a lot of season left?

“I talk to our team about: At the end of the season we’ll find out if we’re good or how good of a season we’ve had. If you get ahead of yourself in this confernece, you have no chance. It’s not one game. It’s the cumulative effect of playing in this league that kind of wears you out.“

“I know it’s easy. I get all the e-mails and all that stuff. It’s December first. You know what I mean? We lost two games on the last play of the game. Does that mean we’re a bad team? No. Does it mean we’re a great team? No. Does it mean we have a chance to win both? Yes. I’ve been doing this a long time. If we won Xavier by one, that didn’t mean we were doing a great job. I knew we needed to get better. We got better this week. And you know what, we played five sophomores, one freshman, and we had another sophomore sitting out, and basically one and a half seniors and a junior. We’re still a young team. We have a lot of growth to go. But I see a lot of growth in our team, and I think we’re gonna continue to get better. We’ll get better at guarding the ball.“

What do you get e-mails about?

“No different than everyone else that wants to coach. You guys don’t get e-mails because no one critiques your guys’ writing. They’re just helping us coach. Coach Beamer, he gets a lot of e-mails, too.“

He doesn’t have a computer on his desk.

“I knew that guy was smart.“

Posted by Darryl Slater in • College Sports • Virginia Tech
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