Stopped by Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg’s office today because I was hoping to write a story for tomorrow wrapping up Tech’s trip to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament and previewing the Hokies’ upcoming games: tomorrow evening against Elon and next Monday against Wisconsin (a big one). But some player interviews fell through, so no story for tomorrow’s print edition.

Here is what Greenberg had to say about the Puerto Rico tournament, at which Tech beat Fairfield but lost to Seton Hall and Xavier (on a half-court buzzer beater in overtime).

“I think that we did some good things. We’ve got to improve our shot selection at times. We’ve got to guard the ball a little bit better consistently. I thought we really guarded well in the Xavier game. Didn’t guard as well the last 15 minutes of the Seton Hall game.“

“On offense, I thought we did some good things. We missed free throws. Let’s face it. How many did we miss in a row in the Seton Hall game? I think we missed five or seven. It’s like a turnover.“

Sophomore forward Jeff Allen had 17 points annd 17 rebounds in Sunday’s loss to Seton Hall, but he also shot 5 of 15 on free throws. Was that his best game at Tech? “If he had made his free throws, it would have been. It’s real simple: If he makes free throws, we win that game, we’re 2-1 and we feel great about ourselves.“

Sorry for the brevity of these quotes, but Greenberg seemed quite busy today. The table in his office was covered in all manner of papers, and he was flipping through some of them as we talked. He also had a projection screen pulled down, as he was in the middle of watching some game footage. It was typical multi-tasking Greenberg. I imagine this sort of stuff must stress him out (at least more than sitting on my couch and typing mindlessly stresses me out). But I get the feeling that part of him enjoys the hectic pace of the season, and he’d have it no other way.

OK, gang, I’m about to head out the door and drive to Raleigh. Catching a flight out of there tomorrow morning to head back home to Upstate New York for Thanksgiving. Hoping we get some snow while I’m up there. Will be back Friday night to motor on back up to Blacksburg in time to catch a decent night’s sleep before Saturday’s big game.

In the meantime, I’ll have a story in Thursday’s rag on North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson, a Collegiate School graduate who is having a tremendous redshirt freshman season despite dealing with the stresses brought on by the fact that his father had a stroke, caused by complications from diabetes, in early August. Wilson’s dad is doing much better now and got to see him play Nov. 15 against Wake Forest.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Posted by Darryl Slater in • College Sports • Virginia Tech
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