DURHAM, N.C. -- There's a silver lining in everything, even Virginia Tech's 25-point loss at Duke on Sunday evening.
It's this simple: The 69-44 defeat at the hands of the Blue Devils will be as bad as it will get for Seth Greenberg's team this season.
In fact, in three of Tech's previous four seasons as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, its worst loss (point-wise) of the season has come on the road in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill).
The 2005-06 season was the exception, when the Hokies' worst loss was by 13 points on two occasions, at Ohio State and in a home tilt versus Duke.
That same year marked the only campaign in which Tech failed to make the postseason as an ACC member. That said, there's really no reason for the Hokie faithful to get too down in the dumps after this Duke disappointment.
Furthermore, '05-06 aside, the Hokies have rebounded from all of their losses in the Triangle, all of which were by more than 20 points, with a victory in their next outing.
While previous trends are of little comfort to a coach after such a defeat, Seth Greenberg isn't one to make games out to be more than they substantively are.
Greenberg likes to look at a season as multiple vignettes and not put too much stock into any one win or loss.
"It's one league game," Greenberg said. "If you overreact to one game on the road in this league, you're a village idiot."
Well said.
And who better to show the Hokies aren't the village idiots, and continue their rebounding trend, against than in-state rival Virginia this Saturday in Blacksburg.
The Cavaliers are also coming off a tough loss themselves, at home 84-70 to Xavier. While the Muskateers were able to cruise to a victory on the road in Charlottesville, they needed a miracle shot from behind half-court to beat the Hokies on a neutral court.
Bottom line: Tech has a good opportunity to right the ship Saturday and follow it up with another win soon thereafter against the Richmond Spiders.
If you're still hating on the Hokies despite what looms on the immediate horizon, Tech has something else going its way: It has to play no road games against the ACC's two toughest teams, North Carolina and Duke, down the stretch.
The Hokies beat UNC on its previous trip to Cassell and took care of Duke the last time it was soundly beaten at Cameron.
Though the composition of the teams is different this time around, one key underlying factor remains the same--Greenberg's club will rebound.
The Hokies, along with most every other team in college basketball, suffer disappoint defeats in the course of a season. The difference between the 20-win teams and the 10-win teams is how they react to them.
Tech, only 1-4 in ACC openers, is more often than not well prepared down the stretch and comes to play, once it's in the thick of league play.
This season looks to be no different.