Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg confers with his staff.
What will the 2011-12 men’s basketball team be remembered for in 10 years?
Will it be the three straight losses to begin conference play, a streak the Hokies could not come back from?
Will it be the non-conference losses to Syracuse, Minnesota and Kansas State, games the Hokies dropped by less than 10 points?
Will it be remembered as a transition year, one in which the reins were handed from Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen to Erick Green and Dorian Finney-Smith?
Will the Hokies rebound from the three straight losses to begin 2012 and finish off the season strong? Certainly there are some upsets to be pulled, some revenge to be had and no shortage of motivation for the Hokies who have stumbled out of the gates in ACC play.
“We’re a good team, and eight or 10 days ago, we thought we were a really good team,” said head coach Seth Greenberg. “The reality is we’ve got to continue to get better, that’s really what it is.”
While no one can debate the Hokies’ youth (eight players are sophomores or younger), the Hokies have let winnable games slip through their hands, which may cause problems late in the season.
Losses at unranked Boston College and Wake Forest spell trouble for a Hokies team that still plays North Carolina, Duke (twice), Virginia (twice) and Florida State.
“We’re a young basketball team, and our mindset is to get better today,” Greenberg said. “If we can get better today, then we’ll have a better chance tomorrow.”
Leading scorer Erick Green has missed two games with injury, most recently against Boston College. A sprained knee kept him from playing in a game where the Hokies shot just 36 percent from the field.
Without Green on the floor, the Hokies not only lost a scorer, but also a veteran leader. Greenberg won’t risk further injury, however, for one game.
“I’m not going to put him out there if he’s not contributing,” Greenberg, who expects Green to be good to go Thursday night, said.
A version of this article appeared in the Jan 18 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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