Hokie ClubHere are some comments from Tech head coach Seth Greenberg that game from Monday morning’s ACC coaches’ teleconference:
Opening remarks:
“I just don’t think we had the energy or passion or the commitment to doing what you need to do to beat a team as well coached and as competitive as Maryland on the road. We didn’t have a commitment to getting stops. We didn’t compete on offense and they beat us in every facet of the game. That is just what it is in this league. We have to rebound and get ready for a Virginia team that had a magnificent win against an elite Clemson team. In this league, you learn from the past and move on and hopefully we’ll be competitive this Wednesday and have a chance to be successful.â€
On what is most challenging about a road game:
“If you’re not at your very best at home, you might be able to get jump-started to get you through some of those moments when you’re struggling. Obviously, you don’t get that on the road. I think that your routine is broken a little bit, and the other team usually feeds off the environment created by the home crowd. That’s what the home team wins more often.â€
Is there anything you can do to simulate a road game to help be successful?:
“We don’t pipe in crowd noise or do anything like that. I tell you what it is – get stops. If you get stops, you’re a pretty good road team. If you don’t get stops, if you trade baskets, you’re not going to be a very good road team. If you go on the road with the mindset of getting stops and creating offense out of your defense and having the toughness to finish possessions, you’re going to be a pretty good road team.â€
How much of a challenge is [Sylvan] Landesberg [of UVa] going to be?:
“We did a decent job on him the last game [Tech beat UVa 78-75]. I’m sure he’s going to score his points, but you have to make him work for his points. He’s a terrific player. He has a feel for getting to the basket and changing directions and changing speeds. He has a high basketball IQ. He’s developing a middle game, which makes him more difficult to defend. He has a feel. He has what I call a ‘city’ game. He just has that feel.â€
What specifically do you guys need to do a better job with on defense?:
“Do you have an hour? I think we’ve got to be more consistent in our ball-screen defense and we need to be better on the basketball. We’ve got to guard the post earlier and we’ve got to finish possessions. There are so many areas where I’d like to see us improve. We’re just not as tough as we need to be at this stage of the season.
“It goes back to if you have one lockdown defender, it really takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the guys. We’re still trying to find that guy consistently. You get him for a game or two, but having a consistent lockdown defender who can take a guy out of the game, we haven’t developed that yet.â€
How many players can you use in a rotation before it becomes counterproductive?:
“That’s a good question. I think chemistry is an essential part of basketball. In an ideal world, you want eight. You want a point guard, a wing player and a frontcourt player [as back-ups]. In a perfect world, you want eight and maybe you have a chance to get nine. But you have 13 guys on scholarship, so if you play eight, you’re going to have five guys who are unhappy and that can affect your chemistry.
“But if you can have eight guys who are on the same page, I think that’s a really solid rotation where you can develop a good chemistry.â€