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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 10, 2011

Seth Greenberg

THE MODERATOR: We have with us now Virginia Tech head coach, Seth Greenberg. Coach, if you could, a few comments about your team and we'll especially for questions.
COACH GREENBERG: Again, we are still a work-in-progress in understanding how we are going to win with the roster but I like our basketball team. I thought we played really hard against Florida State. I thought we did a nice job of sharing the ball.
Obviously Jeff Allen had a terrific game in all aspects, offensively, defensively, rebounding the basketball. He was active. He was alert.
I really am pleased with the development of Erick Green. I think he's playing with a lot of confidence, aggressive. Even though he didn't shoot the ball well, he got good shots, right on the rim. Again, rebounding is a concern, without a doubt. Especially early in that game. You know, you're playing on the road, rebounding that way, you're going to have a hard time getting back in the game.
Again, I'm pleased with our effort and I'm pleased with the chemistry that we have and we have just got to continue to move forward and play our schedule.

Q. I wanted to ask you about your adjustments with all of the injuries, all of the depth up front, as you change the way you play, you talk about moving Delaney over to the wing last week, but other than that, have you slowed tempo or changed to be less aggressive on defense or anything else?
COACH GREENBERG: Well, we are not as aggressive defensively. We played -- I summoned my inner Jimmy Boeheim last Saturday: We played 40 minutes and two, three zones. So that's something that I've never done in my coaching career, but it's something that out of necessity, we thought would be effective against Florida State.
So we still have to run. We have got to get some more easy baskets. Let's face it, no matter who you are or who you play, the team that scores the most easy baskets wins, in a lot of different scenarios. So we still have to run some things in transition and it's affected how we guard balls screens to some extent, how we doubled the post. I think a lot of it affects us more defensively. And again, to take a little pressure off Erick, we have gone to some two-guard fronts, just to make it a little bit easier and give use two ways to new ways to enter in offense. You have to make an adjustment, but the kids have been great. They have bought in and they are excited about where we are right now and playing with a lot of confidence.

Q. Your last three games, you guys have played well. Is there a mental aspect of, okay, this is what we have?
COACH GREENBERG: We don't talk about what we don't have. We never even mention it. All we talk about is what we are going to do and what we need to do to put ourselves in position to win. And we talk about the players that are healthy and the players that are playing.
And we really, literally, do not mention the guys that are not playing at all with our players. We talk about our team and what we need to do today to get better to put ourselves in position to win.

Q. With North Carolina coming up what kind of challenge does Tyler Zeller pose for you?
COACH GREENBERG: You talk about a team with seven All-Americans and High School Player of the Year, Tyler Zeller is a part of that. He runs the floor. He's got great hands. He finishes. He's hard to block out.
But you know, they have got so many pieces that they are a very complete team. They are really passing the ball well. They are shooting the ball well, guys that struggled shooting the ball last year are shooting the ball at a high percentage. So Tyler Zeller is a terrific player, but they have got a lot of terrific players.

Q. Going back to UNC, they have ten guys who play at least ten minutes and obviously with Roy, they love going up and down the court.
COACH GREENBERG: Are you on a first-name basis with him?

Q. No, I'm not. I will speak to him for the first time in a couple minutes. Coach Williams, how Coach Williams plays.
COACH GREENBERG: You can call me Seth; that's all right. That's who they are. That's who they have always been. That's the Carolina system. They are going to sub. They are going to put pressure on you. They are going to run. And let's face it, when you have a lot of good players, and you recruit a lot of good players, you've got to play them.

Q. And I wanted to ask you about Harrison Barnes specifically. They sort of said early in the season that maybe it wasn't fair the amount of hype that was placed on him before the season. But what have you made of him as a player? Obviously he's not a superstar right away, but there's very few freshmen that ever are. What have you made of his game?
COACH GREENBERG: I think he's terrific. He's handled this situation really well. I think he's got size. He looks like he's shooting the ball a lot better. He's got a good first step. He gets to the glass. I think he's just a terrific basketball player, but he's a 19-year-old basketball player.
He's got every skill set you would want to be special.

Q. Jeff Allen has really been solid for you all year, he's got double-doubles in five of his last six games. Just wonder what it is about his game, if he's elevated anything, if he's just delivering more consistency than he has or just what it is about him.
COACH GREENBERG: I think that's probably a good point. I think he's been able to play more minutes. He's been able to stay on the floor, which obviously is important for us.
He's taking opportunities. He's rebounding the ball, not only balls in his area but balls out of his area. On the defensive end he's just been terrific. I think his approach has really been outstanding. I mean, he comes in every day, even though he's hurt. Like yesterday he was in for treatment twice. His approach as a senior, he's approaching it like you would hope a senior would approach it.

Q. It's so crucial that he stays on the floor; how is the zone defense really helping him out in that aspect?
COACH GREENBERG: Again that, was one game. Again, we are going to have to change defensively for each situation specifically. That zone was set up because we thought it would be effective against Florida State, might not be as effective against Carolina.
In the zone, again, he's not in the position to guard ball screens. He's not in position to have to over-help or get stretched out on the court where he gets maybe those foolish-reaching fouls. He's pretty disciplined in terms of playing what the situation is he needs to play, and he doesn't put himself in a lot of bad situations in terms of rotations.
And we are not giving up as much dribble penetration, so he's not put in a situation where he's got to help. Obviously if you've got to help, obviously you're going to put yourself in a position to help Tyler.

Q. What is it that he's playing through injury-wise, and how does that affect his presence?
COACH GREENBERG: He's got a really bad groin injury right now. He's been really great at dealing with it, dealing with the pain and dealing with the discomfort. We have limited his practices. We are hoping he can practice, because we can't afford to have anyone else out. He'll practice today, probably 30 percent of today's practice, maybe 40 percent of today's practice. We'll limit the amount of times that he goes up and down and we'll limit the amount of times he has to go off of that leg, but he'll be ready to play.

Q. (Inaudible) Chaney has been out --
COACH GREENBERG: Chaney has been out the whole year. He has the heart ailment. He's done for the year. And Bob's transferring, so that's fine.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today. We'll hear from you the same time again next week.
COACH GREENBERG: Thank you very much. Have a great week, guys.

End of FastScripts

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