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DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 25, 2011Dorian Finney-SmithErick GreenSeth GreenbergNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK VIRGINIA TECH59 THE MODERATOR: Coach is going to make the opening statement and then we'll have questions for the players. SETH GREENBERG: I'm really proud of our guys. Obviously it wasn't artistic, but I thought we competed. We got off to a horrendous start. Yet we had the calendar and resolve to find our way back in the game by getting stops and defending. Which I think was so important. We started to make some shots and some good things happened to us. I thought we got great contributions from the bench in the second half‑‑ I mean the first half. C.J. Barksdale, terrific. Raines career rebounds. Robert Brown when we were struggling made a couple of big shots. I'm proud of our guys. Coming here and going 0‑2 could be obviously devastating to such a young team. The other thing is we're playing these guys twice. So it's almost like a 13th league opponent. It's important to get that first win, because we're going on the road for the next one. But these two guys, this guy, he's just scratching the surface. He has a nose for the basketball and he's a great teammate and plays to win. Watching this guy grow up the last two minutes and seeing him evolve and the leadership he displayed today was terrific. It wasn't pretty, but when we had to get the ball inbounds, and when we had to execute, we did enough things to win the game. It makes you feel good to have a chance to go back home with a win. Coming to New York is great. Thanksgiving Parade is great. There's nothing better than Madison Square Garden. But going home 0‑2, that would have been tough. Now we have a chance to build on it and the schedule gets a lot easier. We have a terrific St.Bonaventure team. We go to Minnesota and then Kansas State. It doesn't get any easier but these guys deserve a lot of credit. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players? SETH GREENBERG: They don't bite. This guy doesn't say much. Q. What do you both get out of this experience in New York in how to be able to get your games to the next level, especially for the ACC conference? ERICK GREEN: It's just a great experience coming here. We get to play on the big stage. We played two great teams. It was kind of like ACC play. Syracuse is going to be there soon. So it's kind of just a step ahead get a chance to play against them. Two great teams to get us ready for ACC play. We have some games coming up that's going to help up. I think it was a great experience for all of us. We got to play the Garden. I'm proud of the team and how hard we worked. The hard work has paid off. We still have a lot of work to do but I'm really proud of the guys. DORIAN FINNEY‑SMITH: Same thing he said. It was a great experience. He said it all. It was a great experience. We played the Garden and we got tough games coming up. So it was a great experience. THE MODERATOR: Is that it for the players? Q. Seems like the game was decided on rebounds, especially offensive rebounding. Can you discuss maybe in practice how much coach emphasizes rebounding? DORIAN FINNEY‑SMITH: We emphasize rebounding in practice because we had to play Syracuse because they're a big team. So we were emphasizing on blocking out. THE MODERATOR: Are we done with the players? Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, over the past five seasons RPI rating hasn't been‑‑ the RPI rating hasn't been as high as you want it to be. Have you in the back of your mind thought about‑‑ SETH GREENBERG: The system is flawed. I'm just kidding. Q. Have you‑‑ you mentioned about St.Bonaventure, Minnesota, Kansas State, those teams, have you thought in the back of your mind how important it is to win those games to make sure that's not an issue? SETH GREENBERG: We have a very difficult schedule. We have Kansas State coming up, we have Minnesota. We have these guys again New Years, we have BYU, we go to Rhode Island. This is an extremely difficult schedule for such a young team. I think we've got good leadership with our seniors, and again, I've never been able to figure out the RPI. I'm not sure any of us know how important it is in that room. Winning against good opponents obviously enhances your resume. We have to get a lot better. Like I told our guys even after Syracuse, we're not better tomorrow than we are today than we've got an issue. This time of the year it's really just about developing an identity, figuring out the combinations you want to play in certain times of the games, and getting guys better. We had three freshmen‑‑ two or three freshmen on the court at the time. Finding a way to win this game with that young a team and getting them to better understand how to play hard right now is‑‑ that's the process that we're going through. We're a long way from where we need to be if we're going to be competitive, but we've made‑‑ we've taken baby steps. Q. Seth, you had seven guys with one assist; is that a good thing or a bad thing? SETH GREENBERG: No, I think our team is unselfish. I think we missed some good extra passes, what I call second passes. The first pass is one thing, but the second pass, the next pass, is the most important pass. I think we've got a really unselfish team. I think our kids they really don't care who scores. Victor, he struggled in the first half. They went zone. He saw Erick cutting down the middle of the floor. He makes the pass. Dorenzo makes the extra pass to Jarell (Eddie), even though he didn't make the three, he made the right play. I'm trying to get our guys to understand play the right way, make the right play. Statistics take care of themselves quite honestly. Q. Have you talked about the contributions from the bench and certainly with a couple of players you had lost for the season before that it was likely to be a little bit of a concern. Has that been developing the way you want it? SETH GREENBERG: We're throwing them to the fire. Losing a guy like JT Thompson, a guy we were expecting to average 10 and 7, somewhere in that area. Other people get opportunities. All these guys were recruited for a reason, because they're good players. Now we're giving them an opportunity. We're trying to empower them. We're trying to get them to believe in each other and play. In the end, there are a lot of negatives about summer basketball. But one of the positives is that they play so much‑‑ they're not afraid of playing against anyone at all levels. And I think that's what you see. Our guys are excited about having a chance to play. We recruited them for a reason. Q. Can you talk about the importance of the second‑chance points you got? SETH GREENBERG: It was huge. Q. They had a smaller lineup out there. SETH GREENBERG: Yes, it was huge. Getting to the glass. We spent a full week talking about pursuing the ball preparing for Syracuse. And making the first hit and rebounding the basketball. We had a full week before the Syracuse game. Literally we did about as close as you can to rebound drills without putting on pads and helmets. It was physical and long and the keyword was make a hit and pursue the ball. I thought our guys‑‑ Finney has a nose for it, to be honest with you. He has a feel for where the ball is going to come off. He has those long arms. He pursues the ball. He's a natural. Some guys are natural rebounders. The big improvement today was Raines. He had one rebound in 16 minutes the other day. He has to get in the air and pursue the ball. I was proud of him. He had that three‑point play in the beginning of the second half was huge for us. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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