Greenberg has plan to upgrade Tech’s defense

BLACKSBURG -- Tuesday afternoon in his office, Virginia Tech basketball coach Seth Greenberg grabbed a red pen to explain and illustrate three major problems he sees with his team's defense: failing to stop flash cuts, melting on ball screens and getting spread out across the floor by opponents, which leaves the Hokies vulnerable to driving layups.

Greenberg made it all look fairly simple as he scribbled Xs, Os and arrows on a piece of paper lined with nine diagrams of half a court. It isn't that easy during a game, when the Xs on paper become Tech's players trying to react in a split second to the men they are guarding, who are far more elusive than one of those red Os.

Greenberg's challenge Tuesday was to get the Hokies to move like his pen strokes, to stop that opponent running across the lane, to scoot around that ball screen. Because tonight begins an important stretch of non-conference games, with what junior point guard Malcolm Delaney called "the first real test we've got of the season" -- a virtual road game against Temple, at Philadelphia's Palestra, across town from the Owls' campus.

Tomorrow, the Hokies play Delaware at the Palestra. Then they'll head to Iowa for Tuesday's ACC / Big Ten Challenge game before returning home Dec. 6 to play Georgia. Those four games in 10 days could reveal a lot about the Hokies, who are 3-0 with wins over Brown, North Carolina-Greensboro and Campbell.

Much of their success depends on alleviating Greenberg's defensive concerns. Campbell shot 22 of 44 from the field in Tech's 71-60 win Monday. The Hokies' defense was "probably the worst we've ever had since I've been here," Delaney said. "It was horrible."

Greenberg's first issue with it involves flash cuts. Say the ball handler is on the left side of the court, on the perimeter, and his big man is on the opposite side of the lane. Too often, the Hokies are letting that big man go straight through the lane, or cut in a flash, to get on the ball handler's side, catch a pass and post up for a layup.

"You've got to stop that guy from coming across the lane," Greenberg said, drawing a bold vertical line in the middle of the lane, to indicate where this should happen. "We're just letting him cut and then we're following him."

The problems aren't just with post defense. "Melting" on a ball screen is Greenberg lingo for this: When an opponent screens a Hokie who is guarding the ball handler, the Hokie is "hitting the screen and stopping," Greenberg said, rather than dodging it and pursuing his man. "We're not as tough as we need to be," Greenberg said.

His third concern takes a wider view of the court. He drew four Os around the perimeter to represent how teams, especially smaller ones such as Campbell, are spreading out the Hokies, opening the lane for driving layup opportunities.

To counter this, Greenberg wants his players to "shrink the court." When the men they are guarding don't have the ball on the perimeter, especially on the opposite side of the court from the ball handler, the Hokies need to creep away and slide down toward the lane, so they can help if the Hokie guarding the ball handler gets beat.

Instead of doing this, Greenberg said the Hokies are "hugging" opponents who are away from the ball -- playing them too closely, which leaves the Hokies unable to get into the lane quickly enough. "We're not as alert as we need to be," Greenberg said. "We're guarding too many plays away from the ball."

Delaney, who often defends the ball handler, too often sees an open lane, with none of his teammates in it, when he turns around after his man beats him. "It should be somebody there all the time," he said.

But his teammates also must worry about not leaving their men too open by moving into the lane and helping on defense -- a balance they are still working to perfect.

"You know how fast you are," said junior forward J.T. Thompson. "You just have to be able to know you can jump in the gap [in the lane] and still get back to your man and have a hand up."