Is there a more underrated coach...

[VThokies]

Originally Posted by SteveA

Believe me, we're happy to have him. His teams always play very tough defense (last year being a bit of an exception and the only year I was really disappointed in what he got out of the team).

I've been drinking the Greenberg Kool-Aid since his first game. He took over from Ricky Stokes, who was a terrible coach with the most bland personality imaginable. We'd have 3000 fans in the stands for some ho-hum game and Stokes would thank the "great crowd" after the game.

Went to Greenberg's ifrst game as VT coach, against an overmatched New Hampshire team that we won by about 30, and his postgame show was a breath of fresh air. He broke down exactly what he was happy with about the team's play but also where they needed to improve. No coachspeak, no platitudes, just the facts. I've been a fan ever since.

THen in the year when we had all the tragedies affect the team (our starting center's father was dying of cancer hte entire season and died in February; Deron Washington's family was displaced by Katrina and moved to Blacksburg; a player on the team was fighting a rare form of cancer; another player lost his grandmother who had raised him, and another player lost his host mother who he had lived with in high school)....the way Greenberg kept that team together thorugh all that and had them playing hard despite the odds being against them and despite Duke beating htem with a 40 foot buzzer beater and losing a ton of other close games...was just amazing. Sometimes he would be breaking down in tears in the postgame press conference talking about how hard his team was fighting. They'd get down 20 to a superior team in a lost season where everything was going wrong, and they would fight back to get with in a few points. They might lose, but they never gave up. Watching Greenberg skipper that team through all those rough times made me a fan for life. I hope he retires as Tech's coach.

And the past few years, he has started improving the recruiting, getting higher rated recruiting classes. If he can get as much out of them as he has gotten out of past teams, we are going to be a force. (Of course Gary Williams started getting much better recruiting classes after the national championship and he didn't get better results; sometimes when you step up a level in recruiting and have to deal with a different type of athlete, who might have had more handedto him and might not want to work as hard, it can be a different ballgame).

Honestly, of the four teams I follow on an every-game basis, Greenberg is my favorite coach. (I'd rate them Greenberg, Beamer, Harbaugh, Trembley).

... I just try and not think about Ricky Stokes. What a nightmare.

The game that sold me on Greenberg was against UVA during the season with all their family tragedies. We were down 5, and Coleman Collins (playing in Germany now) had dunked the ball, but the ball got caught up in the net and bounced back through the rim. The shot was waved off and Greenberg got hit with a technical. After another foul called against VT, a fan decided it would be wise to throw something onto the court. The game stalled, and the announcers come on and warn fans that throwing anything else will result in another team technical foul. When the announcement ended, Greenberg looked like his blood was boiling, walked over to the scorers table, grabbed the mike, and proceeded to lecture the fan base for a minute. Basically just said "Stop booing the refs and cheer for your team, and we'll play as hard as possible for the rest of the game." I had never seen anything quite like it, and the refs looked equally as confused. Cassell was in awe for a few moments, but absolutely electric for the rest of the game. Tech tied it late in the game, but wound up losing in the last few seconds on a three by Singletary. Recap

Here are his post game comments from the Clemson game, its a good example of how he handles interviews, as you touched on.

http://virginiatech.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1049359

Particularly liked this one:

Finally, on the crowd?

"Again, I'd like to thank VDOT, the county who got these roads. I came in early at 8 o'clock and the roads were clear. The amount of work these people have been through in the last three weeks and the attention to detail. To find a way to come in and we couldn't have played any worse in the first six minutes. Everyone believed in us and I think about how much difference those people make."