Click the
VT ribbon for
Seth Greenberg’s
reflections on the April 2007
shootings at
Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech Coach Builds a Contender

It was the kind of thrilling, winner-take-all moment that a college basketball coach never forgets.

The date: December 4, 2005.

The situation: Only one second left on the clock!

Against huge odds, the unheralded Virginia Tech (VT) Hokies — led by veteran college basketball coach Seth Greenberg, BA’78 (T) — were about to defeat the nationally top-ranked Duke University Blue Devils in a stunning upset on their court.

Watching from the sidelines, Greenberg could hardly believe his eyes. Was his struggling team really about to knock off mighty Duke?

Hey, nobody beats Duke in Durham! But with one second left, the scoreboard said: VT 75, Duke 74.

If the former FDU communications major and his lightly regarded ball club could just hang on, they would nail down what’s known as a “program win” — a victory so spectacular that it can vault an unknown basketball team toward national prominence.

One second. Time only for a final desperation shot by Duke guard Sean Dockery … a flaring rainbow of a shot fired toward the basket from the impossible distance of 45 feet.

Pacing the sidelines, Greenberg watched the ball arc through the lights, then drop toward the basket. Hands balled into fists, the once-upon-a-time FDU point guard (1974–’78) was holding his breath, while his balding head gleamed with nervous perspiration.

The game-ending buzzer blared as the ball plummeted toward the basket.

Swish!

Dockery’s improbable shot ripped through the net. Duke had won again!

In spite of their heroic effort, Seth Greenberg’s team was beaten — in what must surely rank as the toughest single loss during his entire 30-year coaching career.

Although it was painful at the time, Greenberg says the stinging setback actually helped make his team better. How? It’s simple. “Whenever I look back on that brutal defeat,” says the 51-year-old coaching phenomenon, “I realize all over again that it taught several of our players the meaning of the word ‘character.’

“Learning how to handle adversity is a crucial test for any basketball team,” says the highly regarded coach, who is in his fifth season at the helm of the men’s basketball program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va. “I learned that lesson at FDU three decades ago, while playing point guard for one of the greatest coaches ever — [the late] Al [Alfred] Lo Balbo, who taught us that the key to success was character, along with the ability to trust each other on the court.

“Coach Lo Balbo was a wonderful teacher, and our program at Virginia Tech is built on the same principles he taught me in the 1970s.”

For Greenberg, who’s racked up a glittering 280-226 win-loss record during his 17 years as a head coach, taking the helm at struggling Tech back in 2003 would provide an acid test of “Coach Lo’s” teaching philosophy.

After growing up in suburban Long Island and winning a basketball scholarship to Fairleigh Dickinson in 1974, Greenberg had gone on to complete successful stints as head coach at The University of California, Long Beach (1990–’96) and the University of South Florida (1996–2003).

But the step up from these smaller programs to the fiercely competitive Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was a daring leap into the unknown. Armed with Coach Lo’s philosophy, however, Greenberg hit the ground running and never looked back. During the past four seasons, his VT Hokies have improved steadily and compiled a respectable 67-56 record. Last year they appeared in The Associated Press Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today weekly college basketball polls after scoring a giant victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium and twice beating North Carolina. (During one of those games, UNC was ranked No. 1 in the country.)

Make no mistake: the Virginia Tech basketball program has arrived.

“Coaching in the ACC is a high-pressure job, and I only get seven or eight days off during the entire year,” says the high-flying coach. “It’s a big challenge, no question. But it’s what I am and who I am, and I love doing it.

“Fortunately, I’m able to include my family — my wife, Karen, and our three wonderful daughters — in everything I do, and they often travel with the team.”

Greenberg is enormously passionate about his coaching on the basketball court and is also a dedicated community volunteer who believes that he has a responsibility to “serve others and give something back in return for all the good things that have been given to me.” Soon after the tragic devastation that occurred in New Orleans, La., during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Greenberg and a few colleagues created the national All Coaches Care Network of volunteers, which raised $300,000 for Habitat for Humanity’s Gulf Coast rebuilding effort. (To learn more about the volunteer project, log onto www.AllCoachesCare.com.)

For Seth Greenberg, who also puts his FDU communications skills to work as a part-time radio and television basketball commentator, taking on volunteer assignments like the one in New Orleans is simply part of the legacy he gained from Lo Balbo. “Coach Al taught us a great deal about respect, trust and the responsibility to help others who need you. That was a vitally important lesson — and I’m now doing my best to pass it on to my own players here at Virginia Tech.”

For Coach Greenberg’s reflections on the
April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech go to
http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/08ws/hokies.html.

— T.N.

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For a print copy of FDU Magazine, featuring this and other stories, contact Rebecca Maxon, editor,
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