You may have heard that at Virginia Tech's new practice facility, there's a large portrait of Deron Washington's well-known dunk over Greg Paulus a few years ago. While it's no doubt fun for Virginia Tech, it underscores the difference between the two programs: in Blacksburg, they celebrate individual plays. In Durham, they celebrate championships.
A small note: the new facility gives coaches Seth Greenberg and Beth Dunkenberger a courtside view of the courts, which means they could, if they chose, disregard the NCAA's restrictions on watching/coaching during the off-season, which brings to mind what might be perhaps Bob Knight's one NCAA violation, as related by Larry Bird:
When he was, briefly, an IU freshman, Bird was playing against Indiana's star big man Kent Benson - a guy he detested incidentally - and kicking his butt. Knight had a similar arrangement at Alumni Hall, saw what Bird was doing to his star center and eventually came down and had a classic eruption aimed at Benson, something which Bird took great pleasure in. Given his short stay in Bloomington, this was almost certainly before practice started, and if the rule was the same then, a time when Knight wasn't supposed to be watching or participating.
Back to Virginia Tech - it's a very nice facility, and like all facilities of this nature, it has motivational phrases all over the place. Tech's choices reflect their place in the basketball world and are, frankly, a bit defensive. "Persevere" is a fine sentiment, but that's what you do when you are up against it. Not exactly Lombardi-esque, is it? Nor is "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard," which just underscores their relative weakness when it comes to recruiting against other ACC powers. That doesn't mean it's not true, but it is defensive. "Passion. Commitment. Accountability. This is Virginia Tech basketball." And under that (again): "Perserverance."
So the overall message? "We won't have as much talent, but if we work hard, we can beat some people." Now there's a winning theme, and bound to impress recruits. Somehow, we're guessing that it wouldn't cut it over at the football facilities, where they focus on team accomplishments, not individual plays.
