The last few years of Virginia Tech-Maryland basketball games have been pretty crazy in terms of building a rivalry. Last year, Maryland went to Blacksburg and escaped with a 104-100 double overtime victory. The year before was the Jeff Allen game at the Comcast Center.  Tonight, Allen and the Hokies return to the Comcast Center. Seth Greenberg, the Virginia Tech coach, shared his opinions on the fans of Maryland and Jeff Allen.

“I don’t have to talk to him about it. You talk about nasty environments, buying a ticket doesn’t give you a right to be abusive. And you would hope that, quite honestly, the people at Maryland would do their job. Plain and simple. They need to do their job. Just because you buy a ticket to a game doesn’t give you a right to be abusive. And if someone’s abusive to our guys, then those people should be removed if it gets personal. That’s the stance I’ll take. And he knows he’s there to play. Nothing more but to play ball. He’s gonna handle that situation the right way. I have no doubt in my mind that he’ll be excited to play and that’s the only thing he’ll get involved with.”
Coach Greenberg needs to chill with lines like “buying a ticket doesn’t give you a right to be abusive” because most sporting events I go to, the home team crowd tries to crush the visiting team any way possible. Last year during the NBA Finals, Celtics fans cheered “Ug-lee Sis-ter” every time Lamar Odom of the Lakers went to the line. Maryland fans have always pushed the envelope when it comes to taunting the other players. I remember another occurrence where the Terps fans cheered “Doc-tor Pep-per” at AD Vassallo, a recent VT hoops grad, after he got busted for trying to steal a case of the soda. They were also merciless, as were most fans, on JJ Redick.
Stay classy Maryland fans!