Tech senior Hudson having bigger impact off of bench

Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg could see the frustration in Dorenzo Hudson’s eyes. Hudson, a 6-foot-5 senior guard who won third-team All-ACC honors two years ago, was struggling, and so was his team.

So before the Hokies took on No. 7 North Carolina last Thursday, Greenberg suggested Hudson take a different role with the team. He proposed bringing Hudson off the bench. There would be less pressure, and the game could come to him.

"You could see he was getting beaten down because he invested a lot in it, and he’s worked really hard, so I said, ‘Let’s take a step back. Your minutes are not going to change. The way we use you is going to change,’" said Greenberg, who has been trying to find some energy off his bench since the season-ending knee injury to forward JT Thompson.

"We thought JT was going to be our Energizer Bunny. That’s what we thought he was going to be, and we lost JT. Maybe this is something we’ve been missing. Who knows? It was time to give it a shot."

In the two games Hudson has come off the bench, he has averaged 14 points on 63 percent shooting and committed only two turnovers.

In the previous three games, he averaged 9.7 points on 31 percent shooting and committed 10 turnovers.

"It works good for me," said Hudson, who is 5 of 7 from 3-point range the last two games after going 0 for 8 in the previous three. "I feel like when I’m on the bench I kind of study the game a little more than I usually do when I’m starting the game. When I’m on the bench, I try to take advantage of it and see what’s going on and where the shots are going to come from, and I’m trying to embrace my role right now."

Hudson, who battled a knee injury earlier this season, scored 12 points in Tech’s 47-45 road win over then-No. 15 Virginia on Sunday. He scored eight points in the final 9:36, including a 3-pointer from the left corner with 16.5 seconds remaining that put the Hokies up by four.

Tech (12-7, 1-4 ACC), which had lost four straight entering the game, held on for its first ACC victory of the season.

"I thought he was putting a lot of pressure on himself. Dorenzo Hudson is a good kid, he really is, and he works extremely hard. He’s three classes away from graduation. It’s nice to see something nice happen to him because he’s the first guy in the gym and the last guy to leave almost every day," Greenberg said.

The Hokies take a break from ACC play tonight to host BYU. The Cougars, who beat Pepperdine on Saturday in Malibu, Calif., haven’t come this far east since winning at Buffalo last December. After tonight, they head back home to Provo, Utah, for a game against Saint Mary’s on Saturday.

BYU, playing its first year in the West Coast Conference after winning four Mountain West Conference regular-season titles from 2007-11, has made the last five NCAA Tournaments.

The Cougars (17-5) advanced to the Sweet 16 last year with a team that featured sharpshooting guard Jimmer Fredette, the 2011 National Player of the Year who now plays for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

Even without Fredette, BYU is a quality non-conference opponent. Beating the Cougars won’t be easy, but Tech finally has its confidence back after its big win over the Cavaliers.

"It gives us something to build on," Greenberg said after the UVa win. "This is just a baby step."