The Roanoke Times

File 2008 Former Hidden Valley star Ben Boggs (23) is one of four freshmen that will join the Virginia Tech basketball team this fall.

In six seasons as the Virginia Tech men's basketball coach, Seth Greenberg hasn't signed a single McDonald's or Parade All-American.

He hasn't spent much time pursuing them either.

"I don't spin my wheels a lot," said Greenberg this past week. "This business is too hard to spend all of your time spinning your wheels."

So, rather than devote his energy to making some superstar's top five, Greenberg's mission is to find ACC-worthy players that the Hokies have a chance of signing.

Tech doesn't have a consensus Top 100 player in its four-member 2009 recruiting class, but, as a group, it is consistent with the type of players that have enabled the Hokies to go 26-22 in ACC regular-season play over the past three seasons.

Greenberg covered all of his bases in a class that includes a post player (Cadarian Raines), a small forward (Manny Atkins), a big guard (Ben Boggs) and a point guard (Erick Green).

"I think this class, if you include [Allan] Chaney in it, is a very complete class," Greenberg said. "I don't worry about where guys are ranked. I worry about whether they can be productive."

Chaney, a transfer from Florida, is a 6-foot-8, 231-pound power forward who was named Gatorade state player of the year in Connecticut in 2008. He will have three years of eligibility at Tech starting with the 2010-11 season.

Two of this year's signees made oral commitments to Tech before the end of their junior year in high school, including Green, who began his career at Millbrook High School in Winchester before transferring to Paul VI in Fairfax for his senior year.

Boggs, from Hidden Valley, committed on Oct. 27, 2007.

Boggs already had made first-team All-Group AA as a sophomore and followed that up with his selection as 2008 Timesland player of the year.

Boggs was a borderline national Top 100 player, with the opportunity to rise in the rankings, before he was lost for the season after suffering a compound fracture of his right leg Dec. 5. It was the Titans' second game of the season.

Greenberg said that rehabilitation went as scheduled and that there never was a thought to redshirting Boggs as a freshman. He thinks it would have been wrong to write off Boggs after the injury.

"He's just a fierce competitor, a skilled basketball player and a winning player," Greenberg said. "You knew, if anybody could bounce back from that type of injury, it would be him.

"I haven't seen him play [lately] because we're not allowed to watch them. I ask him after he's done playing and he says he feels good. It's going to take a while for him to get back his instinct, but he's going to be fine."

The most ACC-ready of Greenberg's recruits might be Green, whose senior year in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference placed him in competition with some of the top programs in D.C. area, including DeMatha, Gonzaga and Good Counsel.

Green, a 6-foot-2, 180-pounder, was named first-team All-Metro by The Washington Post as a junior and senior.

Green's move to Paul VI "was something he did because he felt it would better prepare him to compete at this level and that he would be pushed and challenged," Greenberg said.

"That was not our idea. It was his family's idea."

Greenberg said Green compares favorably to current Tech star Malcom Delaney and ex-Hokie Zabian Dowdell, a first-team All-ACC choice. Delaney originally was billed as a combination guard but his continued growth as a lead guard cut into the playing time for fellow sophomore Hank Thorns, who transferred after the season.

Still, the Hokies will have to make up for Thorns' 568 minutes somewhere.

"Delaney is going to play point guard and he's going to play off the ball," Greenberg said. "When he's off the ball, Green's going to be on the ball. Ben's going to play a little bit over there also.

"Green really understands the position. He's got an excellent 'middle' game. He's just got to stay aggressive. If he stays aggressive, he has a chance to be a really good player."

By "middle" game, Greenberg means the knack for getting into the lane and pulling up, a staple of Delaney's game.

"[Green's] got great feel," Greenberg said. "He pitches the ball ahead. He's got long arms. He's going to be a good defender."

Tech had one Virginian on scholarship on its 2008-09 roster, Lewis Witcher from Franklin County. There are three Virginians in the incoming class, including Raines, a 6-8, 210-pounder from Petersburg.

"I think it's going to take him a while to understand the intricacies of what we do," Greenberg said, "but, he can rebound the ball and block shots. He's going to have to improve offensively."

Atkins' coach at Tucker High School in Atlanta, James Hartry, describes Atkins as a workaholic.

"He's one of the best shooters I've ever coached, and that's going to get better as the years come," Hartry said. "I look for him to do big things at Virginia Tech and big things in the ACC."

Atkins' shooting ability could translate into playing time for a team looking to replace A.D. Vassallo, third in the ACC in made 3-pointers.

Raines was rated the No. 60 prospect in the country by scout.com, and no other Hokies' signee was in anybody's top 100. Clearly, that's no big deal for Greenberg, whose four Top 100 signees for Tech include a player who never played for the Hokies, Tyrone Appleton, and another who flamed out after 27 games in 2005, Marquie Cooke.

"We don't have any All-Americans in this class but we have guys who are going to be here four years and get better," said Greenberg, 53. "I don't worry about where a guy is rated. I worry about my own eyeballs. I've been doing this a long time."