BLACKSBURG -- Seth Greenberg, Brad Greenberg and Page Moir will soon be battling opponents on the basketball court. But on Tuesday, they were more concerned about battling cancer.

The three men's basketball coaches gathered at Blacksburg Country Club for their inaugural Southwest Coaches Tip-off Luncheon, which benefited the Coaches vs. Cancer organization.

The Greenberg brothers' father died of lung cancer. Moir's mother is a survivor of ovarian cancer.

"Every single person that you know, in some way, shape or form, has been affected by cancer," Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg said in an interview at the end of the luncheon. "It touches us all, and yet I think cancer's been kind of put on the back burner of late. Coaches vs. Cancer is a way that we can bring it back to the forefront.

"Coaches, we're not about moral victories. We're about finding a way to win."

About 150 people attended the luncheon, which included a silent auction. Seth Greenberg expected to raise at least $5,000 from the event. The money will be donated in the name of Dick Quibel, a Tech booster who is fighting cancer.

The idea for the luncheon came from James Madison men's basketball coach Matt Brady, who is holding a Coaches vs. Cancer tip-off breakfast in Harrisonburg today with JMU women's basketball coach Kenny Brooks and the men's basketball coaches from Bridgewater and Eastern Mennonite.

A Philadelphia branch of Coaches vs. Cancer, featuring coaches from six schools in that area, has been very active in recent years.

Seth Greenberg hopes to hold a Southwest luncheon every year. He eventually would like to hold a major fundraiser in a central part of the state that would involve coaches from a number of colleges in the commonwealth.

"Seth is great at putting stuff together like this, so he really took the ball and ran with it, and we all pitched in," said Brad Greenberg, the coach at Radford University.

Ex-Hokie Allen Calloway died in January after battling cancer. As a Tech senior in 2005, he was diagnosed with a tumor in his calf that spread to his lungs.

"Making progress isn't enough," Seth Greenberg said. "We've got to get a mind-set of winning."

Moir, the coach at Roanoke College, has held an annual tournament to benefit the V Foundation since the 1993-94 season.

"The older I get, the more reasons I have to try to raise money to help fight this disease," Moir said.

Moir's student manager the past three seasons, Madee Boxler, is battling lymphoma. Moir lost his friend Bob Johnson, the former Emory & Henry basketball coach, to kidney cancer in August.

"It really hits close to home when you see one of your competitors, who's similar to your age, a good friend, go through what he did," Moir said.