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I attended the inaugural Southwest Tip-off Luncheon to benefit Coaches vs Cancer today in Blacksburg, and I talked to Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg, Radford's Brad Greenberg and Roanoke's Page Moir about how their teams are looking in practice. (I also talked with them about raising money for cancer; that portion will be in the newspaper.)

First, an update from Seth on how the Hokies are looking. 

Victor Davila has the flu and will be out for at least five days -- but VT does not open until the Brown game on Nov 15.  JT Thompson has been hampered by a sprained ankle.

"I'm almost afraid to practice," Seth said with a laugh.

Davila had been looking good. So have some of his teammates.

"These past two days, Terrell Bell and Dorenzo (Hudson) have done a nice job. Victor, it's sad that he got sick because he's gained a great deal of confidence in the last week -- and his teammates have gained confidence in him, which is just as important," he said.

Has an identity of this year's team emerged yet?

"I hope our identity is a tough-minded, physical, aggressive, attacking team," he said.

Is the defense getting better?

"We're making some progress,"  he said. "But we've still got a long way to go."

How are the freshmen looking?

"Ben Boggs and Erick (Green) have been solid. Ben's really been solid."

I also talked to Brad Greenberg. The RU coach said Amir Johnson is back, and it was his decision to bring him back.

Johnson was the starting point guard on last season's NCAA tournament team. He was convicted of petit larceny in August; he was accused of breaking into the home of Jamar Jenkins and Martell McDuffy in May and taking cash, a PlayStation, software and an iPod.

"Amir is going to play from Game 1," Brad said.

RU is the consensus pick to repeat as Big South champs, what with 4 starters back, including league player of the year Art Parakhouski.

"It's to be expected if you've won the year before and played well and return a bunch of guys, including some first-team all-conference guys and the player of the year," Brad said.

How much of an impact will Binghamton transfer Lazar Trifunovic make?

"He has a chance to be a real strong contributor," Brad said. "He's working off the rust a little bit. It's been almost a year and half, two years where he hasn't played in a game, so it's all new."

Brad said Lazar, Art and Joey Lynch-Flohr will all be on the floor at the same time for portions of the game. 

"Figuring out how to take advantage of all three of them at the same time, that'll be a work in progress," Brad said.

With Seth Curry having left Liberty and the Holmes twins having graduated from VMI, and with a High Point standout and a Charleston Southern star transferring, RU could have an easy time of it in the Big South this year. Brad isn't so sure about that, though.

"There's some good teams. I think there are a couple of surprise teams that people don't talk about, like Coastal Carolina -- they're going to be a real strong team," he said. "Winthrop is back. They had guys that sat out last year that are big. ... They'll be deeper and bigger and very good. Asheville's got 4 starters back."

I also talked to Page Moir, who has lost 3 starters from a 19-win team. But he said this can definitely still be a winning season.

"We've got a lot of question marks, but I like the possible solutions," he said. "I'm really excited about some of the guys we have back and what they're capable of."

Moir is high on freshman guard Kwasi Amponsah out of Gar-Field High in Woodbridge.

"He'll be playing more than 20 minutes a game," he said. "He's a player."

Hidden Valley grad Logan Singleton will have an increased role this year.

"Logan earned more playing time last year than he got, but with Curtis (Peery) in there -- you get tight, you want to go with him -- and I was trying to get some of the other big kids some experience at the cost of him. But Logan I think's going to turn into a very, very good ODAC player."

Guilford went to the D-III FInal Four last season. Will the Quakers run away with the ODAC?

"Not at all," Page said." They've got their three studs back and they're very good and they're very well-coached, of course, but it was close last year. Heck, they got beat by the 8th-place team in the first round of the (ODAC) tournament. We split with them last year. Virginia Wesleyan has got to be looked on as the favorite because of how they seem to reload -- they're like a Carolina. They reload every year.

"Randolph-Macon loses Short but has most everybody else back. I'm excited about how competitive the league is going to be."