Even Seth Greenberg Deserved Better

Universities have the right fire coaches based on a number of areas, and based on the University some coaches face higher standards than others.  That is the culture of athletics and each coach knows this going into their respective position.  Where the Universities are missing the boat in some cases is the manner in which they remove their head coach.

The day Virginia Tech fired Seth Greenberg the news broke on twitter stating that Virginia Tech had scheduled a press conference and the rumor was it was going to make a change in the mens basketball program regarding their coaching position.  After multiple seasons of missing the NCAA tournament, Seth’s demeanor on selection Sunday on a few occasions, and the style of offense the Hokies have installed made it no shock after the season that the administration would be thinking of a change.  The way athletic director Jim Weaver handled the change is more in question than the firing itself.

The day the press conference was scheduled Greenberg had a recruit and his family on campus trying to sell Virginia Tech as well as  the basketball program.  When Greenberg got the call asking him about the press conference he had no idea and this was even after 1:00 pm when the conference was scheduled for 4:00 pm that afternoon.  Are you telling me no one could find the time to tell the family of the recruit this was happening, or give Greenberg a heads up?  Jim Weaver spoke about family and Virginia Tech athletics, that Greenberg was a no show to an event that was involving all the coaches.  For a man who spoke about the athletic family he treated Seth Greenberg in this case like he was pardon the analogy “a red headed step child.”  You would think after the years of service Greenberg could expect a little better treatment from his athletic director.  As much as I did not like some of the whining from Seth I respected him as a good person within college basketball and the ACC.  Weaver failed him and he deserved better. UNC handled the Butch Davis firing in a similar fashion as they allowed him to go to media day just prior to making the change in their football program.  Both universities had legitimate reasons to fire their coach, but the way it was handled puts a black on both.  In UNC’s case timing was the issue firing Butch Davis just days before fall camp, and with Virginia Tech the lack of compassion for a department that pries itself on family was most disturbing.

For Virginia Tech they move on with a coach they are excited about, but will be in his first year as a head coach.  James Johnson has been around college basketball coaching for nineteen years.  He brings excitement and enthusiasm to the job, but there are many coaches in college basketball that had better resumes for having their first job be in the ACC.  As Johnson said he will be moving from a suggestion maker to a decision maker and one side that I am always cautious about is when players advocate for an assistant coach on staff to become the head coach.  When you move from the player friendly assistant to the head man in charge you make the rules and hand out the consequences that many times makes the players wonder what happened to the coach they had as an assistant.  It can work in cases, however that challenge lies there nonetheless. With Johnson they did not go out and grab an assistant off a staff with NCAA tournament success. Johnson was on Greenberg’s staff for the past five years so the level of play in Blacksburg falls on him partially.  Johnson has his work cut out for him and for his sake he better be good at the decision making or he could find himself back to being a suggestion maker unless he can take Virginia Tech to a higher level than Greenberg.

As always you can follow the Haley and MandMsportshow on twitter @MandMSportshow and you can read more articles from Haley at The Water Cooler.