Fox Sports is reporting that Virginia has fired Men’s Head Basketball coach, Dave Leito after four years on the job. Link to Fox article. Of course, Leitao officially ‘resigns’ so that he can receive his more money for going away nicely ($2.1 million). Leitao made the NCAA tournament once in four seasons at Virginia.
This link will take you to a more detailed article from The Sporting News.
Leitao was hired four years ago by the Cavaliers and compiled a 63-60 record. Virginia, two years removed from a first-place regular-season finish in the ACC, was 10-18 overall and 4-12 in the ACC this season.
Leitao won ACC Coach of the Year after Virginia was 21-11 and tied North Carolina for first place in the league with a 11-5 record.
However, the Cavaliers were 17-16 two years ago and finished 10th in the conference and were next to last in the ACC this season.
Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel and Xavier’s Sean Miller are expected to be two names in the mix to replace Leitao.
I’ve got a million thoughts and not enough time to post them. I just can’t help but laugh at how diametrically opposite this type of behavior is from the manner in which Lee Fowler ‘manages’ the NC State Athletics Department. I will never forget Fowler telling everyone at NC State that ‘you can’t fire a coach who won Coach of the Year honors’.
This opening could potentially play a role in NC State’s future as Sean Miller is considered to be a coach who would be a mutual fit as potential future replacement for Sidney Lowe is Coach Lowe can’t get the Wolfpack program turned around in the next couple of seasons.
TSN has a little more in their article.
We will have more on this later.
