A major press conference has been scheduled for 4pm EST this afternoon in Blacksburg, Virgina.
Twitter is all abuzz with rumors that Hokie head basketball coach, Seth Greenberg, has been fired…including this tweet just moments ago from Hokies Journal:
CBSSports.com just posted this:
Virginia Tech will announce at a 4 p.m. press conference that Seth Greenberg won’t continue as its men’s basketball coach, according to a report from Daily Press columnist David Teel.
Greenberg told CBSSports.com’s Jeff Goodman earlier Monday that he didn’t believe the scheduled press conference was about him. Multiple attempts by CBSSports.com to reach Greenberg after Teel’s report published have not been successful. Virginia Tech has neither confirmed nor denied the report. Greenberg has not returned voicemails or text messages in the past hour.
Greenberg, 56, just completed his ninth season at Virginia Tech. He’s only made one NCAA tournament while compiling a 167-117 record, and, it should be noted, that all three of his assistants — plus his director of basketball operations — left the program after this season. James Johnson left for Clemson and John Richardson moved to Old Dominion. Robert Ehsan and director of basketball operations Jeff Wulbrun both left for UAB.
Due to the odd timing of this announcement, there is some reason to speculate that more is going on here than is currently being reported. For example, there are scenarios where ‘Greenberg will not remain as VPI’s head basketball coach’, but would remain at Virginia Tech. Look no further than NC State who actually PROMOTED the least successful basketball coach in our program’s history in the mid-1990s when Les Robinson moved into the athletics administration only to later serve as the University’s Athletics Director.
There are also scenarios where things happen behind the scenes about which the rest of the world never really learns – ie recruiting issues, academic issues, behavior of players off the court, etc? Look no further than the events behind the scenes of Dino Gaudio’s ouster at Wake Forest that were not made public at or since his firing.
It is worth noting that Greenberg has not used his Twitter account since April 16th.
SFN just re-tweeted the following from David Teel
RT @DavidTeelatDP Greenberg’s record at VT: 170-123. ACC 61-67. One NCAA in 9 years. Buyout $1.2 mil for remaining 4 years of contract.
Another strange component of this developing situation is the manner in which VPI is ‘promoting’ this press conference. Usually press conferences that discuss a firings are scheduled quickly and without much ‘fanfare’; but, this PC is literally being ‘promoted’ by VPI outlets with a different style of communication. For example, check out this screenshot from the VPI sports website.
As much as I always wanted to ‘love’ Greenberg and his fire, passion and candor, I was never able to divorce myself from the public criticisms he made of NC State’s fan base when we were mired in the ‘Herb Sendek decade’. As SFN’s Jeff blogged in this entry in February of 2007:
As likable as Greenburg is, his propensity to publicly comment on NC State’s coaching situation (Herb Sendek) last year really rubbed me the wrong way. He talked A LOT on Fox Sports radio, etc about the situation in Raleigh and was too critical of Wolfpackers for my liking. IMHO, he would have been better served to have kept his mouth shut. In 2005, Greenberg defeated a deep and experienced Wolfpack coached Herb Sendek in their first battle in Cassell Coliseum. In 2007, Greenberg lost to a thin and inexperienced Wolfpack team coached by Sidney Lowe. I guess I don’t blame him for loving Sendek so much.
Stay tuned to SFN and SFN’s message forums for more on this as it develops.
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