I know Hokie basketball fans still have strong feelings about Seth Greenberg, and this is a really good interview with Richard Deitsch. They touch on his current analyst role with ESPN and how he approaches certain aspects of the job, and there's a fair amount of talk about Virginia Tech.
There's a bit about the current team, but they also talk about his philosophy on media access for coaches at non blue-blood programs and highlights his experience at VT as an example, his firing and how it led to his job at ESPN, and Steph Curry. It's not the typical "Why didn't you sign this guy?" discussion, but led into some pretty insights in recruiting and he namedrops some great Hokies from that time including Zabian Dowdell, Jamon Gordon and Malcolm Delaney.
It's about an hour long, but well worth the listen:
Comments
i found this to be pretty damn good.
He was on Russilo and Kannel today. They brought up his firing at Tech, as much as I disliked Greenberg as a coach, Jim Weaver absolutely effed that whole thing up and I still feel for Greenberg with that.
Yeah, Weaver completely botched Greenberg's dismissal. I could understand the reasons for firing him, but the timing and optics were about as bad as they could possibly have been.
The way the basketball program was handled in his final years at the helm is unfortunate, but we're in a better place now. Weaver did a lot of great things for Virginia Tech athletics, so I think we can give him a pass on things now.
Agree (with both of you). Weaver probably couldn't have handled it worse, it looked pretty damn bad at best. But I'm willing to give him the overall pass too, because we landed Whit and Weaver left him money to go to work. Im glad Weaver was a budget hawk and he allowed Whit to make the next big moves by retiring when he did. Whit was a godsend and we are so lucky to have him!
This was a great listen at work. Everything he said regarding family after firing was crazy to hear.
I watched a replay of the Illinois game the other day. The way that team rebounded and played defense was incredible. Our halfcourt offense was atrocious, but I loved every second of watching the defense.
Seth took us as far as he was going to take us, and there's nothing wrong with how far that. The Stokes years were awful, and Greenberg got us out of that mess. Had Weaver handled the dismissal better (or Whit had become Athletic Director sooner), we probably would have gotten back to the NCAA Tournament sooner.
I do not share the same hate for Greenberg as most the Hokie fan base. I think he did some good things for our program, got us to the dance and ranked top 25 for the first time in a long time. He brought in some great recruits too. Maybe he didn't do enough w the talent he had or whatever. I think the firing process was def uncalled for given what he had done for us.