In case you want to watch the press conference tomorrow it will be streamed live on www.hokiesports.com
I am looking forward to hearing what Whit has to say and any other insight we might gain from this discussion tomorrow.
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For those who didn't watch it:
- Made decision to fire Coach Johnson Sunday night, informed him yesterday
- Emphasis on coach with head coaching experience
- Reasonable expectations are real improvement year-to-year
- Long-term goals are consistently be in contention for the NCAA tournament & be in top half of ACC
- Willing to let the new coach time to rebuild
- Will be financially aggressive "for the right guy"
- He tempered expectations on getting a "big name hire" & about how difficult it is to pick the right "up and comer"
- Might take until the end of the final four to make a decision, no deadline for decision (mentioned potential candidates are coaching in the tourney right now)
- Wants a coach willing to "scrap and fight"
I am a big fan of everything you noted (and he said). I think we made the right choice. Go Whit Go!
Time to rebuild also equals time to pay off all of the other coaches on staff. 2 years for Greenberg and 3 years for JJ.
Maybe I'm reading too far into this, but that second to last point is the biggest to me. To me that means his top choices are guys who are either assistants or head coaches in the tournament right now. Danny Manning! I'm gonna get annoying about this, maybe if I get really annoying Whit will just do it to shut me up.
Not reading too far into it, he explicitly stated there are some candidates that are coaching in the tournament right now (I made changes in the original post to reflect this)
A++ grade for how Whit has handled everything so far, makes me even more confident in our athletic dept going forward.
Wrong thread but I have a great feeling that we will see all maroon very shortly in Lane once again. And on this topic its great that this decision was made fast and JJ was informed properly, not through the media or rumors. JJ did a good job with what he had, still think he was a pre-mature hire from weaver.
I really enjoyed the press conference this morning. Whit said all the things I was hoping to hear. If the guy is there, the checkbook is open. The best candidate will have head coaching experience. He wasn't real clear about what he defines as the timeline to rebuild but that's hard to put a finger on until after its happened anyway. All in all I feel confident Whit is going to get someone that is capable of moving us forward and keeping us there for at least a few years.
That pretty much eliminates Coach K's assistant.
It doesn't eliminate Jeff Capel who is a current Duke assistant but has head coaching experience from stints at VCU and Oklahoma. He signed multiple McDonald's all Americans at Oklahoma and knows the ACC landscape well from being at Duke since 2011. He's still relatively young at 39 years old, only 2 years older than Shane Beamer, so even with his experience could still consider him an up and comer.
I just wanted to take the time to thank you for your postings. I am not a big basketball guy but I have learned a ton of stuff about the game and the intricacies/drama/vision in looking for coaches. So thank you and a turkey leg for you.
I watched it and I was very pleased with how Whit handled himself. Just some of my observations are thats he wants a coach that is will to go head to head against the big time coaches for recruits, he is willing to open the checkbook not only for bball but I believe for fball as well, he will do his due dillegence in finding a replacement, made a great point that JJ was here with program for 7 years and recruited many of the players that were in the program, is trying to improve experience and game atmosphere in cassell. Stiney listed at the top the major things to take away form the presser. In all I believe we finally have an AD that is going to lead us to greatness!
My interpretation of the press conference: this guy is good (Whit).
Just hearing the words "open the checkbook"
I would leg this a brazillion times if I could
I started another thread on this at same time. I copied Mark Berman's blog as a vehicle to keep context. Sorry about timing...
And now we wait
In a stunning move, Babcock hires Aaron Moorehead to coach the basketball team.
Edit:
Just went through my twitter feed and these jumped out at me. Can we just give Whit all the Turkey Legs?
Good stuff from Babcock. Were with you Whit!
Just so we have some gifs we can use later when this inevitably comes up again.
But will it be enough?
Probably never.
Oh dear god, he dropped a choppin wood?
Whit Babcock is going to do excellent things for Virginia Tech. I'm already excited to see who he'll hire when Beamer decides to retire
Bud Foster. Bud. Foster. Bud Foster Bud Foster Bud Foster Bud Foster Bud Foster. Buuud Fffosssterrr.
...Whit makes me no longer miss Grimes. This guy is gonna make us a contenda.
I just watched the pressed again. I was a big fan of when he said he wants the system where we put the basket in to the net more than the other team.
Just Win!