Why is everyone so harsh on Seth?

[MotorCityHokie80]

I am not one of the basketball gurus but I ask this common sense question, Why is everyone so harsh on Seth? The man has rebuilt a team that in shambles when he took over. He has had multiple 20 win seasons. He has had multiple 10+ wins in ACC play. His teams has beaten Duke and North Carolina. He has gotten the team to a post season tournament almost every year he has been here. We seem to be happy with his recruiting classes. His teams play tough defense. This year's team is made up of a bunch of Freshman. I think it lacks strong Senior leadership. It is a rebuilding year. I have personally met Seth a couple of times and he has a great personality and seems to be a real people person who cares about our program. Doesn't Seth have some good will built up. Maybe I'm missing something. I just don't get all of the negative talk and calls for his job.

[VT Wink]

I think that there would be more good will had we made the NCAA tourney a few more times.
I do give him a ton of credit for doing what he has done here. I believe some are starting to think he may have brought us as far as he can due to:
-Bad losses that put us on the bubble in the first place the last few years
-A bad half court offense
-At best- an odd tone of diplomacy with players and media. He recruits well but you dont see a ton of former players praising his guidance.

I think he that if they miss the next 2 tourney he will be gone. Personally I think he has earned at least 3.

[Atlee Hokie]

He will be gone well before 3 more NCAA misses, if the financial support, in the form of tickets bought, continues to fall off the cliff.

Wins and losses will not get Weaver's attention. However, if the basketball program starts to bleed red ink, Weaver will make a change.

[Bcscg]

I think he stays until the end of his contract. Why?

I think we will be on the NCAA bubble for those 4 years - which isn't horrible.
I don't think Weaver will ever buy anybody out of a contract that big. I am old fashioned I guess, but, i think we should honor his contract if he is palying by the rules and palying in the top half of the ACC.
I sincerely am not trying to be mean here, but, I really do not want Weaver to hire our next coach. I am not impressed with the long term bebenfit to VT of any of his hires (other than they are not s big financial hit to us). I think Weaver will be retiring in the next 4 years?

[Nova Hokie 95]

I think he stays until the end of his contract. Why?

I think we will be on the NCAA bubble for those 4 years - which isn't horrible.
I don't think Weaver will ever buy anybody out of a contract that big. I am old fashioned I guess, but, i think we should honor his contract if he is palying by the rules and palying in the top half of the ACC.
I sincerely am not trying to be mean here, but, I really do not want Weaver to hire our next coach. I am not impressed with the long term bebenfit to VT of any of his hires (other than they are not s big financial hit to us). I think Weaver will be retiring in the next 4 years?

Here's the thing re: buying out a contract -- you're almost always going to HAVE to buy out a contract. They're rolled over to give coaches a four-year window, usually, to stave off the negative recruiting of "don't go to X school, you don't even know if their coach will be there when you graduate!" In two years, he'll either get another extension, or get fired. There's hardly any "just coach out the rest of your contract." You just can't have a lame duck coach.

[VT Noslen]

Here's the thing re: buying out a contract -- you're almost always going to HAVE to buy out a contract. They're rolled over to give coaches a four-year window, usually, to stave off the negative recruiting of "don't go to X school, you don't even know if their coach will be there when you graduate!" In two years, he'll either get another extension, or get fired. There's hardly any "just coach out the rest of your contract." You just can't have a lame duck coach.

Do you know for certain that he has that kind of provision in his contract?

[Groff]

Do you know for certain that he has that kind of provision in his contract?

Someone posted his contract details in here last week, I think.

It's a diminishing buyout, and it's actually not that big. It's like 900k this year, 600k next year, 300k the next year, then 0.

I think that 2013-2014 year is really going to be key. 300k is the kind of buyout number that even a stingy, bottom-line fretting AD like Weaver (If he's still here) can really start working with if things don't really turn around and program interest and attendance continue to wane. I honestly don't think Weaver wants to make this call, though (I hope he doesn't, I sure don't want him making it). I think he retires before we hire our next BB Coach.

The stars are aligning. I think the guy (SG) has about 2 more years to either take that next step or be sent on his way.

[techman]

I think that there would be more good will had we made the NCAA tourney a few more times.
I do give him a ton of credit for doing what he has done here. I believe some are starting to think he may have brought us as far as he can due to:
-Bad losses that put us on the bubble in the first place the last few years
-A bad half court offense
-At best- an odd tone of diplomacy with players and media. He recruits well but you dont see a ton of former players praising his guidance.

I think he that if they miss the next 2 tourney he will be gone. Personally I think he has earned at least 3.

Excellent post. A concise statement of Coach SG's talents and issues. One addition is that SG is a bit emotional, and I suspect that too much yelling might take a toll on player morale over the course of a stressful season. IMHO SG is an overall solid coach who has underperformed at times, maybe too many times.

Of course, hiring a new coach is not a panacea. VT could do better, but we also could do worse. I think some patience would be prudent, because firing a pretty solid coach with a winning record will turn off some prospective coaching candidates. Consider the tribulations of NC State after they fired Sendak.

[AHBHokie]

Plateau frustration, for lack of better words. I think the initial enthusiasm during our program's resurgence has worn off and fans have, mostly, settled in. The expectation at this point is more NCAAs whereas at first it was let's just make the postseason or finish with a winning record.

I like Greenberg's intensity, I love the way his teams play defense, I love the way he represents the university and runs a clean program; but I also think his lack of offense, poor basketball fundamentals, playing up and down to competition, and terrible shot selection (all have plagued every team to some extent), have cost us over the years. There have been personnel issues and other unfortunate circumstances, but some of us feel like we shouldn't have endured some of the losses we have in bubble years and feel like poor preparation and poor play caused us to be omitted from the NCAAs more than anything.

I certainly think there's less criticism if the committee chooses us over another at-large at least one year, but I still believe there were controllable things we did not take advantage of to get in more often than not.

My support of Greenberg is not as strong as it once was, but I am patient enough to let the next few years play out before making any strong or final judgments on the man.

[beedubyah]

Plateau frustration, for lack of better words. I think the initial enthusiasm during our program's resurgence has worn off and fans have, mostly, settled in. The expectation at this point is more NCAAs whereas at first it was let's just make the postseason or finish with a winning record.

I like Greenberg's intensity, I love the way his teams play defense, I love the way he represents the university and runs a clean program; but I also think his lack of offense, poor basketball fundamentals, playing up and down to competition, and terrible shot selection (all have plagued every team to some extent), have cost us over the years. There have been personnel issues and other unfortunate circumstances, but some of us feel like we shouldn't have endured some of the losses we have in bubble years and feel like poor preparation and poor play caused us to be omitted from the NCAAs more than anything.

I certainly think there's less criticism if the committee chooses us over another at-large at least one year, but I still believe there were controllable things we did not take advantage of to get in more often than not.

My support of Greenberg is not as strong as it once was, but I am patient enough to let the next few years play out before making any strong or final judgments on the man.

Solid.