Hokies hire ex-asstant

[Olympic Fan]

Didn't see this posted elsewhere, but Virginia Tech just hired former assistant James Johnson to replace Seth Greenberg.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7872638/virginia-tech-hokies-hire-james-johnson-coach

It was Johnson's recent departure for Clemson that seemed to be the final straw in Weaver's decision to fire Greenberg. Apparently, the VPI AD thinks a lot of Johnson -- it remainds me of the early 1980s when Tim Butters fired Duke football coach Red Wilson after back-to-back 6-5 seasons ... because he thought offensive coordinator Steve Spurrier was the brains behind that success and when Spurrier left, he through the program would collapse. As it turned out, Spurrier WAS the brains behind Wilson's success and until he returned in the late '80s, the program floundered.

Two other points: (1) Getting Johnson back may help the Hokies avoid transfers -- including their top recruit, Harrell. The 6-7 post player blew up in postseason and is now regarded as MUCH better than his top 75 ranking. (2) Losing Johnson has got to be a blow to Brownell at Clemson. The guy is doing a great coaching job there, but he's doing a terrible job recruiting. My understanding is that Johnson was brought in to correct that. Losing him now -- in the middle of a key avaluatioon period -- and leaving Clemson short a recruiter has to hurt.

[superdave]

Didn't see this posted elsewhere, but Virginia Tech just hired former assistant James Johnson to replace Seth Greenberg.

It was Johnson's recent departure for Clemson that seemed to be the final straw in Weaver's decision to fire Greenberg.

This is amazing. Crap on your boss on the way out the door; watch him get fired; take his job before he knows what happened. I'm not really making a judgement on whether Seth deserved what he got, but Johnson pretty much pulled a coup.

The Harrell situation will be interesting in the next week or two.

[Jderf]

This is amazing. Crap on your boss on the way out the door; watch him get fired; take his job before he knows what happened. I'm not really making a judgement on whether Seth deserved what he got, but Johnson pretty much pulled a coup.

An unintentional coup, perhaps, but a coup nonetheless. From a disconnected, objective point of view, it is actually somewhat fascinating to look at how the situation played out: starting with the AD pledging full support and ending with the assistant as the head coach. Who could have ever predicted that the dominoes would fall like that?

[superdave]

An unintentional coup, perhaps, but a coup nonetheless. From a disconnected, objective point of view, it is actually somewhat fascinating to look at how the situation played out: starting with the AD pledging full support and ending with the assistant as the head coach. Who could have ever predicted that the dominoes would fall like that?

My guess is the AD just had not taken a deep look at the men's basketball program in a while.

Has Greenberg landed a new job yet? I'm guessing Espn is the most likely spot for a year or two.

[brianl]

I went to High School with James and played with him for one year on our High School Varsity Team. I'm tremendously excited for him, as he will represent Virginia Tech and the ACC well. He's a solid recruiter, has been around the game as a top assistant for many years, and is just a great guy in general. I wish him the best of luck (except for the games against Duke).

[Reilly]

Looks like he coached under Jeff Capel (the dad) at ODU.

[throatybeard]

I enjoyed the typo in the thread title so much that I'm not fixing it.