Virginia Tech Fires Greenberg

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

After nine years in Blacksburg, Seth Greenberg was fired as the men's basketball coach at Virginia Tech on Monday, a decision athletic director Jim Weaver said he and basketball administrator Tom Gabbard arrived at last week as they assessed the state of the program.

The discussion came after a second assistant coach in two weeks, and sixth in four years, announced he was leaving Greenberg's staff, this time to take an assistant's job at ACC rival Clemson. Associate head coach James Johnson, a five-year member of Greenberg's staff, was offered a salary matching the one he was to receive at Clemson, but still declined to remain a Hokie.

Last week, Rob Ehsan left to become an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham, and was accompanied by director of basketball operations Jeff Wulbrun, who got an assistant's position at UAB, leaving only John Richardson and Greenberg on the Tech staff.

Within three hours of Tech's announcement about Greenberg, Old Dominion announced it had hired Richardson, who spent five years on Blaine Taylor's staff before going to Blacksburg.

TOM GABBARD and JIM WEAVER (Daniel Lin/Roanoke Times)

According to various reports, other factors such as Weaver’s perception of the way Greenberg and his staff fit into the family atmosphere VT tries to promote for all programs also weighed into the decision.

''Mr. Gabbard and I decided last week that one year from now, in 2013, we were not going to extend (Greenberg's) contract at all, nor would we extend the contract the year after that, and because we have three vacancies now on our staff, it made all the sense in the world to us to move forward and change that direction of our program and hire a new staff that is going to be here,'' he said.

The Hokies went 170-123 on Greenberg’s watch. They were 16-17 last season, just 4-12 in the ACC, and missed postseason play for the first time in six years. Greenberg, who had four years left on his contract, led Virginia Tech to the NCAA tournament just once in nine seasons where the Hokies won their first round game.

The buyout of Greenberg's contract was reportedly $1.2 million.