Tech criticized on ESPN
Virginia Tech was in the ESPN spotlight today, but it did not come off positively. “Outside the Lines” examined the decline in the number of women coaching women’s basketball, and Tech AD Jim Weaver’s hiring of Dennis Wolff last year was criticized in a taped piece and a panel discussion. Wolff had no experience coaching women when he was plucked from his job as director of men’s basketball operations and named the women’s basketball coach. Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer said in the taped piece she was “really, really hurt” when Wolff was hired. Weaver was interviewed in the taped piece, but he again talked about how one of the factors in Wolff’s favor was that his daughter used to play for UConn. His rationale was met with scorn by VanDerveer and the panel.
June 17, 2012 - 4:47 PM
It should not be a surprise that criticism arises when one hires the only person he interviews – while taking a coffee break. My only question is, was VanDerveer “really, really hurt” because she wanted the job or was she hurt because it’s the PC thing to be.
Apparently Ms. VanDerveer does not know that an atmosphere of family values trumps all else in the VT Athletics Dept.
Head Coaching experience definitely takes a backseat to this warm and fuzzy requirement.
VanDerveer wasn’t hurt because she wanted the job. You don’t leave Stanford, one of the top women’s programs in the country, to go to Va. Tech. She was hurt because she wanted the job to go to a woman, not a man who had never coached women before.
VanDerveer’s pain had nothing to do with her personal aspirations to become VT’s head coach. Are you kidding me? This is just another liberal interpretation of what happened as a purposeful, intentional move to NOT hire a woman.
Why didn’t they bring up the fact that the previous 3 or 4 hires for the women’s basketball job were ALL women?
This is selective retention as far as I am concerned, and an intentional move on the media’s part to make us look like we’re against women, etc.
BUNK
I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight knowing that Vanderveer is hurt and upset with VT’s hiring decision.
WAKE UP & SMELL THE COFFEE:
Steve 78 and Techerman both missed the buss! All Tech alumni should be embarrassed by the sound-bite from Mr. Weaver. It clearly indicated diminished efforts by VT in hiring a qualified women’s basketball coach. Family values or not, you have to know when to right the ship and this current administration continues to miss the boat, and stray into the abiss of past glories. It doesn’t take a high level of deductive reasoning to figure out VT is being left behind by the more inovative programs in the SEC, Big 12, Pac 12, and Big 10. Mr. Berman is correct in his explanation of Ms. VanDerveer’s comments. Now, enjoy your hot cup of Joe with eyes wide open!
/r
RT
EYES WIDE OPEN
Today in student athletics a program must succeed in all sports, not just football. This is where VT is missing a golden opportunity from a PR perspective and recruiting perspective for all sports. NOW, with a top 5 track & field program and NCAA qualifier softball team, TECH should be promoting these achievements widely and improving all team facilities and pushing VT athletics to the front of the field while other schools are in a financial bind. Then we can join the ranks of the SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and PAC 12. Where is the VT vision and way-ahead? How will VT get there? A good vision is shared by all and everyone can then help VT get there quicker and easier. Good luck and aim for the top.
/r
RT
Most programs want to win and will hire the person for coach that they think has the best chance to win, although Dream Weaver probably takes the easy way out, and many times that person is an experienced male coach.
Has about as much weight as me criticizing the decline in ESPN’s quality of non-game programming.
I wasn’t a fan of tthe Wolff hire but Weaver certainly didn’t make the argument that is there to be made: basketball is basketball, Geno at UConn hasn’t done too badly, Wolff does things the right way, etc. Did Wolff decline to be interviewed?
VanDerveer should just be happy that there are a certain number of women’s basketball coaching jobs that won’t go away, simply because it is legislated that schools field money-losing, non-interest-drawing sports. In most places (UConn and Tennessee being two of the most obvious exceptions), people don’t care. Basketball is just the most obvious sport to fund given that you are required to pour certain amounts of money and scholarships into women’s sports. Financial Darwinism has been legislated out.
The Wolff hiring bugged me because it seemed lazy, not because he’s a male. If they want to legislate a certain amount of coaching dollars that must be dedicated to females, as they’ve done with scholarships, then do so. Otherwise, things like this will happen.
I have found the talking heads will look for off-the-wall things to talk about because they have 24/7 airtime to fill. They stir the pot about stuff nobody else cares about and no one else thinks of. I also think they take contrary positions just to get people’s opinion adrenaline juices warmed up. If you take this stuff too seriously maybe you need to think about getting a life.
Gee, Steve ’78 and I missed the buss (bus, I suppose), and the current administration continues to miss the boat! That’s no way to run an army.
Richard Tracy, can you spell facetious?? Jim Weaver’s reason for firing Seth Greenberg was a lack of “family atmosphere” in the basketball program, not family values. He seems to imply that as long as everyone gets along and it’s all cotton candy and balloons everything will be O.K.
I agree with you, it just doesn’t work that way. He points to the football program as having a family atmosphere, but look at the results when we play the national power teams. You know what’s really going to piss me off?? If Clemson leaves us in their rearview mirror with a relatively new coach in Dabo Sweeney. He fired their D Coordinator, Kevin Steele, even though they won the ACC Title (by hammering us again) because of the way they got drilled by the Mountainettes in the OB and the late regular season losses they suffered. You think VT would do that? We have proved that we won’t (see Brian Stinespring). But Dabo wants to win, so he doesn’t ascribe to the family values mentality that allows stiffs like Stiney to hang around.
Now you go enjoy your cup of Java with your horizon a little broader than when you posted your comments this morning.
Perhaps VanderVeer was unhappy that one of her assistants, Bobbie Kelsey, was not considered for the job. Bobbie was an ex-assistant for Dunkenberger until she left for Stanford. She is now head coach at Wisconsin. My impression has always been that Bobbie was head coach material, but I am not sure that Weaver wanted anything but a clean break with the past.
If Tara VanDerveer had been Stanford’s offensive coordinator in the 40-12 Orange Bowl embarrasement, I would be impressed. She wasn’t, and I’m not.
When is Weaver going to retire? It is time for a new AD at Virginia Tech.
Let’s go Hokies !!!
My cousin knows someone that used to play for Pat Summitt. Maybe I could coach the Tech women once Dennis is through.
I wonder if Vanderveer was angry because Dream Weaver did not hire one of her assistants and players, Bobbie Kelsey, who had been at VT a couple of years back before going to Stanford ??
This is all on Weaver in my opinion. He let a good coach go to Kansas, all she did was resurrect the Women’s program and take them to the NCAA’s, and walk to his closest Dir. of B-Ball operations and hire him. He did not want to take the time to hire, or pay a qualified coach.(Not that Wolff is not qualified, but he should have been asked to put in his app. with other qualified candidates) An ACC job would attract plenty of qualified candidates. Especially considering the funding put in to the facilities as of late.
He also lost control of Greenberg, so what did he do? For convenience sake, fire him. And hire the convenient candidate. Again, a more exhaustive search would have aided the program. Many candidates could have emerged.
Both programs have been set back. I feel his judgement is flawed. And all the things he was able to accomplish while being here, will be tarnished by his careless judgement in the last couple of years.
They should be criticized. VT looked bad then with that move and even worse when Weaver gave his “justification”. I translated that into ” VT doesn’t really care about women’s BB”.
On another note, I know Weaver has Parkinson’s and back issues. He should retire and enjoy life. The presser on Seth’s firing and this interview snip on ESPN make him and VT look really bad. Anyone w/o knowledge of his health issues or w/o a heart would wonder how in the world he is the AD at VT.
Weaver deserved to be embarrassed, considering how he embarrassed the VT program with his hire of Wolff. Wolff wasn’t hired because he was the best candidate, there is no evidence that there were ANY other candidates. Wolff was hired because he was convenient. For those who hide behind the argument – ‘He was more skilled than any female coach’, then why not hire another male coach, because there are tons of them more skilled than Wolff.
I won’t even get started on the ‘family atmosphere’ farce, I’ll just say that Weaver needs to be retired. Pay out his contract, just remove him from decision making. What the VT athletic department needs more than anything else is an infusion of outside perspective, NOT more inclusion.
Wolff is a place holder until Weaver Retires. JJ probably is also.
Anyone heard anything about Allan Chaney? Will the VT medical staff clear him? Or will he transfer — like all the others??
Tech medical staff ruled last summer that it would not clear him to ever practice or play in games for the Hokies. That decision was made a year ago. So if he ever plays again, it will be at another college. But some other college has to be willing to let him play for them, which has yet to happen.
ALAN CHANEY PLAYING AT HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY
Yes, I know that. I went down to High Point recently to interview him for a story that ran on the front page of The Roanoke Times on Jan 9. There is a link to that story on this blog in a Jan 9 post