To anyone who knows bball or anything about coaching

I've had a problem that i've had to deal with the past couple of weeks, but i'll explain my situation first

I am the head coach of the JV program here at VT, I also play when we play against the prep schools...at the beginning of the year the leader of the JV program decided to keep 25 guys on the roster, some of which really have no business playing college ball, but also some of those are really good friends of mine

about a month into the season the other players went to the leader and asked for a change and asked if i could be the coach...so he gave full control to me and i allowed the kids who were pretty bad to play spot minutes and practice with us but not much else

we've turned the program around and we're undefeated in conference play with the conference tournament coming up, i sent out an email saying that we were gonna have to make cuts for the conference tourney b/c there was no way that i could bring 25 guys to a tournament and let them all play...then i gave my reasons for cutting the players i did, and i had to cut a lot of my friends who just weren't good enough

so here's my question, the players who were cut have become pretty upset about the whole ordeal and complained to the original leader and he and i had a long discussion but ultimately he decided to step down and handed everything over...i want to bring those back in as a group but i cant for the life of me figure out how to get them involved without jeopardizing our chances on the basketball court...so any suggestions (serious ones) would be helpful

thanks

Drew

Not really a suggestion, but kudo's for what you did. Being a coach takes some hard decisions like that and you made the call that had to be made. If they can't understand the what and why of the situation, I'd say it's tough for them. If they are your friends and if they do respect you they should understand that. I hope they see things that way and things go well.

the hardest thing for me is that i feel like i'm throwing my friends under the bus, which goes against everything that i try to stand for...id do anything for my friends and right or wrong id be on their side

so with this, i am trying to let everyone realize that this is purely a basketball decision and nothing else

The reason for the cut: Was it because you had to narrow the team down? Money issues for travel? Could you have kept them on the team, but gave them the expectation that they may not see minutes in this tourney?

I really don't see anything wrong with what you have done. You are not throwing them under the bus if it is something you had to do for the team.

all of the above...simply put, they just weren't good enough to compete at the level we have to play

we have to take separate cars to tournaments so travel was also going to be an issue

really the only thing i couldve done would be to keep them on as like a scout team, but i want my guys to get the defensive reps as well when we are playing in practice so i didnt know how to make that work

The only thing you can really do is be honest with them and lay out like that. They have to be understanding, as you are all adults now. If they don't want to be buddies because of that, thats their fault not yours.

Good luck at the tournament.

thanks, i appreciate it

How does your JV program fit in with the varsity program? Who is your immediate supervisor? It seems to me that at your level, which is obviously above intramurals, you have to still focus on producing on the court. Twenty-five players to rotate through a game is a huge task. I'd like to hear more about your situation.

be honest,But you are the man in charge you gotta understand that the business that you are going into sometimes you cant be the best friend remeber the could be the start of your career,and if they cant understand that then they are being selfish on there part.Keep doing what your doing cause it sound like your doing a good job.

Ditto on that last point. I have talked to players who would rather play and lose than not play as much and win. Parents are even worse. It's almost a no-win situation, because you can't please everybody. It really makes coaching a drag and not very much fun.

the Varsity program has taken 3 of our players in the past 2 years, so it serves as somewhat of a feeder system for walk-ons but we are not directly related with the Varsity program

Paul Debnam is currently on the Varsity team as a walk-on and he was our leading scorer last year and had 42 pts and 21 boards against Massanutten Military Academy and he is a very good friend of mine...he actually was one of the guys who came to play in the 3-on-3 tournament at UVA-Wise with me last year, for those of you who were there

anyway, at the beginning of the year, Coach Greenberg met with the former head of the program and told him we needed to see better results if we wanted to continue to practice in Cassell Coliseum...we started out 3-4 on the year and then they cut us off so we moved into War Memorial for practice times...at winter break we were 3-7...we are now 10-7 (4-0) with 3 tournaments (roughly 9 games) before the conference tournament, if we go 8-1 we get the top seed so the next few tournaments are just as important...so we have to prepare right now for how it will be in the final tournaments

the conference we are in is the East Coast Basketball League with 22 teams:

College of William & Mary
Drexel University
East Carolina University
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Howard University
James Madison University
Lehigh University
Loyola College in Maryland
Princeton University
Radford University
University of Delaware
University of Mary Washington
University of Maryland
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of Richmond
University of Virginia
Villanova University
Virginia Tech University
Wake Forest University
Campbell University
Hofstra University

as you can see, there are some big schools in the league so they do have some very good talent...a lot of what you find in our league are guys who could play D3 or low D2 ball but chose to go to a bigger school for whatever reason

the top 4 teams go on to Nationals at UNC in May

Have you played at Campbell in the little box gym?

no, just UVa and JMU this year so far...last year we went to East Carolina and William & Mary as well

we're supposed to go to Georgetown in the coming weeks

Those guys should be mature enough to understand that it isn't personal. It is about TEAM,and you as a coach have to do what you have to do to put the team in its best position. You aren't dealing with 10 year-olds. Perhaps they should attempt to see it from where you are standing. Somtimes in life,you have to do the hard thing,be it athletic,professional,personal...etc. Kudos for the solid job that you are doing. They'll come around. If not,then they aren't understanding,something that a real friend has gotta be sometimes.

Id rather be cut because of my ability or lack there of rather than rely on one of my friends keeping me there. Kudos to you Drew.

I would use this experience to gain some very valuable professional knowledge. Not everybody will like or agree with the decisions you make for any number of reasons. Evaluation of athletes not only has to do with their capabilities on the court/field, but how they deal with other players, challenges, and stressful situations. You are really in a hard situation, because you are basically coaching your peer group. Stick to what you believe is right and good for the team and the program and you will be fine. Keep it up and let us know how things turn out.

I agree. Be honest with them. Technically as a coach, you do not have to give explanation or reason as to why you make a decision. You do not have to justify anything. That's why you are coach! However, since some of these guys are your friends, and since you may not want to burn any bridges...just sitting them down and talking with them may help ease tensions.

Good job on everything though! Sounds great.

thanks for the help guys, i appreciate it

friends are friends, and business is business...

That is a hard one to swallow, but we all have to swallow it sonner or later, and since you have stated coaching is your dream, then this is business for you...

just an update...we had our conference tournament this weekend @ UVa

we were in a pool with UVa & Georgetown on Saturday...we played Georgetown first and won by 16...leading by 27 with 12 min to go

then we played UVa and went up 31-9 and pulled all my best players to we could rest for Sunday, we wound up winning by 11 or 12

Sunday was single elimination and we gained the top seed by our performance on Saturday...they played a couple games in the morning and we wound up playing the winner of William & Mary and Radford...Radford won by 12 so they turned around and played us, we played decently but got sloppy late winning by 28

we advanced to the finals to play 2nd seeded JMU who we beat twice in the last tournament at JMU by a combined 17 points...our sloppy play form the morning session continued and JMU jumped on us early, we came back and played well only to fall to VERY poor rebounding and defensive breakdowns in communication and lost by 6

we placed one kid on the all-conference team...we move on to nationals at North Carolina State in 3 weeks where the top 80 teams will come and play

should be interesting to see how we can do, hopefully the loss will teach us that we can't simply walk out on the court and think people will be scared of us...it's my first loss as a coach and a hard one to swallow because of how poorly we played and i can't help but think we could have been better prepared for what we were to see in the final game

anyway, figured i'd update and i'll update again after nationals april 25-27

Congrads and good luck at NC State.