Virginia Tech held a press conference yesterday to announce Seth Greenberg's hiring and to introduce him to the local media. Here is a transcript of the press conference, which lasted over half an hour.

We decided three and a half or four weeks ago, that we were going to start this search and go through the process. When the process got completed, we would have a press conference. And so we're gathered here today to announce that new head coach, a person who has 13 years of head coaching experience, has an overall record of 213 wins and 170 losses, against quality competition across this country.

I recall coach Greenberg's teams beating our Vegas teams when I was at UNLV and he was the Long Beach coach in the Big West, and beating Neil McCarthy's New Mexico State teams. I also remember him when he was at Long Beach State and he went into Lawrence, Kansas and beat the Jayhawks when they were ranked #1.

Then, about 7 years ago to this very day, if you check his bio in the South Florida media guide, he was hired to become the coach of the Fighting Bulls of the University of South Florida. I remember that vividly because I was one of a number of people who made a phone call on his behalf and could endorse his candidacy with great enthusiasm.

And over the years there, he's had a lot of quality wins, including, in no particular chronological order, wins over Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh last year, California, two wins over Ohio State, two wins over Texas, wins this year over Providence and over Memphis. And when you look over time, he has had a lot of other quality wins as well.

He has competed at the highest level, and I thought that was important for Virginia Tech. He knows what it takes to win at the highest level, and I thought that was important for Virginia Tech.

Jerry West told me and told David Chambers when we were together at UNLV in the mid-90's when we were embarking on a coaching search campaign -- because they had a couple of non-conference games at UNLV, because of an issue that happened in the '92 season when we helped them when they were having some riots in L.A., they gave us some non-conference games as a thanks -- I asked him, I said, "Jerry, how do you go about a search?" He said, "We create the pool of people, we create the plan, we implement the plan, and we work the plan."

I am telling you that's exactly what's transpired here in the last three, three and a half weeks. This has been very thorough. I have read some of the things that have been reported, and some of them have been accurately reported, and some of them have been inaccurately reported, and I don't have a problem with that. My point to you is this has been a thorough search, and I've talked to more people in the last month about potential basketball coaching candidates than I've talked to in a long, long time.

I believe we have a program coach, a person who knows how to do it at the highest levels, and it gives me great confidence in the future, and it gives me a great deal of pride to introduce to you our new head men's basketball coach. Please welcome Seth Greenberg.

Thank you. First of all, I just want to say that I'm really excited to be here. When I look at Virginia Tech, I look at a school that is committed to academics, I look at a magnificent campus, I look at a school that has a vehicle in Conference USA -- (pauses and chuckles) -- not Conference USA, in the Big East -- to propel this program to a national level.

I look at a program that's had coaches like Charlie Moir and Don DeVoe and Bill Foster that have had great, great success here, and have built a rich tradition. And I'm going to utilize those coaches, quite honestly, to better understand what it takes to be successful at the very highest level here at Virginia Tech.

The decision to come here was an easy one. When I look at this school, it's a magnificent community to live in. First and foremost -- I joked with Jim a little earlier -- it's probably the first time he did a coaching search and he needed a van to pick up the family. When we Greenbergs arrive, we arrive with an entourage. It was important for me to bring my family, because they're important in what we do and how we do it. Getting involved in the community and having a basketball program built on family is the way we do things.

To me it's important to build a program on people, build it on relationships, and build it on trust. You build a basketball program with winning people, winning players, and toughness. We're going to put great demands on our players, great demands on them academically, great demands on them athletically. I think that's the only way you can be successful.

A lot of people say, "Virginia Tech, they're in the Big East, that's a tough job." All jobs are tough jobs. South Florida's a tough job. Long Beach State's a tough job. If you're in a conference, and you're trying to be excellent at something, it's tough.

Winning isn't easy. I visited with the players a short while ago, and [I told them] if winning was easy, everyone would win. Winning takes commitment, winning takes hard work, winning takes a plan, winning takes good people.

When I say commitment, I mean commitment not just from the coaching staff, but commitment from the university -- there's a tremendous commitment right here at Virginia Tech -- and commitment from the players.

But after evaluating that, you can very easily see from facilities to the conference, to exposure, to the campus, to the institution, there's everything in place to be successful.

Now it's our job to use those ingredients and use those resources to rebuild the tradition of Virginia Tech. This school's been in a transition, if you think about since Bill Foster's left this school, there's been a transition in conferences. That's not easy. When I went to South Florida, they were just leaving a conference and entering Conference USA. It takes time. And it surely takes time to do it the right way. And it takes time to do it with the right people. It's not easy, but it's going to be done.

I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm excited about having the opportunity to coach these young people. I'm excited about being in an environment where people are committed to doing it and being successful at the very highest level.

And I�m going to need help. I'm going to enlist Coach Beamer, because let's face it, he's won at the very highest levels. Football is a huge, huge asset to this basketball program. They're as good as anyone in the country. There's a reason why, and we have to find it. We've got to find out how they're doing it, and we've got to emulate it. I'm going to utilize our women's basketball program. They're winning at a very high level. There's a reason for it.

Intelligent people know what they don't know. I'm smart enough to know that we need to ask questions and find out how to get it done. But I have no doubt that once we visit with these people, we will have a plan, and we'll move forward. I'm looking forward to it.

Getting to know a lot of the members of the media. Some of my greatest recruits -- it's kind of funny, I'm sitting here and Jim's talking about Brian Russell and Lucious Harris, and (??) who played for me and is playing for the Houston Rockets right now. Brian Russell's a great story. You talk about how you get players -- Brian Russell was discovered by a guy named Frank Burleson, who was our beat writer at Long Beach State, the Long Beach State Press-Telegram.

He was a basketball junky, like most guys that carry a pen or have a radio show or a TV show. He saw Brian Russell play in a tournament in San Bernadino, and he called me up that night and said, "Seth, I saw a kid no one even knows about, and he has a chance to be something special." Two days later, we were in San Bernadino, and three months later he was with us at Long Beach State, and now he's in the NBA. We probably would have never gotten Brian Russell if Frank Burleson hadn't taken the time to make that phone call.

So I'm going to enlist your help. We need the community, we need the academic community, we need the student body. I think it's really important that this campus embraces this basketball program. These guys represent their peers. They're an extension of the Virginia Tech community, and we're going to enlist the student body to be part of our basketball program. Basically, that's who they're playing for: their peers.

I look at this Coliseum, and the dynamics of this coliseum, and I've got to believe, if you've got guys playing really hard, night in and night out, if you get a group of guys who don't take plays off, a group of guys that compete and don�t take plays off, that are tough, and that make the first hit, people are going to come and watch them play. And when they do, they're going to come back, and that place is going to get louder and louder and louder. That's what it's all about -- to create a great home court advantage.

This past season, we were 13-2 at home. You've got to win your home games. To win your home games, you need the support of your student body and the community. Like I said, community is very, very important to us and to our family. We will be very involved in a lot of different organizations, because I think at a state university, part of your mission as a coach or as a family is to try to make a difference. I look forward to trying to make a difference at Virginia Tech.

The media then asked questions. None of the questions were audible, so we'll simply present Coach Greenberg's answers.

Response to question #1: My immediate goal is to get to know these guys and to get them to understand what I expect of them, the accountability, and the responsibility, and the commitment it takes to be successful.

I don't want to put a timetable on it, like, we're going here in two years and there in four years. Our goal is real simple: we're going to be playing hard for 40 minutes a night. When people are finished playing against Virginia Tech, they're going to say, "Man, those guys are hard to play against. They play every play, they don't take a play off, they make the first hit."

If you play hard, good things happen. The hardest playing team wins. We've got to recruit the right type of player and the right type of person. We've got to recruit tough kids. We've got to recruit kids that aren't going to back down. It looks like we've got eight returning players. We've got to obviously add to our core of players.

And that takes time. I'm not a quick-fix guy. That's not who I am. It's a process. But as you go through the process, you better make sure, and these guys will make sure that they're going to play every play, and they're going to establish an identity of what our program is all about. They'll be the foundation for something that I think is very special.

Response to question #2: I'll try to get in touch with the current recruits tonight, and get a chance to visit with them. Probably after the Final Four, obviously, I would like to visit with them and their families and really just get to know them.

To me, it's really important to develop relationships. It's really important that our players understand that I care about them more as a person than anything else. Part of that is -- and again, I'm not telling you anything I didn�t tell them -- part of it is like parenting. No means no. Sometimes I'm going to have to tell them what they don't want to hear, but what they need to hear. I'm a firm believer in straight talk. I think by being honest with each other, then we all know where we stand. I'll be in touch with them shortly.

We have one scholarship available, and we have to find the best person and the best player to fill our needs.

Response to question #3: I'm first going to meet with current assistants. I expect to bring with me Brad Greenberg, who is the former director of player personnel for the Portland Trailblazers and general manager of the Sixers. He's the guy who drafted Allen Iverson and coached Boo Williams. He's got a 25-year record of developing in Portland maybe some of the most successful teams in the NBA. He's a great developer of players and he has tremendous character and in understanding what it takes to be successful. I'll probably be bringing Brian Yankelevitz with me, one of my assistants who played for me at Long Beach State, and then we'll build our staff from there.

Response to question #4: I've always thought -- first of all, I grew up in New York, so you understand my lineage, my history. When I was about this high, I used to get on a train from Plain View, and take a trip into Madison Square Garden, the old Madison Square Garden, and watch college doubleheaders on Thursday night with my father. So I grew up with that mentality. There was no such thing as the Big East then, just good college doubleheaders, or a holiday festival, or the NIT.

Coaching in the Big East has always been something that was a goal of mine, that I desired to do. Being that I'm from this area, I'm a Northeasterner, per se, and I'm very familiar with Virginia Tech, my old boss at Miami [Bill Foster] obviously had great success here, I thought Virginia Tech was a terrific job and a place, quite honestly, that you can get it done.

I wouldn't be standing here in front of you today if I didn't expect to win. Now when? We expect to win. How? Doing it with good people and good players. I think that Virginia Tech is a special place.

I visited with Coach Beamer just a short while today, and if you look at the Big East, you've got Boston and D.C. and Pittsburgh, you've got all these great urban areas, it's great, that's great for us, because we can use those in recruiting. But we've also got a place that's different. We're not Boston, we're not Pittsburgh, we're not New York, but we get to go those places. And I think that's a huge attraction for Virginia Tech.

I've always thought this was a special place. I've know Coach DeVoe -- Coach DeVoe coached with a guy who coached me, a guy named Al Ababo (?), at Army, a long, long time ago. I know Coach Moir, and obviously, I know Bill Foster very well. I also in the last 16 hours counseled some people I have a great deal of respect for, and they all felt that this was a great opportunity for Seth Greenberg at this stage in his career. Just too good of an opportunity. That's why we're standing here.

Response to question #5: It happened quickly (laughs). It happened real quickly. I spoke with Jim yesterday. I've known Jim Weaver -- you've got to understand, this is not a process, all of a sudden, "Hi, I'm Coach Weaver, Seth Greenberg, I've heard a lot about you." Jim Weaver's been on my resume. When I was coaching at Long Beach State, Jim Weaver's someone I developed a relationship with. Jim Weaver's someone that I've always admired.

This process is one that you think, well how could it have happened so quickly? It's real simple. I guess I can relate it to a line my brother always used with me about players, when we used to talk about NBA trades. He'd say, "You always know what you're getting rid of, you never know what you're getting." I knew what I was getting when I spoke to Jim, and I obviously had a good understanding of the university. So the process moved rather quickly because there was familiarity.

Response to question #6: Representatives or attorneys or lawyers or whatever, I think that's the process he went through. When you're conducting a search, it's a process, it's not, when you wake up in the morning, you're going to have a list. Obviously, I was on his list, because I'm standing here today.

Response to question #7: Yeah, when I coached at Pitt, we played here, a long while ago. Quite honestly, all I remember is the Marriott -- now it's the Sheraton. And I remember the Hokie stone, because how can you not remember the Hokie stone?

I did not realize what a magnificent campus this is. In fact, we toured campus yesterday, but not until about 12:30 at night, coming back from Jim's home. We drove through the quad, and Jim kind of showed us around a little bit. That was 12:30, so I didn�t see it all that well last night. This morning, I woke up at about 6:30 and went and had a run, and it's absolutely -- it's breathtaking. It's beautiful.

(inaudible comment from reporter)

No. (laughter from crowd) What you guys don't understand, in the course of the process, Jim's priority was looking for a guy that has less hair than him. That was a big priority.

Response to question #8: I would say Five Star. I've had great mentors. Bill Foster, Terry Holland. Growing up in Five Star, you're talking about Hubie Brown. When I was out in California, and when Larry Brown was out there, I was a frequent visitor to their practices with the Clippers. One year, I went and spent about two or three days with them.

Some guys want to be doctors, some guys want to be lawyers, little kids want to be firemen and policemen. I'm pretty simple. I've got two things important to me: my family and coaching. And my team. There's not a lot to it. This is who I am. I love to coach. I love to talk to coaches, I love to be around coaches. I like to sit in my study and watch film until ridiculous hours of the morning. That's who I am.

There are a lot of people that have influenced me. In coaching, there are no originals. You take a little bit from here, a little bit from there. Bill Foster probably taught me more about organization than anyone. If you look at Coach Foster and Coach Holland, they were total opposites, yet they were both very successful.

Watching and studying the game. My closest coaching peers now, people that I talk to a great deal, probably one of my closest is Tom Izzo. When they were in the NCAA tournament in Tampa the other day, I spent three days watching how they did things. Quite honestly, it was great for me. It reinforced a lot of things we were doing, but it also opened my eyes to things.

Jud Heathcote was a person I was very close to. Tom and I go back many, many years, and actually, I turned down a job as his assistant. I'm kind of a basketball junkie, and I told these guys [players], if you're not passionate about the game, I'm not a good guy to play for. If you don't want to go to class, I'm not a good guy to play for. If you don�t want to get better, I'm not a good guy to play for. It's real simple: if you don't want me involved in your life, then I'm not a good guy to play for.

If you're passionate about the game and you're really committed to getting better, if you want to get a degree, if you want to change where you are, then we'll have a great time. Because I love being in the gym. I'm a guy that likes to get in the gym and sweat, and do individual workouts. I've been known to take a charge and dive on a loose ball in practice every once in a while. I think you need to bring passion and energy into what you're doing, or you shouldn�t be doing it.

Response to question #9: Well, I think recruiting for sure, but really just, let's face it: Charlie Moir, Frank Beamer, Don DeVoe, Bill Foster -- they've gotten it done. They've gotten it done. Obviously, you need players. Tricky players make tricky coaches.

So you need good players, but also, if I can learn from someone's mistakes, if I can sit with Bill Foster, and he can tell me, hey Seth, I think this is more the direction to go, I tried to do this and it didn't work. Or I can sit with Don DeVoe and I can find out from him why he recruited certain areas, or what type of player he really thought fit in this community, then you know what? I'd be a fool not to ask those questions. I don't have every answer.

I can tell you one thing: we will bring an unbelievable passion, and work ethic, and intensity to what we do. That's who I am. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. That's who I am.

Any other questions? Thanks very much.

Jim Weaver then answered some more questions, but those comments will not be included here. He gave the following details of Greenberg's contract: 

Six-year contract, annual package of $429,064: salary: $158,016; retention incentive (TV, radio, speaking engagements, etc.): $255,000; dealer car: $6,720; additional car allowance: $6,720; country club membership: $2,608. Additional incentives/bonuses: making the Big East tourney, making the NIT tourney, and making the NCAA tourney; Coach of the Year in the Big East and Coach of the Year in the NCAA.

Summer camp revenue is in addition to those figures. Whatever money he generates through camps and shoe deals are separate from what's listed above.

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