Sunday, January 11, 2009

A signed commitment to core beliefs

At Virginia Tech this week, coach Seth Greenberg had his players sign a contract asking "his players to commit to his 'core beliefs.'"

According to this article, "the move came in the wake of Sunday's 69-44 loss at Duke -- a defeat in which the Hokies mustered just 13 second-half points. Tech forward Jeff Allen has said that Duke played harder than the Hokies in the second half, and that his team 'gave up.'"

Greenberg said Thursday he didn't like the team's "competitive spirit" in the second half at Duke. He said the contract reminds the players "of the essence of the culture of the program" and makes sure they don't "compromise" that culture. Players said this year's version of the contract covers everything from playing hard and playing up to one's potential in games to not talking back to coaches in practice to not using cellphones during team dinners.

In Coach Greenberg's words, "I've done a contract almost every single year I've been here at different times. I'm taking measures to help us get better."

Says one player: "It's just stuff on and off the court, the stuff that we [were] kind of letting go, and it was kind of affecting the team. [Coach Greenberg] won't tolerate some of the small stuff he was tolerating. A lot of the contract is ... [about] effort in practice."