Well this one hits close to home for me as a UNC fan and UNCG alum.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro announced Tuesday that head coach Mike Dement has resigned. Assistant coach and former Tar Heel guard Wes Miller has been named as interim head coach for the remainder of the season, Director of Athletics Kim Record said.
The Spartans are currently 2-8 following Sunday's 75-60 loss at Florida State.
"In the interests of the long-term health of the men's basketball program, Mike and I have agreed that a change is necessary in order for the program to move forward," said Record. "Coach Dement has always exhibited the highest ethics and put the program before himself. He has been professional and committed to leading our efforts to enhance men's basketball with the program's move to the Greensboro Coliseum and the nonconference scheduling philosophy put in place over the last three seasons. We thank him for his contributions to UNCG's basketball program."
When I was at UNCG in the mid-90s, the basketball program had a couple of good years. Mike Dement was actually the head coach during my first two years there before leaving to take the SMU job which he left to return to UNCG a few years ago. The year after he left UNCG, the team won the Big South and went to the NCAA Tournament where they lost by five to #2 seeded Cincinnati. Since then there was a move to the Southern Conference which has been tougher for the Spartans although they did win the Southern Conference and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2001. After that, there hasn't been much to speak of and now the job is a really difficult one to take.
In recent years, longtime AD Nelson Bobb resigned after he became unhappy with the administration. Kim Record came in as the new AD and a push to make basketball more revenue friendly came along which included playing home games at the Greensboro Coliseum(a huge mistake, it was hard to even fill up 2500 seat Fleming Gymnasium) and beefing up non-conference schedule with multiple ACC foes UNCG had no prayer of beating. The ACC heavy schedule were supposed to put people in the seats which apparently was more desirable than scheduling so you can actually build a program.
If Wes Miller can turn the program around it will prove he has serious coaching chops. However given the state of the program and how tough the non-conference schedule is plus the Southern Conference is no cake walk, Miller has his work cut out for him. I think Miller has plenty of potential as a coach, here is hoping this doesn't start him off on the wrong foot.