Wes Miller has engineered one of the great turnarounds of mid major college basketball programs during his time leading the UNC Greensboro Spartans. It has won him a lot of fans both locally and around the college basketball landscape. Now he has added another continent of support – local journalists.
Miller took to Twitter on Wednesday to express disappointment over the Greensboro News & Record laying off two sportswriters.
Ed Hardin and Jeff Mills were laid off on Wednesday. Hardin was recognized as North Carolina’s Sportswriter of the Year in 2019. That leaves the News & Record with just one sports journalist left.
The Greensboro News & Record is owned by Lee Enterprises. The company also owns another local paper in the area, The Winston-Salem Journal. That paper also laid off a pair of sportswriters earlier this week. It greatly reduces the amount of media focused on smaller schools in the area like North Carolina A&T State, Winston-Salem State and UNC Greensboro.
For his part, Miller certainly recognizes the value of local journalism to himself and his program. UNC Greensboro really isn’t a program who’s name enters the national conversation until early March when the NCAA Tournament is coming together. Until then, nearly all of the coverage of the Spartans is from local writers and broadcasters.
The local media certainly took notice of Miller’s support. Josh Graham of WSJS in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, Lauren Brownlow of 99.9 the Fan in Raleigh, and News & Record reporter John Newsome all highlighted the coach’s support of their colleagues.
