Hewitt tweets about fans, critics — updated at 12:29 p.m.
Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt approved a series of tweets from GTCoachHewitt on Wednesday to fans and those who have questioned his team:
- Clearly we are playing our best basketball of the season. Don’t believe what you read from the “experts.” Believe what you see.
- As we are coming to the latter part of the season, now is not the time to be judgemental. You all need to come out and support this team.
- Are you a critic or a supporter of this team? Supporters will continue to watch this team fight.
- To you critics: when athletes say some of the things you say, then you condemn them as quitters. Are you quitting?
- I believe in this team!
The tweets have divided fans on twitter and various message boards, with some saying they have no problem with him asking for support, and others saying it’s odd that a coach that they say is underperforming would take arguments with “critics” and fans public.
Examples:
- “I like you, Paul, but teams are judged on wins & losses. That’s why we keep score. This team has lost too many winnable games.”
- “supporter until the end!!!”
With what many analysts and opposing coaches say is the best frontcourt talent in the ACC, the Yellow Jackets are 18-9, 6-7 this season, which puts them seventh in the ACC this season. Depending upon which NCAA tournament blog you read, they will either safely make the field of 65 for the first time since 2007, or they are on the bubble. The team is 1-6 on the road in the conference this season, including last week’s last-second 76-74 loss to Maryland. After hosting Boston College on Saturday, the team will play at Clemson and will host Virginia Tech as it tries to secure its spot in the NCAAs. The ACC tournament starts March 11 in Greensboro.
Hewitt is 172-140 in 10 seasons at Tech, including 67-89 in the conference and 6-5 in the NCAAs. His salary is $1.375 million a year, with a buyout of close to $7 million that rolls over every year.
I hope to ask Coach Hewitt if he can discuss these tweets some more at today’s media session. Please come back later this afternoon for more.
Here’s a link to Hewitt’s twitter account: http://twitter.com/GTCoachHewitt and you can follow the AJC’s coverage of Georgia Tech on twitter @ajcgatech
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80 comments Add your comment
GTinNashville
February 25th, 2010
2:23 pm
I don’t know why any of you think Hewitt is worried about his job. He could go winless next year or undefeated next year, he’s still guaranteed $7mil either way. He has no incentive to come in off the golf course and put in the work that is required to get back to 2004.
If you had a job that you knew could suck at and worse case scenario is you are sent packing with $7mil, would you still work as hard?
swd311
February 25th, 2010
2:24 pm
LOL we always lose to UGA in everything! However, UGA will be sitting at home as usual come March Madness!!!! What does that say? Now who is the moron? Yeah you!!!!! hahahahahaahh
Paul Hewitt Tweet
February 25th, 2010
2:25 pm
“I’m Paul Hewitt and I am a terrible basketball coach. I coached our team to lose to UGA 73 – GT 66! I should get fired and collect my severence pay. Then I can go to another REAL basketball program. GT and its fans are the worst. They don’t support any of the programs. I look up in the stands and maybe see fans in their seats. Then I realize they have a hotdog and a coke in their hands. That tells me they only came for the free food”
Sincerely,
Paul
Granny's on the loose!
February 25th, 2010
2:28 pm
Fire Hewitt!! Do it!
Coach Hewitt
February 25th, 2010
2:33 pm
Guys, I really am an absolute disaster of a coach. Ya gotta admit, mann can I dress though ya hurd me playa? As long as they keep the $$bling bling comin my waay I aint goin complane. I gots to admit, I’m on a graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavy train woohoo! Yall are all suckas cause aint no one takin away my contract, its infinite bbaababay!!!
Granny's on the loose!
February 25th, 2010
2:36 pm
Mister Coach, can I offer you a nice warm steaming hot cup of shut the *&#@ up? My lil grandson can coach better than you. Heck I’m 108 yrs young and I can coach better than you. So do us all a favorite and go somewhere else, like the NBA.
NCGTGrad
February 25th, 2010
2:42 pm
I think CPH should be faulted for not improving offensively since my city league team has better plays and sets. However, you can have the best front court in the world, but you also need a good point guard and a reliable 3-pt threat to win it all. Just look at UNC as the perfect example.
Besides Jarrett and Javaris, CPH just hasn’t had the talent at point guard to win the ACC. Iman is a shooting guard, and Mfon has lost his confidence.
The Dude
February 25th, 2010
2:44 pm
I support Georgia Tech to the end, but I don’t support Hewitt at all. I never really have, and never will. Hewitt’s main problem is Tech’s fan base. Hewitt’s probably an intelligent basketball coach. He might even be an intelligent human, but in ten years he still hasn’t learned that his fan base is arguably the most intelligent fan base in the world. True, intelligence and basketball knowledge don’t go hand in hand. However, for those of us who played the game and have watched good teams play the game, know what it is we’re seeing when Tech takes the court: Hewitt hopes to out-athlete every opponent he faces. That’s his only hope to win. It worked in 2004 until we got to a healthy UConn.
GTFan
February 25th, 2010
2:45 pm
Did someone compare Hewitt to Roy Williams?
The Dude
February 25th, 2010
2:45 pm
And to add… Hewitt’s BS about what we see and don’t see doesn’t pass the sniff test with this fan. Sorry Paul, I’m just not that dumb. Head to the SEC for fans like that.
phoenix falcon
February 25th, 2010
3:03 pm
i agree with Granny… i liked the hire at first, but after seeing what has been going on, it seems like coach might be a bit over his head.
Daniel
February 25th, 2010
3:15 pm
73-66.
How’s that feel? Still hurts, don’t it?
hahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!
Jo Bling
February 25th, 2010
3:40 pm
Dear Coach Hewitt,
Thank you for your Tweets. As for turning critics into supporters, let me clue you in to the real world: it doesn’t matter one bit whether your team is playing its best basketball of the year. The only thing that matters, and the only thing that has ever mattered, is whether you are winning basketball games. That’s the bottom line. If you want to see real support, just win baby. If you don’t want fans to be so judgmental, just win baby. If you want the critics to dry up and go away, just win baby. Don’t tell me your team is playing its best basketball of the year, because if that’s the best you’ve got, it’s not good enough.
LOL
February 25th, 2010
3:46 pm
“LOL we always lose to UGA in everything! However, UGA will be sitting at home as usual come March Madness!!!! What does that say? Now who is the moron? Yeah you!!!!! hahahahahaahh”
No, you are a moron, just like your buddy Ozzy.
73-66…glad it still hurts you so bad!
NoCoach Blewitt
February 25th, 2010
3:51 pm
This is a joke right???
Ramblin Wrecker
February 25th, 2010
4:01 pm
My response would be to Coach Hewitt would be that he should spend more time coaching his team than reading what people say about him. Because this team (and all his GT teams) are undercoached and repeat the same mistakes from game to game and from year to year.
Remove Hewitt
February 25th, 2010
4:02 pm
Hey Paul, check out your results since you appeared in the Nat’l Championship game. The programs results since that game is one of the worst of any program many years after that achievement!Hewitt and tweet, blog, update his facebook page, etc. He’s paid to win games, win ACC championships and get into the NCAA Tournament! He’s not doing any of these consistently! Hewitt is overpaid for his performance. If he was a CEO of a company the board of directors would have fired him years ago! Hey Paul, stop talking and start producing! You lost to FSU twice this year and Miami. Tweet that!
Atlanta Jacket
February 25th, 2010
4:18 pm
I am apathetic towards GT basketball now and I used to be very enthusiastic about it – at least since ‘83. I don’t even know who we play next. Hewitt’s teams have shown no improvement since the anomaly that was 2004.
GT76
February 25th, 2010
4:31 pm
I’ll stick to what I said several hours ago. He knows the team has to win two ACC tourney games (assuming they are 8-8 regular season) and then win at least two in the NCAA tourney (sweet sixteen). Anything less and he should be man enough to resign! If he doesn’t then fire him!
GT#1
February 25th, 2010
4:33 pm
Hewitt is a terrific coach if only counting integrity and the character of a man…but he is at best an average ACC coach. His teams have underperformed each year except the team that made the NCAA finals. But that team was composed of another coach’s recruits. He has simply failed overall to compete in the hardest conference in the nation and for whatever reason can’t even get his more talented teams to beat the inferior UGA team in most years. I realize GT may not have the funds to buy him out but seriously cannot afford to keep renewing his contract. Let it lapse so that we can realistically let him go unless he somehow manages to win in say three successive years. That means at least two teams with a winning record in the ACC and maybe one year with an even ACC year. But three years of NCAA tournament appearances is not too much to ask.
gdub
February 25th, 2010
4:34 pm
I have been to several games and seen most others on tv and its the same story. Why is he subbing every 30 seconds. At the NC game we led by 16 with 1:30 left he was subbing and calling timeouts like a mad man. We have the best 3 bigs in conference yet with all the games that I have seen I still don’t know who is the point guard.
savannahdawg
February 25th, 2010
4:42 pm
It’s not the team losing support…….it’s you coach!!!!! Great team, tons of talent….lousy coaching!
TexasJacket
February 25th, 2010
4:59 pm
Listen, I think CPH is a good guy, but the problem is that there is absolutely NO leadership on the court. That’s what happens when you recruit people who are more interested in impressing NBA scouts than getting an education and contributing to the Georgia Tech program. Regardless of his planning (poor) and his attention (lack thereof) to things like free throws and offensive plays from a time out, if you don’t have a leader on the court, you aren’t going to win close games.
I’ll always support the Jackets, but let’s face it, we are either lucky or fortunate if we get past the first round in the NCAA.
coachx
February 25th, 2010
5:18 pm
I like Coach Hewitt’s tweets b/c they were in good taste.
This is coming from a Dawg fan too. There is NOTHING wrong with the truth Hewitt “twittered.”
Tech fans are whiney……….kust like us Dawgs fans are………….that is the problem. We both whine too much.
chatter
February 25th, 2010
5:19 pm
Same old Blewit, no one is criticizing the team. Everyone is criticizing YOU. Unfortunately for you Paul your lack of coaching skills left with all the assitants that got jobs else where. You have been exposed and we now see you are a fraud. Someone check his resume, I think he lied on it. He claims to be a basketball coach. Ok, he is but not a good one. Clank I see Tech missed ANOTHER free throw and commited ANOTHER turnover.
S Jones
February 25th, 2010
5:23 pm
Enter your comments here
GT Bill
February 25th, 2010
5:49 pm
I am a long time season ticket holder, support the program, and wish GT the best. It is not my place to determine whether Coach should be fired, but it is my place to determine how I spend my money and whether I support the program based on the return I feel I would like, whether that be in enjoyment, entertainment, or wins. I think that some of the tweets from Coach are not appropriate, much like some of the comments from the fans here, but we live in America and they have the right to make them. If the team does not seem to improve with the talent that exists, then I and others I suspect will decide to no longer buy tickets or donate towards basketball and that is their right and the best way to show their desire to see a change in some way shape or form.
Trey Thompkins
February 25th, 2010
5:49 pm
73-66, nerds.
Suck it.
Gt4ever
February 25th, 2010
8:51 pm
Captain
YOU ARE DELUSIONAL……….. VERY FUNNY, BUT DELUSIONAL……
Rt
March 1st, 2010
7:02 pm
Hey, I’m a nice guy and have a lot of integrity. I even graduated from GT . I’ve never coached or played hoops since Jr. High. Tech can hire me for just 100k. I’ll still be a nice guy with a lot of integrity and represent the school well, blah blah blah, that does not make me qualified for the job. And does not make me worth the money. I expect my McDonalds server to be pleasant and have some integrity. Since when did that qualify someone for a job worth a million plus. If Hewitts only qual is being pleasant, hire me!!!