Hewitt fires back at criticism
With his Yellow Jackets safely in the NCAA tournament and his contract rolled over for another six years Tuesday, Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt fired off at what he thought were unfair shots taken at him this season in the media.
He said he resents the suggestion that the reason he’s still coaching at Georgia Tech is because it would have cost too much to buy out his contract.
“I think it’s pretty cheap that anybody would make an issue out of it,” Hewitt said. “I think it’s really underhanded. It’s the lowest form of journalism there is. … I really resent the hell out of somebody trying to insinuate that it’s like I’m stealing money from somebody and that the only reason I have my job is because of this contract.”
Hewitt has a six-year deal with an automatic rollover, which is triggered each year 30 days before April 15. Tech would have had to notify Hewitt by Tuesday if it planned to terminate his contract, or it would have cost an additional $1.375 million on top of the $7.1 million required to buy him out.
Any doubt about Hewitt’s future at Tech was all but erased last week when his Yellow Jackets won three times in the ACC tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Tech (22-12) plays against Oklahoma State on Friday in Milwaukee. But it became all but official Tuesday with the passing of an annual deadline.
“There was no action taken, as has been the case since the contract was signed,” Tech associate athletics director Wayne Hogan said Tuesday. “Today is business as usual. We move forward.”
Hewitt wasn’t quite ready.
He said criticism over his on-the-court strategy is one thing, but he has had fans ask him to his face if he kept his job because of his contract. He said those fans are getting their information from the media, including the AJC.
“If we’re going to put information out there, put it in its proper context,” Hewitt said. “Don’t throw this contract thing out there like I walked into somebody’s office with a gun and a mask and said ‘Hey you better sign this.’ We all knew what we were getting into.”
Hewitt signed his contract after Tech made the Final Four in 2004 when Dave Braine was athletics director. He said at the time he had two other college coaching offers.
“Not that it’s important to anybody, but I could have made at least a half million dollars more going some place else,” Hewitt said. “But I felt really strong about the philosophy and the mission at Georgia Tech. And I thought it was really cheap and deceitful, really, to act like I pulled one over on somebody. And that’s the way it was presented.”
“… I didn’t pull one over on anybody,” he continued. “We went into this agreement eyes wide open both sides. And if Georgia Tech doesn’t want me to be their basketball coach, that’s their decision. I’m confident enough in my ability because of how hard I’ve worked and my reputation in the game, I think I’d have a decent chance of landing another job some place else.”
But if left up to him, Hewitt said, he didn’t want to go anywhere. “I like it here,” he said. “My family likes it here.”
Hewitt came under fire after a last-place finish in the ACC last season at 2-14 and took his share of heat through a seventh-place finish in the ACC this season at 7-9. Athletics director Dan Radakovich acknowledged as such last Thursday in his bi-monthly e-mail to Tech fans and alumni.
“Please understand that I hear all of the comments and opinions about our men’s basketball program. …,” wrote Radakovich, who alluded to the financial part of the equation as well. “… There are many parts to any discussion, issues which are visible and not so visible. By now I’m sure you know that there are factors which make our men’s basketball situation unique.”
Radakovich said both in that e-mail and in a response to a media query last Tuesday, he would “not get into a discussion regarding the evaluation of a program while there are still significant games to be played and goals to be reached.”
Hewitt said at no time this season has he asked Radakovich about his job security. He did call Radakovich after hearing about his response to the media query on Tuesday, but Hewitt was upset only that reporters asked about his job status.
“To blow it into something that was almost a national story, and I’ve got recruits calling me, ‘Coach what’s going on?’ I thought that was really cheap,” Hewitt said. “Unless President [G.P.] Peterson or Dan Radakovich says ‘Hey look, we’re not sure if we want this guy to be our basketball coach, why make a story out of it.”
The job discussion is all but moot now with Tech heading to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in 10 years.
“Should we have been there more? Yeah, no question,” said Hewitt who is 176-143 at Tech, including 67-93 in the ACC. “I think acceptable would have been seven or eight, but five out of 10 is pretty doggone good.”
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107 comments Add your comment
Carroll Rogers
March 16th, 2010
7:06 pm
GT76, I assure you I and many others have asked Hewitt about turnovers and free throw shooting. I do think it’s interesting how folks think reporters asking a coach questions can change the outcome on the court. I don’t think it works that way.
Honest Frank Discussion
March 16th, 2010
7:07 pm
I’ll have an honest, frank discussion on the facts. First, Paul Hewitt said that “[w]e all knew what we were getting into” when he and GT signed his contract. But did GT really know what they were getting into at that point? At that point, Hewitt had a 58.4 overall winning percentage and a 45.9 ACC winning percentage.
Since the Finals run (and when Hewitt signed his contract), his overall win percentage has dropped almost 6 points (52.7%) while his ACC win percentage has dropped a whopping 8 points (37.5%).
Moreover, I don’t think its unfair at all to say Hewitt only has his job because of his contract. The record he has put up over the last five years (76-74 overall, 28-52 acc) is not as good as what Cremins did in his last five years (80-77 overall, 33-47 acc). And Cremins was fired because of his performance over that period.
I really like Hewitt and think he’s a great ambassador for Tech basketball, but the results speak for themselves. He’s got a lower overall winning percentage than Seth Greenberg (58.0)%, Oliver Purnell (60.8%), and Leonard Hamilton (59.5%). Excluding coaches with limited experience, he only has a better overall record than Frank Haith (54.7%) and Dave Leitao (51.2%), and Leitao was fired. Looking to ACC records, Hewitt again is worse than Greenberg (50.0%), Purnell (44.6%), Hamilton (44.5%), and even Leitao (42.2%). Among tenured coaches (5+ years experience at same school), Hewitt’s ACC record is only better than Haith’s. Since Haith started coaching at Miami, though, Hewitt has been worse.
In fact, Hewitt has pretty much been the worst coach in the ACC over the last five years save for Sidney Lowe, even though their overall records are about the same since Lowe began coaching.
I don’t know about you, but those are cold hard facts to me. Note I didn’t mention UNC or Duke, or even Maryland or Wake Forest. Under Cremins, we were at least among the best of the teams not named Duke or UNC. We made 9 straight tournaments. Over his best ten years Cremins’ winning percentage was about 10 percent higher than Hewitt’s last ten years both overall and in the ACC.
Now, we are hardly lumped in with the middle of the pack ACC schools over the past five years. I know we are better than that and I know Hewitt is better than that.
My only point is, if all this talk about his contract and firing makes Hewitt so upset, maybe HE should do something about it. Instead of complaining about the media, maybe realize that winning more than 28 ACC games in five years would shut everyone up. Maybe realize that going 76-74 while playing 8 cupcakes a year just isn’t getting it done. That given the opportunity the coach at Georgia Tech has, he should go to the tournament more than twice in five years.
Most importantly, he should expect more from himself. When was the last time you heard Hewitt be critical of a job not well done the way Paul Johnson is. The more I hear Hewitt speak, the more it seems that he skirts blame and forces it onto someone else. He does it all the time after individual games. You never hear Paul Johnson do that. For once, I’d like Hewitt to admit that he hasn’t done the best job coaching this year and that he’s working on it. That way I at least know he holds himself accountable for his recent failures.
ncjacket
March 16th, 2010
7:07 pm
Hewitt needs to shut up and coach. Every time he opens his mouth it just gets worse and worse.
Blue Fox
March 16th, 2010
7:09 pm
Guys, I’ve got the answer to the DRad dilemma: swap jobs with the Tech head BB coaches, i.e., give the men’s team to ultra-successful MaChelle Joseph and dump Hewitt on the women’s team. Wouldn’t cost Tech a cent towards to massive $7.1 payout owed Hewitt, and except for the wrath of the women BB players in getting the inferior coach, everybody’s happy!
GTPhenom
March 16th, 2010
7:12 pm
I respectfully disagree with you collegeballfan. This team 110% has top 10, maybe even top 5 talent. It doesnt’ always come down to NBA capability. Remember that guy named Tyler Hansborough? He hasn’t exactly played a great NBA style, and yet he will forever go down as one of the best in College B-Ball history. But, I guess that is why they are opinions, lol. I will agree Hewitt can somewhat recruit and is a good, not great, defensive coach, but a horrid, disgustingly horrible offensive coach.
willy
March 16th, 2010
7:17 pm
Hewitt and Palin should get together and blame the media for all of their troubles
BT75
March 16th, 2010
7:21 pm
OK…so I have to chime in. Year after year the players change, but the same problems persist: poor free throw shooting, turnovers and getting the ball in-bounded. That speaks to coaching problems.
So how does CPH plan to solve these problems? Has he discussed what coaching drills will be needed? Is it a lack of talent in the assisstant coaches? These are problems that Hewitt gets paid millions to solve. Anybody working at any level in the corporate world cannot let serious problems continue year after year and expect to keep his job.
TomB
March 16th, 2010
7:21 pm
Thanks for the excellent post Honest Frank Discussion.If your numbers are correct then Hewitt has won only 37 percent of his ACC games over the past five years.Amazing to me that a coach with these numbers would complain about anything. Just goes to show how arrogant Hewitt has become.
GTPhenom
March 16th, 2010
7:22 pm
God, Honest Frank Discussion, you have just made a friend in me. That is the total, unbiased truth. Hewitt has had his chances, but I HATE how he never is willing to put any blame on himself. Keep speaking the truth, my friend.
TomB
March 16th, 2010
7:27 pm
willy: Regarding media treatment,I think Palin has a better case to make than Hewitt. Just sayin.
GT fan in MS
March 16th, 2010
7:29 pm
Awwww… Poor Millionaire Paul Hewitt having himself a pity party?
rj
March 16th, 2010
7:42 pm
Please somebody, anybody,come hire this no coaching pompous a– from us!
Of course it's the contract
March 16th, 2010
7:48 pm
So “Coach”, do the honorable thing and ask GT to remove the roll part and then let us see how long you last!
GT in CT
March 16th, 2010
7:52 pm
Hewitt has the mentality of a little league coach: good effort = success. That doesn’t work for big time college sports; all the teams and coaches try hard. DRad has to fix this and get CPH’s expectations in line with CPJ’s. The state of GA has enough hoops talent to make a Tech coach successful, even one with deficiencies. Rather than spend millions to get rid of Hewitt, I think it’s wiser to spend that money on whatever assistants and resources Tech can find to help Hewitt.
Tim Tebow's Tears
March 16th, 2010
7:56 pm
TomB is spot on. Well said
The Dude
March 16th, 2010
7:57 pm
Go Jackets! Fire Hewitt!
Buzz
March 16th, 2010
7:57 pm
Screw Hewitt. I am now, officially, an ex-season ticket holder.
The Dude
March 16th, 2010
7:58 pm
Politics aside TomB, but if you just compared Hewitt to Palin I’m pretty sure it’s time for him to go.
Tim Tebow's Tears
March 16th, 2010
7:58 pm
To the fans that accept mediocrity,
I’d rather be friends with a UGAg fan. You are what angers me most in this world.
The Dude
March 16th, 2010
7:59 pm
And before all the bashing, etc. I mean comparing situations.
HatsOff
March 16th, 2010
8:04 pm
Paul would have been better off keeping his mouth shut on this. What is he thinking? Does he think this kind of tirade is going to help the program? For him to say these things “on the record” is very disappointing. He should have known better.
UGAissolastdecade
March 16th, 2010
8:08 pm
Tell him to look at the frickin box scores of every game this year!! 20-25 turnovers. 1/2 the free throws missed. Just awful. We learned a lot from the ACC tourney? How sorry the ACC is. If GT plays anything like they played in the ACC tourney – they will be humiliated in Milwaukee!
Fuzzy Buzzy
March 16th, 2010
8:09 pm
Who cares? Nobody in this state cares about basketball. He is overpaid and nobody cares.
UGAissolastdecade
March 16th, 2010
8:09 pm
That there were 50 GT fans at the ACC tourney should have told our AD to fire him. The basketball arena at Tech will be empty next year if he is still around.
TomB
March 16th, 2010
8:13 pm
The Dude: Agreed. It’s time for him to go.
The Dude
March 16th, 2010
8:42 pm
Caroll, can you please dig up the study conducted in the last 18 months that showed Paul Hewitt as the worst bang for the buck in terms of wins per dollar spent on head coaching salary and re-post it as an article on the Tech sports page? Thanks in advance.
GT in CT
March 16th, 2010
9:05 pm
Dude: I think this is the article you’re looking for: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690294088913675.html
Biff Pocoroba
March 16th, 2010
9:55 pm
For someone who doesn’t read the paper, Paul sure knows a lot about what is said about him in the paper. Next year will be my first time in 21 seasons to not have season tickets. I just can’t stomach watching a team of 6′5′ guys win 10 games. I’m not sure what recruits could be calling him since he only has one commit next year and no one else showing interest. I’ve gotten women’s season tickets the last four years and it has been more enjoyable. They actually play hard and make free throws and try and win games before the ACC tournament.
GT in CT
March 16th, 2010
10:07 pm
Don’t forget the two freshmen who redshirted. They’re bigs.
Biff Pocoroba
March 16th, 2010
10:15 pm
Miller is big but he is another Sheehan. That is why he originally comitted to UGA.
GT in CT
March 16th, 2010
10:31 pm
I guess we’ll see. They’ll get playing time. I think Schenscher was nothing special when he started – it took a while for him to develop.
AlabamaRamblinwreck
March 17th, 2010
12:32 am
Hewitt is kidding himself if he doesn’t think that his contract is keeping him from being let go!! He must think that GT has limitless funds for ex-coaches, so it should be easy just to swallow hard and pay him 7 mill, if that is what we wanted to do. He is plain awful as a game-day coach, and that is how it is.
George P
March 17th, 2010
5:38 am
If he really wants to prove his point, he’ll offer to forfeit the remainder of his contract if asked. We’ll see how long he lasts then.
Yellow Whiz
March 17th, 2010
6:41 am
The surest sign of a sinking ship is when the coach starts blaming the media for all his problems.
Not a die hard Tech Fan
March 17th, 2010
10:51 am
Wow, you so called Tech fans are just negative! I don’t blame Hewitt for going off. If this is the kind of support he has been getting all season, then no wonder he has a chip on his shoulder. He feels he has passionately worked hard to better this program. He deserves support from the fans.
Big D
March 17th, 2010
11:18 am
To all you coach hewitt haters out there STFU. Cremins in all of his glory didnt even coach us to the championship game and you complained about him his last 7 years.
Big D
March 17th, 2010
11:24 am
Then some of you foolishy compare Techs bball program to the likes of Kansas, UNC …LOL. Two storied programs with multiple national titles to Techs program that really didnt get recognition until the early 80s.
SCBAHRT
March 17th, 2010
11:58 am
Gee I must be getting old. My first year working at WREK was 1979–the men’s BB team went 4-22 that year, the same as the year before (when two seniors were drafted into pro ball). In 1980, I became sports director, and we got a new coach and a new league. Bobby Cremins did some amazing things while at Tech, got the court named after him, and about every three or four years the cries came to dump him because he couldn’t repeat the numbers of the previous year. Face it folks, who ever the coach, Ga Tech has spent far more time in the loser’s column than in the winner’s. Paul Hewitt is a very good coach working in a very difficult situation. Get off his back and enjoy the wins when they come (how many of you complain when your other sports teams don’t have a .667 winning record?).
Harold of Atlanta
March 17th, 2010
12:05 pm
You people need to stop whining!!!!! You chased the best thing out of Atlanta that Tech ever had going for itself in Bobby Crimmons, so unless any of you can do a better job coaching this team, shut your mouths!!!!
Dawgfan
March 17th, 2010
12:22 pm
As a dawg fan i want to say congrats to Hewitt. I hope he is at Georgia Tech for as long as he wants.
Beau McCranie
March 17th, 2010
12:42 pm
I used to absolutely love GT basketball. Had season tickets in Cremins’ last year. At least in his down years, I still loved the guy and I was never one of those that was restless to want him gone. And I still rooted for Tech big time.
Beyond the mediocre record Hewitt has had, all the antagonism and touchy crap that he vents affects at least how I regard him. Very hard to like Hewitt, and this latest venom he spews has taken things too far. I’d really just rather see him gone. My negative impression of Hewitt before this article had already diminished my desire to watch them and I found myself kinda wishing they’d lose earlier in the ACC tourney so that perhaps he’d be gone next year. Hewitt’s negativism and combativeness with the press has finally made me just flat out dislike the guy and I hate that. I’m not sure he can win many of the Tech supporters back. I doubt he’s going to suddenly change his personality.
egeagle
March 17th, 2010
2:12 pm
Hewitt’s ACC run and NCAA possible run did the same thing that Felton’s ‘08 tournament title did. Delay the inevitable. Firing him will also get you into hot water with the BCA. You’re about to be introduced to the briar patch, Techies.
Ken
March 17th, 2010
2:44 pm
Don’t get them get to you Coach. You won 20+ games. You went to the ACC championship and were 1 point away with less than a minute left from winning it all. You made the NCAA tourney (again). Keep doing what you are doing and tune out all the haters!
hedge puller
March 17th, 2010
3:06 pm
Hewitt is a legend in his own mind. The big contract IS the only reason he’s still at Tech. Dave Braine is who stole from Tech. Hewitt is just a mediocre p_ssy of a coach who cannot stand it if the Tech community won’t accept his mediocre performance and kiss his b_tt to boot.
Tech ex
Warren
March 17th, 2010
3:36 pm
Maybe if Hewitt hired some players that could shoot free throws, he would win more games.
Daniel B.
March 17th, 2010
3:59 pm
I think CPH redeemed himself with the run in the ACC tourney this year and our 5th NCAA appearance in 10 years. Who could we get that is better? Plus, CPH gives us exposure on a national level by recruiting the players that we do and putting as many players in the NBA as we do. I still support CPH and Tech and will continue to support CPH for as long as he is employed by Tech.
Go Jackets!
Bubba Jump
March 17th, 2010
4:14 pm
Coach, if you can’t take the heat, get the heck out of the kitchen.
But we all know that you aren’t man enough for that. The only other
two offers you have had were not anywhere close to what you have
at tech or you would have taken one of those offers. No need to
lie and BS on top of your poor coaching performance.
Grow up and be a man. If you can.
The Shirley Franklin of coaches whines again « ATL malcontent
March 17th, 2010
4:33 pm
[...] in New York? Seriously, you’ve gotta be pretty insecure if you consider the Atlanta media too tough: He said he resents the suggestion that the reason he’s still coaching at Georgia Tech is because [...]
bigdaddy
March 17th, 2010
5:13 pm
In a down year for the ACC, it seemed that Tech’s talent was in the 10 or 11 win neighborhood (ACC games). Their performance in the ACC tournament was more representative of this opponent’s (UNC) view of their ability. As much as I like Coach Hewitt, the concerns about the long term expectations are legitimate; this team should have been a shoo-in for the Big Dance, not one of the last teams chosen.
Was it Lyndon Johnson who warned against getting into arguments with people who buy ink by the barrel (the press)? Coach Hewitt should let his team’s performance do his talking; if he meets or exceeds expectations, the press problem will take care of itself.
Scott
March 17th, 2010
5:49 pm
Hewitt’s teams can’t pass the ball to each other…he either won’t teach the fundamentals of the game or doesn’t know how to teach the basics.
A coach worth his salt would have Tech’s teams in a much better place come March every year.
Time and time again, we lose games year after year due to the inability of the team to simply pass and catch the ball.
With the talent Tech has every year, we should average 25 wins a season going into March Madness.
FIRE HEWITT…..GO JACKETS !