Hewitt assistant O’Connor leaving for new job
Georgia Tech assistant basketball coach John O’Connor has left to take the head coaching job at Holy Family, a Division II school in Philadelphia. O’Conner has spent the last six seasons on Paul Hewitt’s staff, one as director of basketball operations and the last five as an assistant coach.
O’Connor, 51, is a native of Philadelphia. He has spent 16 years in coaching including stints at Drexel and Lafayette.
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67 comments Add your comment
LOTRJacket
May 1st, 2010
9:28 pm
Smart move. Abandoning a sinking ship. Good luck to Coach O’Connor.
Oh, and BTW… FIRST!!!
Biff Pocoroba
May 1st, 2010
9:36 pm
The team has only won one tournament game since he became an assistant so this is a good thing. Now if we can just get Danny Hall to hire a pitching coach, the baseball team could stop their usual late season meltdown.
MISSING LINK
May 1st, 2010
9:43 pm
Coach Hewitt and DRAD please please please I am begging you to add Mark Price to the staff..Price can instruct and mold the point guard position…He only led the ACC and NBA in free throw shooting as well..no better person you can find
chuck allison
May 1st, 2010
9:52 pm
Excuse me, Missing Link, but it is important to note that Mark Price not only lead the NBA in free throw shooting but he holds the all time free throw record for the NBA. For that matter, he also won the three point shooting contest at the all-star game two years in a row.
Mark was also on the Olympic Dream Team II as point guard. I agree with what you are saying, but Mark Price fans don’t need to understate his achievments.
Derrick Favors
May 1st, 2010
9:54 pm
I think Dallas Cowboys have another assistant available.
GT GRAD
May 1st, 2010
9:56 pm
Mark Price would be an excellent choice………….great person, great basketball player & he seems to have all of the tools to be a great coach (jury is still out regarding his coaching abilities).
I just hope GT brings in an assistant coach that will help Hewitt recruit proven players. develop players and manage the games!!
I like Hewitt. I support the team (players & coaches). I will admit there is room for improvement and I think Hewitt can still get the job done…….he can do the job extrememly well, but he needs help (better assistant coaches who have regular input and are active during player development and games!
Go GT!!
BravesFan79
May 1st, 2010
10:24 pm
What we need to do from this point is hire a TOP assistant coach with a great offensive mind!
We should throw alot of $ at some ex head coach, and let Hewitt be in charge of the recruiting.. and the new assistant be in charge of the offense! This would be alot cheaper than firing Hewitt!
Ive been calling for this for years, and until Hewitt swallows his pride and brings in a top man to share responsibilities, GT will never reach its potential.
Herman Cain
May 1st, 2010
10:36 pm
What’s Pat Nix doing these days? I say bring him back to run the offense! Chan Gailey probably won’t leave Buffalo to take the job.
Tech Guy
May 1st, 2010
10:40 pm
Mark Price would be a great addition to the Tech staff.
RHB
May 1st, 2010
10:42 pm
If you take a job on this staff I hope you don’t have a job right now because you’ll be looking for a job again at this time next year.
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
10:56 pm
GLAD TO BE A GEORGIA BULLDOG
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
10:57 pm
TECH AINT WORTH SHI???????
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
10:59 pm
YALL NEED TO DROP IN DIV 2
Tech Fan Since 1950
May 1st, 2010
11:00 pm
Mark Price is Georgia Tech basketball for so many folks . He would be an excellent addition to the staff and would help pull together more of the alumni body. There would never be an excuse for Georgia Tech players to miss more than 50 percent of their free throws again if they were tutored at the line by Mark Price.
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
11:01 pm
YOUR BASKETBALL TEAM MAY BE GOOD BUT YOUR FOOTBALL TEAM SUCKS A BIG OOOOOOOOOOO DIC???????????????????????????????????/
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
11:04 pm
HOW CARES ABOUT BASKETBALL
tech #100
May 1st, 2010
11:06 pm
GT FOOTBALL SUCKS
Resign or Resign?
May 1st, 2010
11:10 pm
Where do I go on AJC>COM to find out about any college baseball scores & boxes? I have searched everywhere in the Tech, uga & college sites within ajc but can’t find anything. Yet you still have links to 3-month-old Tech basketball articles?
Resign or Resign?
May 1st, 2010
11:12 pm
uga fans have such meaningless lives that they actually follow a link to a story about a Tech assistant basketball coach AND COMMENT!!
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
11:22 pm
Resign, for Tech scores (and this weekend’s scores suck so far) go to ramblinwreck.com. For others try ESPN.com. I think they have college baseball scores.
college football
May 1st, 2010
11:29 pm
great move, should have left the yellow trash a long time ago
Resign or Resign?
May 1st, 2010
11:31 pm
Supersize:
Thanks; I am familiar with those sites; just wondered why when I went to the AJC scoreboard, they still had college basketball scores but no baseball. Shameful one needs to navigate away from the ajc site to get local team scores (They even have local HIGH SCHOOL girls’ softball scores!!)
Prestige Worldwide
May 1st, 2010
11:36 pm
Thing about it is Hewitt might be threatened by Mark Price’s presence on the staff.
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
11:37 pm
Resign, I agree. I doubt the ajc is so pathetic with UGAG coverage. I don’t know for a fact, since I never check that, but I would bet they cover every piddlin little thing that goes on in Athens.
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
11:38 pm
Prestige, I’m sure he would be. And for that matter he probably SHOULD be.
Resign or Resign?
May 1st, 2010
11:52 pm
Supersize:
No, they don’t even have ugas scores either!
supersize that order, mutt
May 1st, 2010
11:54 pm
WOW, Resign, I AM stunne
J
May 2nd, 2010
1:03 am
Mark Price has barely any experience bozo’s on the college level or even as a coach. Hewitt offered him a job years ago and he turned it down because he didn’t want to put in the time needed. Just because he played at GT doesn’t make him a good coach.
Larry
May 2nd, 2010
1:53 am
“Add Mark Price to the staff?”
Oh, no! My vote is for Mark Price to RUN the staff! Truly, could he possibly be any worse?
Dr. Gynoid
May 2nd, 2010
3:14 am
Hewitt should hire Reuben Houston as an assistant coach. I bet he could bring in some top notch recruits. Wait, is he still in prison? Dang…so much for that idea.
YellowlineJacket
May 2nd, 2010
6:18 am
Good riddance! Take Hewitt with you!
bill
May 2nd, 2010
6:26 am
didn’t go to tech or Georgia but the truth is except for for one year at tech and the three herschel years neither team has had a football team that was better than a long term record of 7 or 8 victories a year. Georgia fans put Dooley on a pedistal but truth is he won ugly and averaged 7 or 8 regular season games a year except for the pre-Kemp Herschel years . Tech has done better since they dumbed down the program but they will struggle to recruit and win at the elite level.Only occasionally will a Syracuse like basketball team win with a one and done team (Marbury). UNC and Duke won with a bunch of role players that stayed 4 years and won by working together as a team. Georgia has no players and Tech has a one year and gone leadership void.
bill
May 2nd, 2010
6:28 am
why keep hewitt? Why not go with Price? oh yeah a little white guy would be a problem. Just ask Duke
Poor Dawg Nation
May 2nd, 2010
7:16 am
Georgia has worst baseball team in the SEC, which lost to GT all three times this season.
That being said…..THWG!
Blame Game
May 2nd, 2010
7:29 am
Hewitt probably blamed him for his own coaching problems and forced him to leave.
Hey Tech #100
May 2nd, 2010
7:36 am
You’re a moron
messin with sasquatch
May 2nd, 2010
7:47 am
looks like the terry school of business homework assignment was to post on a tech site. nice all caps redneckdogg #100.
gt47
May 2nd, 2010
7:49 am
Mark wouldbe the answer, and also would be the next coach for us when Blewitt leaves. What better coach could you ask for …..
Vance Walberg
May 2nd, 2010
7:57 am
Please hire me as your coach, i am currently the creator of the DDM. (Dribble Drive Motion), you see how kentucky plays, that can be use on the flats. I am currently at UMass (talk about a sinking ship) so please Paul hire me and we will be the next kentucky. plus, in my current job, Derek Kellogg lets me sub, so iam really a head coach!!!
Hey Tech #100
May 2nd, 2010
7:58 am
Homosexual UGA fans like me deserve attention too. Tech fans suck! OOOOOO
hey Tech #100
May 2nd, 2010
8:03 am
That woudnt me. I likes gurls and boys. Tech still sucks. Your football bites.
ignition
May 2nd, 2010
8:25 am
Mark Price coaches for the Hawks and that sure ain’t helping Josh Smith’s Free Throws..
He was offered a position in the past idiots and he turned it down..
Do any of you have any idea of Mark Price’s coaching abilities,,,
William Casey
May 2nd, 2010
8:25 am
I will be forever grateful to Mark Price for what he did to put GT basketball on the national map. Also, his game was fundamentally sound in every way. However, neither his iconic status nor his skill as a player necessarily translate into being what the GT program needs now. GT needs an experienced assistant to help Coach Hewitt with coaching DURING GAMES. CPH has the other parts of the game mastered. Game coaching is an acquired set of skills. Being a great player doesn’t often translate into being a good game coach. I’m not saying that Price couldn’t do this. I’m questioning whether he would WANT to. His record since leaving the NBA indicates otherwise. GT needs a veteran assistant coach who’s been there and done that… not gunning for a head coaching job… and willing to never have his name mentioned in the media. We need a guy who works because he KNOWS and LOVES the game of basketball. Someone who the players respect and CPH trusts. A guy who takes as much pleasure in coaching a game involving 7-year olds as he would the National Championship game… a true “student of the game” without the ego. This isn’t going to happen, but had Bob Knight had been CPH’s assistant (for games only) last year, GT would have won four additional games.
SOOHSO
May 2nd, 2010
8:51 am
44rd. a non story.
GT
May 2nd, 2010
8:51 am
Don’t bring Price in, when the wheels fall off this jalopy Mark will get wash away with it. Read the resumes of Hewitt’s assistants and you will see Price is over qualified. You will also see the strangest collection of resumes in the ACC if not the NCAA. Compare this staff to Duke or North Carolina. Figure out how a high school All American comes into Tech with any respect for this staff. O’Connor who I notice is in Hewitt’s ear more than most on the bench is going to a division II team. I mean you have to use a computer now days to find a team that is not division I and this ACC assistant coach is taking a division II position. What up and coming assistant wants to get on this train to nowhere. You don’t go to Harvard to be a plumber and you don’t coach in the ACC to get to some backwater college coaching job. Something is very wrong with the Tech program.
Morrus
May 2nd, 2010
9:27 am
Vote out the incumbents and start over
Delbert D.
May 2nd, 2010
11:46 am
Good move for Coach O’Connor.
collegeballfan
May 2nd, 2010
11:55 am
What if Mark Price doesn’t want a job guys?
But Hewitt needs to use this opportunity to bring in a top notch offensive coach.
the buck stops somewhere
May 2nd, 2010
11:58 am
This will be another opportunity gained and lost once Hewitt hires another yes man without a clue on the offensive end. Mr. Lifetime contract does not appear to be compelled into making a move for an offensive assistant. And just because someone was a great player doesn’t mean they would be a great coach. But I wouldn’t hold Josh Smith against M.P.
mike
May 2nd, 2010
12:23 pm
This is directed to the AJC staff. Do you guys monitor what is placed on your blogs. It appears some sick people are freely able to post anything for the general public to view. You might want to consider children have access to your blogs and are able to read some of the trash typed here.