Tech’s Oliver to transfer
Georgia Tech basketball player Brian Oliver will transfer, leaving the Yellow Jackets with eight scholarship players for coach Brian Gregory’s first season.
In a press release issued by the school, Oliver, a forward, did not give a reason for leaving Tech.
“We are very appreciative of the two years Brian gave Georgia Tech and this basketball program,” Gregory said in a statement. “Brian is a talented young man and will do well, athletically as well as academically, wherever he lands. We wish him nothing but the best.”
Had Oliver returned, playing opportunity almost certainly wouldn’t have been a problem. Oliver was the third-leading scorer on last year’s team at 10.5 points behind Iman Shumpert (who left school for the NBA draft) and Glen Rice Jr. Further, Tech returns just one other forward, Kammeon Holsey. Incoming freshman Julian Royal, from Milton High, is the only other forward on the roster.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
138 comments Add your comment
Kauai DAWG
June 16th, 2011
9:51 pm
Yellow Snow all over Atlanta. Non story for sure. Does anyone even watch the Yech?
Go DAWGS!
tar and feathers party
June 16th, 2011
10:09 pm
So can I suit up and play?
Milledgeville DAWG
June 16th, 2011
10:12 pm
Can’t get the techies fired up tonight, what’s wrong? I guess you will attack me tomorrow when your sitting at your cubicles.
edgar
June 16th, 2011
10:23 pm
Ya’ll quite bashing on each other and stick to commenting on the story.
Brian, thanks for having been here and contributed. We’re sorry to see you leave, and hope your future works out for the best for you.
Oliver to transfer – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | USA Baseball America
June 16th, 2011
10:43 pm
[...] post by webmaster@technorati.com and software by Elliott Back Comments [...]
Ken Sugiura
June 16th, 2011
10:44 pm
updated story here. http://bit.ly/jnY1mw
Oliver said he likes and respects Gregory, but wanted to be closer to be home and was looking for a team with an offense that would fit his perimeter game better.
Tuna
June 16th, 2011
10:46 pm
LOL! Oliver is tired of all of the thugs roaming the streets of Atlanta, just like everyone else. This city is dangerous and sucks and everyone wants out!
Milledgeville ....
June 16th, 2011
10:50 pm
not all tech fans eat at mcdonalds so that limits your exposure.
now about those fries….
BartBuzz
June 16th, 2011
10:53 pm
My guess is that he couldn’t make the grades.
2011 Grad
June 16th, 2011
10:55 pm
Sad to see this. I had several classes with Brian and found him to be the about the only basketball player who cared about academics. He’s a real class act. Always polite. Obviously intelligent. Can’t say the same about the rest of the basketball team, though…
Paul in RDU
June 16th, 2011
11:16 pm
Hewitt Fan
June 16th, 2011
7:55 pm
thats why it has been 7 or 8 coaching changes in the last 2 years in the ACC..but i wonder why all the fired coaches get better jobs once they are fired..Haith went to Mizzou, which is a better job, and Hewitt went to George Mason , which is a better job than Gt
—–
There you go again talking about ACC coaches getting fired. Frank Haith was not fired by Miami.
On Bradley’s blog you claimed that “7 or 8″ ACC coaches have been fired in the last 2 years (sounds like you are either not sure or just made the number up_. The only coaches fired after the last 3 seasons are Gaudio (WF), Lowe (NCSU), Hewitt (GT), Leitao (UVA) and Skinner (BC). Haith left Miami to go to Mizzou. Purnell left Clemson to go to DePaul. Gary W retired. Ole Roy, K, Hamilton, Greenberg are all still coaching.
Care to tell us who the other 2 or 3 are? I would have thought a self-proclaimed basketball insider such as yourself knows who the “7 or 8″ (sic) fired ACC coaches are.
Dawg 1
June 16th, 2011
11:45 pm
Anytime ‘any school’ changes coaches, there is ‘risk’ of losing your existing players. The really sad part is that they have to sit out a year because of the schools decision to remove the coach they came to play for. If the school makes a change, any player at any school should have the right to transfer with no penalty.
Give the new coach a little time before deciding his fate… He seems to be trying to recruit the state first – that’s a start.
New building coming – would be patient.
Tech Fan
June 16th, 2011
11:46 pm
This is bad news…but just for the near future…we will defenitly have a bad team this year. CBG needs to start landing some to get this thing going.
ACC’s Worst Team Just Got Worse « Big Duke Balls | A Duke Blue Devils blog
June 16th, 2011
11:49 pm
[...] There’s a stunning development down in Atlanta. Word is Georgia Tech’s Brian Oliver is transferring. [...]
let's go Jackets
June 17th, 2011
12:26 am
not surprised, Brian Oliver was named after the Brian Oliver of the Bobby Cremins era and 76ers great, If Gregory would shutup about the “Izzo regime” and Michigan State, Neither can hold a candle to anything Cremins accomplished. Yet Gregory keeps talking about this cr@p as if somebody is suppose to be impressed. Just shut up about it.
Alienating the past former great players such as the first Oliver is not going to help you either which reminds me Lethal Weapon 3 took care of your precious Michigan St on the way to the Final 4
buh bye
June 17th, 2011
4:37 am
oliver’s not that good—tech needs to clean out a lot of deadwood and start over.
Big Ol Stinger
June 17th, 2011
6:39 am
Lost to Kennesaw and Georgia (at home) with him. We can lose without him just as well.
See ya!
It Ain't Rocket Science
June 17th, 2011
7:33 am
Sounds like the young man knows what is a better fit for his talents. He seems like a pretty level headed fellow, so why do people on these blogs see a need to put him down? I don’t believe his actions are all that unique in the college world.
gt
June 17th, 2011
8:35 am
UCLA has got to be the Kentucky of the west coast. All three players that left North Carolina’s program last year ended up there. The Wear brothers and Drew, all three head cases and now they are babysitting this Celtic crowd too. These schools make it too easy for the NCAA to follow the dots.
As for Hewitt. Has anyone seen the stock of Iman Shumpert jump up the last few weeks? No man outside Mark Richt can hide talent better than Hewitt. Time and time again players have shown up in the NBA and shocked the league at what they had been hiding down here in Atlanta.
It is my guess Gregory introduced Oliver to his first real basketball practice. Maybe he taught them that the head is not a rebounding device and the ball does not have to bounce from the hands to the head to the opponent, whatever silly drill that was the Jackets like so much. Maybe he worked on practicing free throws, inbounding the ball and conditioning for defense. It would be enough to make any prim donna quit.
Roy Williams chases em off somehow and wins national championships, watch next year’s crop, may be the best they ever had at Carolina after losing three Hewitt type high school All Americans. If these guys had stayed at Tech that may have been the sign we didn’t want to see out of this new coach. The day Drew left Carolina and Marshall became the point guard was the day Carolina won the national championship next year. I got a feeling something like that is going on at Tech. It is call growing up. Watch Brandon Reed next year he is a winner.
Tech Fan
June 17th, 2011
8:42 am
Gt, I agree, I am actually suprised more haven’t left after they found out they would actually have to practice. For us Tech fans, this ought to be a sign of something good taking place at Tech.
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
8:43 am
@Paul in RDU
How has it been!…I remember you, you are the guy that bashed Hewitt, but you were also the same guy on the Ohio St GT game blog complaining about the refs the whole game..But after the game, you started bashing Hewitt like it was his fault that GT lost the game, although you clearly seen and stated that Gt did not get any calls the whole game..you are a hypocrite.If you are a true GT fan, don’t do Coach Gregory like that….
But anyway, Ok i was off by 2, but still the other 2 left the “mighty ACC” as soon as they could, neither was winning ACC games anyway, Purnell could not get a call to save his life…No other Conference has had a coaching turnover like that ACC..You simply cannot win on the road in this conference…I have a quick ?..
How do feel about the Coach Gregory hiring..GT let Mark Bradley run Hewitt out of town, but ended up hiring a coach who was on the hot seat, 2 nccas in 8 years, 1 year with Purnell’s talent and he had the financial support and fan support that he needed!..Why did GT hire this guy?
JasonGT
June 17th, 2011
8:48 am
The only way this can pan out now is if 2012 becomes a classic cremins-like recruiting year where our pitch is you’ll definitely start in one of the best leagues in the conference and we can build a new lethal weapon 3… Lethal Weapon 3.1?
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
8:52 am
@GT
That was the dumbest post i have ever read…Shump was awesome last year, If the refs would have let Favors and Lawai played, GT was a final four team 2 years ago The refs stole the ACC championship game and the Ohio st game, just ask your fellow GT buddy “Paul in RDU” ….But yeah Shump was horrible at GT lol..GT fans don’t have a clue!
Second-team All-ACC and a member of the conference’s all-defensive team.
> Became the 7th player in ACC history to lead his team in scoring, rebounding and assists … Is the 4th to lead in those three categories and steals.
Ranked 4th in the ACC in scoring, 15th in rebounds, 10th in FG and FT pct., 1st in steals (7th in the nation).
> Averaged 18.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 3.6 apg vs. the ACC … In ACC games only, he was 2nd in scoring, 15th in rebounds, 10th in assists, FG and FT pct., 1st in steals
Scoring average increased by 7.3 ppg over his junior year (4th-best mark in the ACC), rebound average up 2.3 per game.
Moobs Johnson
June 17th, 2011
9:06 am
Love the passion for the Tech B-ball fans. Time for you guys to realize that your program is at best middle of the pack in the ACC. Coach No Name will be nothing but an anchor to Tech. Have fun the next four or five years until you start the process again. Hopefully DRad is smart enough not to give this guy a rollover contract.
JM
June 17th, 2011
9:13 am
@ HewittFan: Luke, Mario, Will and BJ all grew as players because Hewitt had a very good assistant coach working with them at the time. Once he left Hewitt could not fill the hole personally or find another assistant who could.
Crazy Robert
June 17th, 2011
9:25 am
The dude just ain’t got nuff tattoos. See ya BO, and remember, I-75 & 85 are the roads that go where you need to be.
Techster/dogone
June 17th, 2011
9:27 am
Can you blame him for leaving ? No you can’t !!! Will we ever see the glory days of GT basketball again ? Probably not in the next 4 or 5 years. Unless we get a new coach in two years !!!
Good Sign - WIN/WIN
June 17th, 2011
9:39 am
This appears to be a good sign that things are changing from the CPH era. Apparently the changes do not apeal to Mr. Oliver and he is moving on. WIN
He will find a good place that suits him better. WIN
Time to rebuild.
Eileen Eulick
June 17th, 2011
9:41 am
U gotta be kidding me, another one leaving?? I knew it, typical when Hewitt leaves they all bail. He was the worse coach I have ever watched in my years alive watching GT basketball, except for the one lucky Final Four year, now he is gone, which ever true Tech alumni/fan I know was hoping he needed to be fired, got a new coach who we haven’t even seen coach yet but seems solid, and players just give up. What a joke!
ATL Sports Fan
June 17th, 2011
9:45 am
It suprises me that you keep mentioning Mark Richt hiding all this talent. I guess with him hiding all this talent and Tech still is not able to beat UGA should say something about your coaches not being able to develop talent enough to beat a team, who you say does less with more.
ormewood
June 17th, 2011
10:07 am
Hewitt Fan, the constant complaining about refs is lame. There’s no conspiracy, never has been. Tech was not a Final Four team two years ago. This just in, Duke and UNC have Hall of Fame coaches and really good players who tend to stick around more than a year or two. Complaining about refs is for losers. All teams get bad calls. Deal with it.
Oh, and Tech will really stink this season, as will Wake and BC.
GT Fan ...
June 17th, 2011
10:14 am
To the guy above who is obsessed with PJ’s “Moobs” …… Uh, DRAD isn’t the one who signed PH to a rollover contract … it was the spineless, bitter, can’t admit when he’s wrong, Dave Braine.
In regards to BO:
Grades? Not buying-in on BG’s system/plan? Hewitt’s in his ear? Who knows…
I agree with some of the folks on here saying get as much of Hewitt out of the system as possible then start with a clean slate.
I’ve got no clue what Hewitt was teaching these kids, but I darn sure know (from looking at his W-L record) it wasn’t much.
Honestly I hope BO’s leaving is b/c of academics. If it’s bad attitude towards the new regime, or Hewitt having some sort of influence then no telling how many more bad seeds are still in the program.
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:21 am
@ormewood
“Hewitt Fan, the constant complaining about refs is lame. There’s no conspiracy, never has been. Tech was not a Final Four team two years ago.”
lol, I wonder do you GT fans really watch the games?…When Favors was here, do you remember the first Duke game at GT..the refs made duke play and Gt beat Duke easily..Gani and Favors dominated the boards..the game at Duke was a sight to see..As soon as the ball was tipped Favors and Lawai both picked up 2 fouls in the first 2 minutes of the game!..Duke shot 36 free throws in that game!..No way around it!..The ACC championship game was the game that Favors decided to turn pro, I know him personally, he knew right then that the ACC was ran by the refs..He told me he and Coach Mc that he should have went to UGA and the refs in the ACC were worst then high school..the AJC did a story on Favors not being able to deal with the refs in the ACC…
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:27 am
Derrick “officials-ain’t-doing-him-any” Favors
10:18 pm February 18, 2010, by Carroll Rogers
First, a disclaimer. I’m not here to disparage ACC officiating, or to make any apologies for Derrick Favors. But…..I just…have…to…say….this: Doesn’t it seem like he’s got some kind of freshman hex going, where officials aren’t giving him the credit they might an upperclassmen in the post?
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:28 am
So I went to Gani Lawal today too, wondering if as a junior, he notices a difference in how fouls are called on him now vs. his freshman year.
That got a smile.
“With officials it’s like the weather, you never know,” Lawal said. “They may be good. They may be consistent. They may not be consistent. As far as earning respect for calls, I’ve been here three years; I still don’t feel I get the great calls. What I tell Derrick is the same thing I’ve been saying all year, just ‘You’ve got to play through it. That’s all you can do. If you get early foul trouble, when you get back in the game, try to dominate.’”
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:32 am
GT fans are the worst in the WORLD..Check out some of the post’s on that blog!
MorningJacket
February 18th, 2010
11:46 pm
Favors is just an overrated freshman. In his case, I wouldn’t put it all on the zebras. But your post raises bigger issues. When will someone in the press actually stand up to the joke that is officiating in the ACC? Can any visiting team get a fair call in Cameron (not that it would have made a difference for Tech this visit)? Even though a hostile Coach K screams at the refs every game, can anyone recall him ever getting a technical? Sometimes watching Duke ACC home games is like watching WWE….you could publish the score in advance. It’s no accident that Duke was destroyed at Georgetown…there were no ACC officials to rig the results. Why do reporters just accept that this is just the way it is. Why not show photos/video of the bad calls and document the abuses? Press the ACC senior officials for answers. Do something about it and don’tt just laugh and hide behind “objectivity,” which is really code for laziness or “I’m afraid I’ll lose my press credentials if I rock the boat.” I don’t think anyone at the AJC/Raleigh paper or Wash. Post has the cojones to do their job. (Why? See previous sentence.) And that stinks more than Favors’ foul shooting.
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:33 am
arge1
February 18th, 2010
11:46 pm
Good post. Derrick’s not whining shows his class. So many CRAZY calls against him but none hurt worse than the 3 quick ones against Duke up there. The officials made sure Derrick, then Gani, would not play any factor in the game’s outcome. I lost any (if I ever had any) respect for ACC “officiating.” I would like have the “job” of the head of ACC officials. Talk about a do-nothing job..
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:33 am
yellarjacket
February 19th, 2010
9:00 am
Sarge1, I agree. The Duke game at Cameron comes to mind when I think of bad officiating. Duke really needed to win that game and the officials did everything in their power to negate any type of advantage Tech had in the post. Gani picks up two fouls in 33 seconds and Derrick is sitting with 3 fouls at the 12:00 minute mark. Enter Brad Sheehan. Game over! I also found it interesting that Jon Scheyer played 39 minutes and only picked up one foul. Typical BS when playing in Cameron.
The two most inconsistent officials in the ACC are Jamie Luckie and Karl Hess. Anytime we get one or both of those guys calling our game, we end up several guys fouling out or in foul trouble early and it seems we never have a questionable call go our way. ACC officiating has been horrible all year.
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
10:40 am
Sid Harvey
February 19th, 2010
5:14 pm
A foul is a foul, is a foul, is a foul and that is the way the game should be called. ACC teams say, they must play a few minutes at the start of the game to see how the Refs are going to call, A foul should be the same for a Freshman or a Senior. ACC Refs have more to do with who wins the game than the players. This is a shame.
phewitt fan ... where is the
June 17th, 2011
10:51 am
ebonics this am? is somebody proof reading your comments?
hate to tell you but your boyfriend taught the ‘hack a shaq’ defense. that is why we lost to duke. matter of fact…. that is why your boyfriend couldnt win a winnable game in the last minutes to save his arse.
go look it up you basketball goober you. phewitt lost more winnable games in the last few minutes than any other coach in the country. due to his inane timeouts… his inane strategies… and the fact that his players never learned how to play to win. our unforced turnovers at the end of games was astounding.
even coach don nelson of the san fransico warriors where amo is playing said his college coach did a horrible job of teaching him fundamentals.
And to further prove that point home… how are your boys doing now eh? favors, an almost consensus top talent when phewitt got to coach *sic* him is now riding the bench most games. he was so expendable that they were going to package him up in a 2 fer deal for a real player.
this is not to say that he wont be a great player in the nba someday but to further point out that playing for phewitt set him back years.
i have a new nickname for you btw… the dope serving coke.
now where are my fries?
T3
June 17th, 2011
11:00 am
FACT: Hewitt had to go.
After Hewitt got his big contract after the 2004 season, he basically “mailed it in.”
The GT program went into a noticeable decline right after that.
The ACC turned over EVERY B-Ball coach in the conference excpet Hewitt and Coach K.
The “overall” performance of the ACC in B-Ball has been in a downtrend for the past few years.
So, even though someone would think that a weaker-performing ACC in general would open th edoor for GT to emerge at or near th etop, Hewitt’s eam performance kept getting worse and worse.
Hewitt NEVER had a winning record in he ACC. IN the great 2004 season, GT went 8-8 in ACC play.
After attending almost every home B-Ball game over the past 5 years, it was BLATANTLY OBVIOUS
that the B-Ball program was in decline. The past 3 years displyed some of the most attrociuos
B-Ball fundamentals I have ever seen.
The fans had alreayd voted with their feet and wallets. Hewitt had to go.
D-Rad made the right choice to Fire Hewitt.
D-Rad also made the RIGHT CHOICE to hire Brian Gregory.
2011 will be a re-building year.
But I am more confident now than I have been in 4 LONG years.
moboman
June 17th, 2011
11:12 am
Hewitt Fan — Im not gonna fling insults at you, because I respect your right to a point of view. Its admirable that so many Hewitt recruits are making good money, and I wont argue that CPH had to fight the ACC league “politics”. But that is the nature of the job he took over. Certainly Cremins had the same fight in his hands, as did coaches at Wake Forest who have produced better results.
The end result is that his teams didnt get it done, and his recruits often had holes in their games that didnt get better and continually cost us games. Lesser players at lesser schools often seemed to play at a more complete level that ours. UGA teams out performed us on the court and played a better style of ball with lesser players. When that is the state of your program, a change has to be made. My biggest knock on CPH is that his teams seemed not to have the confident fire in their belly that is required at this level of competition. That comes from the coach’s attitude.
I really hope that in a less prominent conference, CPH does well and can enjoy coaching in a less “frying pan” atmosphere. I just didnt see things getting better for him here. Its no way to live.
I wont be surprised if the transition is bumpier for the new GT coach than it will be for PH at his new job. Hope you are wrong about another defection, but if you arent, theres not much we can do about it. The change had to be made. PH’s job here was not just to run players thru the program that could make good money after they left, it was to produce a winning program as well. He only got half the job done. Not good enough. Nuff said.
Eileen Eulick
June 17th, 2011
11:14 am
Speaking of Richt, does anyone know if he bleaches his eyebrows or is it from over exposure to tanning beds?
GTBob
June 17th, 2011
11:41 am
lol, I wonder do you GT fans really watch the games?
Every single one of them. Win or lose. I’m amazed that you watch so many considering how much you hate GT and ACC basketball. If you watched all of the games the past few years and thought that the refs were the reason we had such terrible perimeter defense, and that we had considerable trouble inbounding the ball, and that we couldn’t shoot free throws very well, and that we had turnover issues, etc, etc. then I really feel bad for any kids you are trying to teach. GT over the past 5 years has to have been one of the worst teams in the country in offense fundamentals.
ormewood
June 17th, 2011
11:53 am
Hewitt had to go. Quite simply, he did not perform his job at an acceptable level. He had one winning season at Tech. Here’s a partial list of coaches that have departed the ACC in the last ten years who’ve had better ACC records: Skinner, Sendek, Gaudio, Purnell,
It has begun
June 17th, 2011
12:11 pm
GT BB is in the tank and we all know it. Forget the upcoming year, it will be a disaster.
Football is fast approaching and we all know that CPJ is in his last year. Over the last 45+ years, GT runs through new football coaches on average of every 4 years +-, Dodd through CPJ.
CPJ? He is entering his fourth year and it does not look good for him either and the law of averages is staring him in the face. He will be in yet another pathetic bowl and it will result in another pathetic loss.
UGA fan
June 17th, 2011
12:19 pm
I agree with Hewitt Fan. He is the greatest coach in the history of mankind and should have stayed at Tek forever.
Jacket Dad
June 17th, 2011
12:35 pm
Hate to see Brian go, but maybe it’s the best to get a fresh start. Thanks for your two years at GT and best wishes to you and your future.
We don’t know what actually goes on and can only speculate (except for Hewitt Fan who seems to be the end all, be all). We are definitely in a rebuilding phase but ANYTHING would be better than the pain of watching a Hewitt “coached” “team” (and I use both of those terms very loosely). I will be in attendance this year – win or lose.
Go Jackets!
just keep in mind....
June 17th, 2011
1:13 pm
that phew’s recruiting has been taking a nose dive. our prospects at filling 4-5 spots on the current roster were slim to non existent.
obviously there were those that didnt love phew like phew fan does.
his sorry teams and poor records and graduation rates were finally catching up to this poor excuse of a coach,
of course phew fan will say it was the fans fault that we lost so many games. it was the fans fault that gt teams lacked fundamentals and bb skills.
Hewitt Fan
June 17th, 2011
1:16 pm
@moboman GT fans are a bunch of punks!..How could the GT fan base sit back and let GT get cheated over and over!..Even Cremins never got any calls, in his last 10 years he had 2 winning seasons, with rosters full of nba talent!..only 1 ACC championship outright!..Gt is scared to stand up!..even if Coach Gregory gets good players to come to GT( which i know for a fact, he won’t) he still will not get any calls..And GT fans will be calling for his head!
When Doug Roberson asked CG this ? I just shook my head,
AJC: Lots of coaches come to ACC and get a whiff of Tobacco Road officiating and realize they can’t win, what makes you think differently?
BG: I don’t have any opinion on that because I haven’t gone through it. You are talking about two programs whose teams are very, very good. Teams that are good get the benefit of the doubt. I think it has more to do with how good they are more than anything else.