Archive for the ‘Tech / ACC’ Category

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt wasn't happy with anybody Saturday, and it showed. (AP photo)

While Paul Hewitt is beating the drum for a 96-team NCAA tournament field, he might want to note that his team just looked like No. 97.

Facing North Carolina State, the last-place team in the ACC, Georgia Tech committed 22 turnovers, missed 14 free throws, blew several layups, also a slam dunk, struggled to execute an in-bounds play as if it were rocket science (isn’t this the Institute of Technology?), melted down against a full-court press and somehow blew a 16-point lead in the time it takes to say, “NIT.”

Yes, Tech won the game. By two points. And a spasm.

Hewitt was so thrilled that he ripped his players. Then himself. Then his players again. Then he snapped at a simple question in the postgame media session. At one point he even belabored the fact that he has been preaching to players about not throwing lob passes against the press “since the first day I walked into the …

Continue reading Hewitt has a right to be ‘embarrassed’ — by team and himself »

Imagine how filling out a 96-team bracket would cut into President Obama's work day.

The Super Bowl is the single biggest event in sports, the latest evidence being that we’ve just spent the past two weeks debating what commercials we should or shouldn’t be subjected to while we’re trying to focus on our beer. And nachos. And beer.

(By the way: Received yet another email today from an organization asking me to interview them about “family.” I would’ve thought ignoring the first 23 emails about “family” would’ve been a hint. Are “family” organizations oblivious to hints?)

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Where was I? Oh yes, sports. The Super Bowl may be the biggest event, but the NCAA basketball tournament is the best thing going. It contains everything we love about sports, particularly upsets and underdog …

Continue reading One word about NCAA tourney expansion to 96: lunacy »

Good morning. Ilya Kovalchuk is still a Thrasher. I’ll let you know what line he’s skating on in drills. (Not really.)

It’s pretty well established what I think of the news that a Kovalchuk trade is imminent. The team leaves after practice today for Washington, where it plays Friday night. Heck, if the Capitals want to jump into the trade derby and put together a deal before faceoff, Kovalchuk can get to the Verizon Center and walk into the Washington locker room with his buddy, Alex Ovechkin.

Just wanted to touch base, but we’ll have more on developments later.

Before the Kovalchuk story broke Wednesday, my intent was to post something last night on Georgia Tech’s signing celebration at the Georgian Terrace hotel. Those plans changed. But I still stopped by there for a few minutes and spoke to coach Paul Johnson for a few minutes. As always, he had a couple of interesting and pointed comments.

I know Johnson, Georgia coach Mark Richt and most college coaches have the same …

Continue reading Kovalchuk still here — and Paul Johnson takes a shot »

Paul Johnson led someone else's recruits to the ACC title. It bodes well for what he does with his own recruits. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)

The NFL, generally recognized as the most successful sports league in the world, employs hundreds of scouts, spends millions of dollars, crosses the country several times over, breaks down every conceivable potential pro player from Big Campus U to Couldn’t Find Us Without GPS A&M and feeds it all into computers that spit out professional looking, color-coded spreadsheets, suitable for framing.

Know what? They still get it wrong more than half the time.

So what are we to think about national letter of intent day? College scouting is even less sophisticated than pro scouting. They’re dealing with athletes four years younger. Teenagers. More variables means more guessing, which means more darts are likely to hit the wall, three feet from the target.

I know. You don’t want to hear that today, right? As a Georgia Tech fan, you want to know …

Continue reading Forget the ‘expert’ rankings, Georgia Tech will be fine »

Is this where critics start warming to Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt? (Curtis Compton/AJC)

Ask Paul Hewitt about his detractors he will rationalize, “I’ve been here 10 years. Chuck Daly used to say never stay at one place longer than seven years.”

Ask him if he feels somewhat vindicated by his team’s season thus far and he laughs, with a perceived sense of absurdity of the question, responding, “I know what I’m doing.”

Paul Hewitt and self-assurance have long been best friends.

But even Hewitt must understand somewhere deep down that if he didn’t coach the Jackets, with one of the nation’s most talented rosters, into the NCAA tournament this season, he was going to have some support issues.

That’s not to suggest Hewitt was on the firing line, as some of his critics might hope (or suggest). But another nosedive certainly could have nudged him into the on-deck circle.

Let’s assume that is not an issue now.

Tech probably is playing its best basketball of …

Continue reading With Georgia Tech winning, are Hewitt’s critics thawing? »

How did Georgia Tech do in physical battles? The picture says it all. (Curtis Compton/AJC).

The calendar hasn’t even turned to February, and Georgia Tech just played the kind of basketball game it wants to play in March. Tough team defense. A strong presence inside. Freshmen all over the floor making plays — blocking shots, hitting jumpers, not throwing away the ball — or hope.

And when was the last time things went so well that coach Paul Hewitt used only two timeouts?

Tech didn’t just win an ACC game Thursday. It made a fairly significant statement about avoiding the kind of backslide that has plagued this program the past few years. The Jackets bounced back from a loss at Florida State by leveling Wake Forest 79-58.  In doing so, they held the Demon Deacons to 32.8 percent shooting. They blocked eight shots. Even the opposing coach acknowledged that Tech won the physical battles. (Statistical evidence: Tech dominated the boards in the second half, 27-10.)

“They took us …

Continue reading Georgia Tech putting it all together at the right time »

When we last watched Georgia Tech in a home game, the Jackets held on to defeat Clemson, 66-64, for their third win over a ranked ACC team of the season. It seemed they had started to turn the corner.

Then came Sunday’s reminder that this corner might take a while to turn.

The Jackets had the ball and a one-point lead in the final half-minute at Florida State. Then Zach Peacock missed a free throw, Glen Rice committed a foul at the offensive end, the Seminoles hit two free throws and the Jackets eventually lost, 68-66.

In the final 26 seconds of the game, Tech went 0-for-3 from the floor, 0-for-1 from the free throw line, committed two fouls and had a turnover. Such are the growing pains of a team that has four freshmen (Rice, Derrick Favors, Brian Oliver, Mfon Udofia) and a sophomore (Iman Shumpert) in its regular rotation.

That needs to change tonight against Wake Forest. If the Jackets are to return to the NCAA tournament this season, they can’t afford to have similar …

Continue reading We’re live from Tech-Wake (and Jackets need to take control) »

It turns out new Tech assistant Al Groh has a sense of humor. (Johnny Crawford/AJC)

Al Groh walked into his first formal meeting with the media at Georgia Tech Friday, wearing a particularly large ring on his right hand: a Super Bowl ring from his days with the New York Giants.

Was this standard accessorizing for him?

“No,” he said “Not very often. I usually just wear it for other people’s entertainment.”

Press conferences?

“No. Recruiting.”

This ring was from Groh's second Super Bowl with the New York Giants.

Full disclosure here: Groh, while long regarded as a top defensive coach, never has had a reputation of being a charmer with the media. But I figure that working for Bill Parcells all of those years is bound to make anybody miserable.

But Groh seemed at ease Friday when discussing his new role as Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator, and even cracked a few jokes. When asked about the possible difficulty of  going from being a head coach at Virginia to only an …

Continue reading It’s the new charming Al Groh (until Virginia week) »

D'Andre Bell and Georgia Tech may be jumping for joy a lot this season. (Curtis Compton/AJC)

I’m heading out to Athens in the morning to chat with Georgia coach Mark Fox,  who might be the most impressive 8-8 coach in the nation right now.  But then I’ve generally been less jaded than most — I know, hard to believe — about the potential of Georgia basketball.

Yes, I believe Fox can turn the Bulldogs into a consistently winning program. Florida and Tennessee obliterate all of the it-can’t-be-done-here arguments in the SEC.

But it you think I’m crazy for even pondering the concept of a successful Georgia basketball program, here’s something even more out there: Georgia Tech has a good chance to win the ACC  championship this year.

OK. Now call me crazy.

Seriously, we’ve all seen the upside and downside of the Jackets this season. Sometimes we’ve seen it during consecutive possessions. But after three conference wins in the last four games over Duke, North Carolina and …

Continue reading Can Tech win basketball, football titles in same year? »

Derrick Favors had his best game of the season, with 17 poiints, 14 rebounds and three blocks. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Everybody was looking for direction, but in the past four games all Georgia Tech had given us was a spinning compass. Lose to Georgia, beat Duke. Lose to Virginia, win at North Carolina.

Next home game: Dramamine to the first 2,500 in attendance?

Well, maybe the Jackets finally established some general direction Tuesday night. With an opportunity to fall flat again, they didn’t. Yes, there were turnovers. There were missed shots. There were just enough of those what-are-you-thinking kind of moments that left you wondering if this season would be one long tease.

But in the end, Tech won. Again. Over a ranked team. Again.

Seldom does a Tuesday night game against Clemson in mid-January stir the masses. But the 66-64 win over the Tigers at Alexander Memorial Coliseum wasn’t without some historical significance. It was the first time Tech won consecutive games against …

Continue reading Georgia Tech’s win may finally establish direction »