Georgia Tech needs a Keener mind on the bench
Since playing for the 2004 national championship, Georgia Tech is 77-75. This will be the Jackets’ third losing season in their past four. They’ve made a postseason tournament – and here we include the low-rent NIT – once since 2005. There’s more wrong than just bad luck. There’s mismanagement afoot.
Tech beat Miami on Wednesday. It was the Jackets’ first victory since Jan. 31, their third of calendar 2009. Nobody expected this to be a Top 25 team, but it shouldn’t have been this feeble. Tech starts two McDonald’s All-Americans but clinched last place in the ACC before February was done.
Miami, by way of contrast, has no McDonald’s All-Americans but is 17-11 and still retains an outside chance of making the Big Dance. Tech, which is 11-17, should have been no worse than that.
After Wednesday’s game, Paul Hewitt said: “This team has been unfortunate more than anything else. It hasn’t been a bad team.” It is, sad to say, such denial that holds Tech back. You don’t go from No. 2 in the country to last in a 12-team league without systemic malfunction.
Tech is undercoached. It doesn’t have North Carolina’s depth of talent, but it has enough to have been competitive. But, since taking an unassuming group to the Final Four, Hewitt has consistently gotten less from more. His 2006-07 team, which lost its first games in the ACC and NCAA tournaments, included four players now working in the NBA.
Hewitt admitted Wednesday he has made mistakes, but only in recruiting. “It’s always recruiting,” he said, and he mentioned Mohammed Faye, who transferred to SMU. Only it isn’t always recruiting. Tech keeps losing because it hasn’t developed players the way a big-time program must.
Being Hewitt, he hopped on his hobbyhorse. “We’ve had to adjust to tougher academic standards,” he said. “I tried to fight the APR [the NCAA’s academic progress report] hard because I felt it could have an effect on our program. But our academics are now in the best shape since I’ve been here. We had six guys on the dean’s list last semester.”
Other ACC schools, however, face similar scholastic rigors. For a coach in his ninth season at the Institute to use academics as an excuse – especially when the same coach took Tech to the NCAA title and was essentially handed a lifetime contract thereafter – is disingenuous. Hewitt knows what it takes to win at this school. He just hasn’t done it lately.
Owing to his recruiting class and his $7 million buyout, Hewitt is going nowhere, but potential help was close at hand Wednesday, sitting in the press section. Dean Keener was Hewitt’s chief assistant his first four seasons here, and he left after the Final Four to coach James Madison. Keener resigned last year and has moved back to Atlanta, where he’s working in the private sector.
Would Keener rejoin Hewitt’s staff if asked? “I wouldn’t even want to begin a dialogue [with a reporter] on that,” he said, and then he professed his relish for his new job, which affords the chance to be around his young children. Still, Keener coached for 20 years, and the itch never fully leaves, does it?
Asked about possible changes, Hewitt said he likes the composition of his staff very much, and certainly Tech’s heralded recruits are a testimony to assistants John O’Connor and Charlton Young and Peter Zaharias. But the best staffs forge a balance between coaching and recruiting, and the Jackets have veered out of plumb.
Put simply, Tech needs Dean Keener as much as it needed Derrick Favors. Maybe even more.
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155 comments Add your comment
willie
March 6th, 2009
7:57 am
I have wondered for a couple of years why Hewitt has been given a pass. That has finally ended, it appears. His players are plenty good enough to perform much better than they do. Like everyone, I like Hewitt and really wanted to him to succeed, but he is flat not getting it done. Next year with Favors will definitely be his last chance. Go Jackets!
Phildo
March 6th, 2009
8:07 am
Great article, but if an assistant is going to make such a difference, maybe an assistant needs to be the head coach. The bottom line is, great guy or not, Hewitt is simply not getting the job done. And, like most losers, it’s excuses, excuses, excuses. Since he’ll never leave on his, ala Bobby, DO YOUR JOB, D-Rad and send him packing, now, not after wasting two more damaging years.
Mark Bradley
March 6th, 2009
8:11 am
Thanks, Alessandra. You’re welcome any time.
79
March 6th, 2009
8:18 am
GT basketball was on TV the other night. When they did a wide shot showing the stands, it looked like the crowd at a 1970’s GT women’s game.
vidalia's bubba
March 6th, 2009
8:27 am
Contract or no contract losses, we must do the obvious, and fire the Coach. I’m sure a good small college coach would take the job for small money if the athletic board has money problems. A good small college coach would jump at the opportunity, and would work for 100k or less. AD could put some incentives in contract, and ifhe succeeded, then he
would make more money. One of the problems this country is facing today, is overpaying these CEO. I guess Hewitt is a CEO. I wonder if Braine would have paid him that much, if he didn’t succeed, and Blaine job depended on Hewitt record. Maybe the AD’s salary and job status should depend on how his hire’s do?
KL
March 6th, 2009
8:29 am
Great article Mark. Hewitt is probably a great guy and I assume runs a clean program, but he can’t coach. Keener coming back may help, but I’m not convinced it’s the answer. Even the Final Four team was floundering around in late-Jan to mid-Feb after their great start. I think the reason for that team’s success was the toughness and leadership of Bynum and Moore.
Mark Bradley
March 6th, 2009
8:41 am
Thanks, KL.
And we can debate for months whether or not Paul Hewitt deserves to be fired — my belief is that he doesn’t yet — but the reality is that he’s going to coach Georgia Tech next season.
chuck allison
March 6th, 2009
8:45 am
I believe Paul Hewitt is successful now at what he wants to do. But he doesn’t care about winning ACC basketball games as much as he cares about other things. Tech should not be the one paying him.
Mark Bradley
March 6th, 2009
8:48 am
Why on Earth would he not care about winning?
GT Fan
March 6th, 2009
8:58 am
Good job Mark. I’ve been waiting for you to finally get around to Paul Hewitt.
I hope Rads will go ahead and pay the 7 million and FIRE Paul Hewitt!!!We will lose more than that by keeping him. I for one have no respect for the man. I love GT but I can’t watch that guy try to coach. Praying for better days.
Mac
March 6th, 2009
9:25 am
Isn’t Charlton Young a former Ga. Southern star?
BLAZER
March 6th, 2009
9:30 am
our defense–run at them and leap as they shoot wide open three on us!!
offense-pg stays 40′ from basket and hopes someone will get open for a pass.
chad
March 6th, 2009
9:48 am
If the ship isn’t right in two years, he will be gone. Period
GTboston
March 6th, 2009
9:53 am
First of all – the final 4 team was mostly Hewitt recruits (his 4th year!)Clarence Moore was only non recruit – Hewitt even had to re-recruit Marvin Lewis. 2nd – When you have 1 or 2 kids stumble academically (and Tech DOES have much more difficult time with academics than ANY other school in this league BY FAR – including Duke – Because Tech is a small school – there is no place to hide kids with easy classes or more importantly, an easy Major – that is how schools keep guys eligible – TRUST ME!!!) when you have kids go early into draft AND you have a couple kids stumble – that throws your program off for a year or two! It effects DEPTH! It gives you no room for error!!
Also – to say he doesn’t develop guys is a JOKE!! Luke Schenscher, Will Bynum, Jarrett Jack, Anthony Morrow – all were not recruited on a high level! ALL HAVE PLAYED IN NBA!!!!! PLEASE!
RELAX on Hewitt – he will be fine! The program will be fine!
If things aren’t better in a couple years – then talk about it!! We should be worry more about Lawal leaving! SINCE he hasn’t been developed at all the last 2 years!
But Keener would be nice!!!!!!!! Sorry Meg (I think that’s his wifes name). haha!
KL
March 6th, 2009
9:55 am
I agree that he will still be here next year–at a minimum (as others have said, the contract and the recruits). It will be interesting to see what happens with the current returners and this highly rated recruiting class. Thye still have to be assembled into a TEAM that can play basketball at both ends of the court. The problem with “if the ship isn’t righted within…” scenario is once the ship has completely sunk, getting it back afloat becomes much more problematic.
RedGADawg
March 6th, 2009
9:55 am
So Tech has lousy coach and the answer is to bring back an assistant as savior, sounds backwards to me! Yellow Bugs accept you are stuck with a long term awful coach, he can recruit, he can not make recruits better, how long before reputaion of Hewitt is that his recruits do not improve, just stagnant in the program. When that occurs the recruiting will match his teams performance over his tenure. How can a coach who can barely break .500 over five years have a $7 million buyout? That is criminal, he should hang his head in shame, not even the top ACC or Big East coaches have that deal. It puts a cloud over the entire athletic program, DR is a strong AD, what a mess he inherited. What does PJ expect as he builds the Bee’s into an ACC power?
BravesFan79
March 6th, 2009
10:09 am
RedGADawg: If Assistants dont make a difference… then how come Mark Richt fought so hard to keep his at UGA??
Most successful programs have a guy on the bench that could fill in for the head coach if needed. I see NO such man on our bench! If anything i see assistants that should be perfecting their trade at a D 2 school…. not in the toughest conference in the land!!
Paul Hewitt has needed help on the bench with game planning for YEARS now… anyone who cant see that is blind.
chad
March 6th, 2009
10:20 am
Will Bynum and Jarret Jack were highly recuited by many progarms. Bynum transfered from Arz. Luke was a project, all be it a succesful one. There aren’t to many players that have over achieved at Tech though. You can’t count the one and dones for they were already talented when they arrived. A Mo was the North Carolina Player of the year. He was one dimenstional at Tech and disappeared a lot in games. Developing talent and a good team are crucial to running a strong program, which Tech does not have or do.
Mark Bradley
March 6th, 2009
10:57 am
Wake Forest isn’t a small school? Duke isn’t a small school?
GT66
March 6th, 2009
11:27 am
Mark this is the best and most honest evaluation of Hewitt that has been written. The record of 77-75 is pitiful. He says that the team is not a bad team. He is in denial. They have been undercoached as you state. He only admits to mistakes in recruiting. What a joke his coaching is one huge mistake. Lastly, we knew academics would come up and naturally he does not want to be held to the APR standard that applies to all schools. He obviously forgets that Duke, NC, Virginia, Wake Forest, Boston College and NC State are all good or great academic schools. Speaking of excuses he is a sorry excuse for a coach to try and claim his staff is good.
Scott
March 6th, 2009
11:42 am
As a life long Tech fan, I can honestly say, without a doubt, I cannot wait until the day we fire Paul Hewitt !!!
GO JACKETS !
Clyde Olson
March 6th, 2009
11:50 am
Mark,
You are right on about Paul Hewitt. Keaner is a MUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GT class “67″ Season ticket holder for Years.
Mark Bradley
March 6th, 2009
12:15 pm
Thanks, GT66. Thanks, Clyde.
ND
March 6th, 2009
12:31 pm
This is not to stir anything up, I think it is a legitimate question. Does race have anything to do with keeping CPH? His job is to win games and win games he has not.
mike
March 6th, 2009
12:51 pm
i had good friends that played for cremins and then hewitt. i like coach hewitt. he just doesn’t get it. to win in the ACC, you have to get and KEEP players. how many players leave duke and unc after one year? the program will be right back where it is now after favors leaves. tanner smith. those are the types of kids that will stay for 4 years and give you something to build around. he begged to come to tech, but coach hewitt wouldn’t take him. so he goes to clemson. that type of stuff happens year after year. if coach hewitt wants to develop talent for the NBA, go coach in the developmental league. his job is to win in the ACC. figure it out.
hedge puller
March 6th, 2009
1:18 pm
Dave Braine essentially did to Tech with Gailey and Hewitt contracts what your elected officials are doing to the country. Braine was looting before looting became nationalized. Get rid of Hewitt, take the financial beating and I guarantee DRad would get the right guy. Bobby Cremmins or Lefty Drissell woud be better than Hewitt. Heck, get Bobby Knight, I don’t care how old they are. Hewitt is slack
BLAZER
March 6th, 2009
2:15 pm
wake has fewer than 10,000 students i thought
BLAZER
March 6th, 2009
2:25 pm
around 8,000 students
Rob
March 6th, 2009
2:36 pm
Perhaps DRad could enroll hewitt in Coach K’s basketball camp.
Gordon
March 6th, 2009
2:47 pm
Mark, I wonder if you could give your opinion on a realistic level of achievement for Georgia Tech in basketball. For example, do you believe it is realistic to believe Tech could go to the NCAA 4 out of 5 years, with the 5th year being at or just above .500 and NEVER 11 or 12 wins? Average 20 to 22 wins and 9 in conference? How about going to the sweet 16 once every 4 years? The final four once a decade? Winning an NC once every 20 to 25 years? Other than Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina, I think Tech can achieve as much as anyone in either the SEC or ACC. I don’t think we need a once-in-a-generation coach like Coach K to do it either, just a good solid one (Tubby Smith, Jim Boeheim, etc). Do you agree, or should I and others just temper our expectations?
yurtle_the_turtle
March 6th, 2009
2:52 pm
GTBoston….what makes you think this program is in good hands? You write like Hewitt’s only been around for 3 or 4 seasons. He has had 9 years to get this program running like an elite program and has failed miserably. Most of the folks blogging here were Hewitt fans but he has turned them off. Please! Stop making excuses for this guy. He doesn’t deserve any more excuses. You say the program will be fine. When? Again, it has been 9 years and the program isn’t fine (as a matter of fact, it is worse than when Cremins left).
lawzoo
March 6th, 2009
3:07 pm
Dennis Felton would be a good fit.
BK
March 6th, 2009
4:36 pm
The gripe people had about Cremins was “he’s a great recruiter, but not a very good coach”. Well it seems to me that Hewitt is the same and in a lot of instances even a worse coach. A team can never become a winning program with the “one and done” players like Favors. You have to build a program around a nucleus a players. The great programs do. Otherwise you have to recruit big names like Favors year in and year out and more than one to compete and that just isn’t possible. Duke and North Carolina get All American consistently, but they are only as good as the veteran players.
BK
March 6th, 2009
4:45 pm
Regarding Hewitt’s coaching, he talks a lot about making adjustments throughout a season. Over the course of his 9 years, he has one of the weakest full court presses I’ve ever seen given his belief in substituting non-stop. He should have a press like Arkansas’s from the 90’s when Nolan Richardson was there or a half court trap like Dean Smith had in the 90’s. Then he’d be utilizing his substitutions to wear out the other team and create turnovers. Otherwise, when a combination of his players have good chemistry during a stretch of the game then let them play a little longer and skip the next scheduled substitution. In addition, his team is plagued by turnovers and poor shooting from the free throw line. I’d rather give up some of the athletic talent for some players who take care of the ball and shoot at least 70% from the free throw line. You win big games with fundamentals and Hewitt’s teams don’t have them.
JD
March 6th, 2009
4:50 pm
It has been a difficult season for GA Tech, but I don’t believe it’s due to coaching. Every game I’ve watched I’ve seen this coaching staff doing everything they possibly can to get this team to function properly. I have noticed this, though. They have a hard time scoring. When they should get the ball into the post because of an obvious advantage, they stand outside and take ill-advised jumpshots. The problem is that they don’t attack the basket enough. Their scoring offense is just horrible. On most nights they’re not getting blown out, they’re just getting outscored. They go through too many periods of not being able to put the ball in the basket. That’s not a defensive problem, that’s an offensive problem. Shot selection is a key element in that. If you’re not getting the ball into the hands of your playmakers and just jacking up shots for the sake of having to do it because the shot clock is running down, then your offense bogs down and you don’t get the proper floor balance you should have in order to succeed.
Coach Hewitt has done a good job with this team during his tenure as coach. With him, Tech has remained a mid-tier team in the ACC and that’s really about as good as you’re gonna get, what with national powers UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest in the conference and garnering more heralded recruits (until recently) than Tech. I think the most glaring thing you can point out is that even before Coach Cremins left in 2000, the program was headed for the middle of the pack status that it has now (sans this season because no one could have predicted that Tech would be this inconsistent). I know that most Tech fans find this unacceptable, but Coach Hewitt’s record is pretty good (could be better – 151-120 over his time here). He doesn’t need time to right the ship, he just needs to adjust to the changing climate in the ACC and win.
Glenn
March 6th, 2009
5:02 pm
Nice column, Mr. Bradley, and kudos to you for reading the comments and responding to them. It takes some guts to face the slings and arrows to face the commentariat, and you do it with aplomb.
My point, now (and forgive me if it’s already been mentioned; I didn’t have time to read through the comments): Since you exposed the reality of Hewitt’s contract for life, Mr. Bradley, I’ve had a very sour taste in my mouth about him and it. I certainly don’t blame Hewitt for seeking and signing the best deal possible, but after the way he has underperformed for the last few seasons, a contract in perpetuity seems like a perversion of any kind of incentive-based system, which is what sports coaches and players (professional ones, that is) alike should perform under. If Hewitt ever wants to regain the respect of Tech fans, one of the first steps he should take is to unilaterally amend the terms of his contract to, so to speak, “turn on the clock” for his contract and have it count down, year by year, like any other contract would (i.e., starting next year is year one of a seven-year contract [the ostensible length of his contract] that would expire in 2016, or be renewed or extended based on improved performance). Not only would he have some incentive to perform better, but it would give some hope to Tech fans like me who feel we will never see a light at the end of the tunnel.
You seem to have taken this topic on as a subject of interest, Mr. Bradley. I’d love it if, using the megaphone of your column, you were to moot something like the idea that I’ve here outlined.
Jacket_in_ badgerland
March 6th, 2009
6:22 pm
Mark,
I’ve enjoyed your columns for many years,in the paper and on-line. I must say this is one of the most insightful ones to date. As a die-hard Tech fan , I’ve been frustrated by the lack of success in basketball and feel it is directly attributable to a lack of coaching. A friend of mine once described a certain coach as needing “grandma talent”.In other words he needed talent even your grandma could win with – to overcome his lack of coaching ability.
I think that Paul Hewitt does not take his players and “coach them up”. All players heve weaknesses : free throws , defense , dribbling with their other hand , etc. The good coaches drive players to become better by working on their weaknesses. Hewitt’s best recruits – with one eye on the NBA , come into school thinking they are already super-stars and don’t seem to feel that they have to get any better.
I think Paul Johnson could coach the basketball team better than Hewitt, simply by his use of discipline,hard work, and refusing to accept anything but a player’s absolute maximum effort in practice.If the head coach is not capable of that sort of approach, he must have assistants who can. Unfortunately, I don’t see either one at Tech right now.
Navigator
March 6th, 2009
7:28 pm
Why keep bringing up Hewitt’s mess. Unlike a lot of coaches who have diverse mixture of players, Hewitt has little. This is not to say that he needs players from any one background, but he has proven from the beginning he is unable to create diversity amongst his starting players. I would hate to think players walk away from being recruited because they don’t meet the unwritten requirement of who Hewitt will recruit.
chad
March 6th, 2009
11:45 pm
JD: When a coach takes over a program, it is usually on a down cycle. That is why a change is made. CPH has gone in the opposite direction. He peeked early and has declined every year after the final four run. Reminds me of Bill Lewis, remember him. Turning around a program in a negative way. Every year same old bs, and every year same old problems that are correctable. The thing is CPH doesn’t correct them. His agenda is put as many players in the league as possible. That is great for the few that do make it, but what about Tech? Where is the benefit from it? Chris Bosh prime example. The number two player in the country when he came out. Did he look like it at Tech? I say no simply because what did he do? NOTHING. THAT IS THE COACH no one else. End of story.
George P.
March 7th, 2009
8:48 am
In my eyes and alot of other Tech fans, Hewitt should be done except for the Braineless buyout. Did Tech have a basketball tradition before Bobby? No. Did we have one after Bobby, most certainly although Bobby’s last couple of years were tough. Tech plays in what is, and has been the premier basketball conference for 50 years. It plays in the media hub of the southeast, and has talent all around it to recruit from. Now Hewitt is making excuses. Coach Hewitt has represented the school very well, while making us totally irrelevant in a sport that we should excell in. His record except for 2 possibly 3 borders on horrific. I work for a very tolerable company in sales. If my numbers were not there for one or two years, my company would proably give me that third year to correct them. If not, I would be looking for another job. If Hewitt had a tenth of the class and character of Bobby Cremins, he would take a lesser buyout and resign. Bobby truly cared about Ga. Tech, I can’t say the same about Hewitt.
sprtdog
March 7th, 2009
6:00 pm
I said the same thing earlier in the year right before Felton was fired.
At least he had an excuse because he inherited a train wreck. All GT talks about is their great recruiting class next year. The problem is most of those players will be in the NBA in two years and GT will back in the ACC cellar if they aren’t there next year
panama city beach mike
March 7th, 2009
6:18 pm
New coach, please Dan,it is has to be done.
Mark Bradley
March 7th, 2009
7:15 pm
Thanks, Glenn. Thanks, Badgerland.
And Gordon, I’d say a realistic level of achievement is to be in the NCAA tournament mix every year and to make it almost every year. Cremins went to the Big Dance every season from 1985 through 1993, and that was in a tougher ACC than the one Hewitt faces. (Fewer teams, for one thing, and you don’t have to play Carolina and Duke twice every season now.)
I’ve argued with one of the biggest names in college basketball about Tech — he says it’s a bad job — but my belief is that the dual selling points of the ACC and Atlanta are something that should never leave a team lacking talent. I think it’s a better job than Clemson or Wake or Virginia, say, and I think the right man should be able to have a long run of success. I once thought Hewitt was that right man. Now I’m not sure.
Sorry to be so long-winded. But you did ask.
thom
March 7th, 2009
9:40 pm
The Dawgs had the leadership to pull the trigger. We’re stuck in the ditch!
Mark Bradley
March 7th, 2009
9:44 pm
Georgia also has a different financial picture and a less onerous contract to honor.
Mike Murphy
March 7th, 2009
10:11 pm
The Final Four palyed tough D and hustled at all times. I remember watching us destro th eTERps as Muhammmad Ismail and mates dominate dthe paint and slasj=hed their way to the bucket.
Where has it gone …………?
Gordon
March 7th, 2009
10:37 pm
I appreciate your response, Mark, and agree with it. Next year will be interesting, but I have lost confidence in Hewitt long term. I still had hope before I read this column, but the things he said, especially that the only problems have been with recruiting, convince me that he is in over his head. I almost feel guilty feeling this way, but part of me wants next year to be bad just so we can get on with what must be done.
felton hudson
March 8th, 2009
7:43 am
Tech has the problem of being a one/two year signee and on to the pros. The players don’t stick around long enough for him to develop them. The way I see it is that any school that allows itself to be used as a year of development for the pros deserves exactly what Tech is reaping. The NCAA should start taking away a scholarship for each recruit that doesn’t stay the entire four years. This will again put some meaning back into the term scholar-athelete.
What’s Buzzing? » Blog Archive » Georgia Tech Needs a Keener Mind on the Bench | Mark Bradley
March 8th, 2009
5:46 pm
[...] But the best staffs forge a balance between coaching and recruiting, and the Jackets have veered out of plumb. Put simply, Tech needs Dean Keener as much as it needed Derrick Favors . Maybe even more. …Continue Reading… [...]
DTECH
March 8th, 2009
6:16 pm
I agree Mark, there is NO reason the “right coach” shouldn’t have GT in the NCAA Tourney on a regular basis. Atlanta is a great town, and give me a break we can “hide” the guys that need to be hidden in the Liberal Arts college.