Could lightning (and thunder) strike for Tech, too?
Don’t say it can’t happen. Lewis Clinch saw it happen. He sat in the stands and watched Georgia win the 2008 SEC tournament on Georgia Tech’s floor.
Clinch and the Jackets had been eliminated from the ACC tournament in Charlotte on Friday, the night of the Atlanta tornado. He returned to campus and witnessed Billy Humphrey, his longtime friend who was then a Georgia guard, complete a four-day journey from last place to SEC champions. “He explained how it all felt,” Clinch said, although how can you explain the inexplicable?
Clinch is a senior. Tech’s next loss will be the last of his collegiate life. “As of Thursday, it could all be over,” he said, speaking of the Jackets’ Round 1 game against Clemson, but he feels there’s a chance this lost season could turn around, same as Georgia’s did a year ago.
“I’ve always been a big believer that anything is possible,” Clinch said. “My mother raised me to think anything is possible.”
Here we arrive at the reality check. Georgia won the 2008 SEC tournament by matching its seasonal conference victory total in four tempest-tossed days. For Tech to win the 2009 ACC tournament, the Jackets would have to double their conference output.
In the 56-year history of the ACC, no team has ever lost more league games in one season than Tech just did. Granted, the conference didn’t adopt a 16-game schedule until 1993, but 2-14 is awful no matter how many asterisks are affixed.
“I honestly can’t explain 2-14,” Clinch said. “And at the end of the day, it’s about results.” Here he smiled. “But now we’re 0-0.”
Yes, that’s what every lousy team says entering its conference tournament. Still, there’s a sliver of a reason to think Tech might make a little noise under the Dome’s repaired roof. As articulated by Clinch, here is that reason: “We’re a talented basketball team.”
The most backhanded of compliments: This is the most gifted 14-loss team in ACC annals. Gani Lawal was second in the conference in rebounding and field-goal percentage. Iman Shumpert made the all-rookie team. Clinch has averaged 23.8 points over the past five games, four of which were losses. Yet he said, without a hint of irony: “We’re actually playing good basketball.”
There should have been good basketball in this team, but the league’s fourth-highest-paid coach failed his players. Still, the tournament affords a last chance to right manifold wrongs and, as chances go, this one doesn’t look half-bad. Tech will, after all, be playing in its hometown against Clemson, which has never won an ACC tournament. (Florida State, which Tech would play in Round 2, has reached the semifinals only once.) And Tech, as Clinch said, “has a history in big games.”
OK, so it’s not recent history. But he recalls driving from Cordele to Washington, D.C., as a high school senior and watching the Jackets whip North Carolina, which would go on to win the the NCAA title, in the semis and take Duke to the wire in the final. The 2005 run was essentially the program’s last appearance on the national stage, but if Georgia taught us anything it’s that March can spawn all manner of upheaval.
“We’re going to go in fighting,” Clinch said. “I don’t think any of these teams are unbeatable … We’ve got just as good a shot at winning it as anybody.”
Go ahead and laugh. But as you’re laughing, don’t make the mistake of saying something so strange could never happen. It happened in this very city 52 weeks ago. And Tech has better players than Georgia did
And now a word of warning: I’ll be blogging live from the first session of the ACC tournament tomorrow afternoon. We’ll get started around noon, when Virginia Tech and Miami tip off, and we’ll have at it until Georgia Tech finishes its game, and perhaps its season, against Clemson. Join me for witty repartee and incisive reportage. Or, failing that, just to keep from being bored while you’re sitting at work. You might not be glad you did, but I sure will.
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67 comments Add your comment
Just a Fan
March 11th, 2009
1:05 pm
Not Holding my breath. CPH is still coaching the talent…..
Ted Striker
March 11th, 2009
1:46 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tech notch a couple of wins. LIke the say in the minor leagues when you’re o-for in your last 11 at bats….”you’re due.”
Gordon
March 11th, 2009
1:53 pm
I’ll resist this last chance to take a shot at CPH. Everything that needs to be said, as well as a few things that didn’t, has already been said these past few months.
Good luck to Lewis and the rest of the team.
ben
March 11th, 2009
2:11 pm
I think Clinch summed up this team’s wacky outlook when he commented on losing 4 out of the last 5 games: “We’re playing good ball right now”. As long as Clinch, Hewitt and the rest convince themselves that they are “playing good ball” while they lose 12 out of 14 conference games, they don’t have an ice cubes chance in hell to win a game in the tourney.
T-Bone
March 11th, 2009
2:15 pm
You’re right, Mark. PH failed his players. The talent is there; the coaching is not.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
2:57 pm
It makes no sense to think a 2-14 team has a chance against a Top 25 team … but somehow I do.
Doesn't make sense
March 11th, 2009
3:22 pm
That’s what March is all about. Some pundits suggested that Georgetown would make a run in the Big East. They lost.
As a ‘Nole fan, I wouldn’t mind Tech to win tomorrow and beat the ‘Noles. Good luck to them. My team is lock so this would give them the weekend off.
George P Burdell
March 11th, 2009
3:25 pm
With the luck this team has, if lightning strikes- it will hit them.
Go Jackets!
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
3:26 pm
Some pundits? You read my mind. I had a paragraph ready to go in yesterday’s College Basketball Insider — still available for consumption on this blog — about Georgetown looking poised to make a charge, and then the Hoyas lost to St. John’s.
So I subbed Mississippi State for Georgetown. Now watch Georgia beat the other Bulldogs tomorrow. Just watch, I say.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
3:27 pm
And I hear you, George P. How are classes coming, by the way?
Tech75
March 11th, 2009
3:32 pm
I know this was newsworthy, but you have to question Clinch’s judgment in saying these things.
This season has been a MASSIVE failure; the coaches and the players both need to accept accountability.
If by some miracle they win the first game, I’ll ask myself “What was different for this game?” Regardless the answer, the next question will be “Why did it take 25 games?”
If there is an answer to those questions, then it will be interesting to see if they can win a second game. If they do not, then my question will be “Why was this not repeatable?” and “Was the first win a fluke?”
the real Old Gold
March 11th, 2009
3:32 pm
I would love to see it, but I suspect a second half of the first game with double digit turnovers due to fundamental mistakes. Kinda like every other game of the season.
wiley
March 11th, 2009
3:39 pm
i would love this too happen but we need to somehow not turn it over….oh and make shots too lol
Reality
March 11th, 2009
3:53 pm
If I were a betting man, I won’t bet against GA Tech….. then again, I won’t bet for them, either.
ontheflats
March 11th, 2009
4:10 pm
How can Clinch and Hewitt think this team is playing good ball over the last 4-5 games? Over the last five games they have averaged turning the ball over 15.2 times per game. I guess that’s better than the 17-20 they were averaging the first half of the season but that’s still not very good.
fred preddy
March 11th, 2009
4:18 pm
What a disgrace.
THWG!!!
gtman48
March 11th, 2009
4:19 pm
Tech beat wake and Miami this year. Of course the odds are not in their favor to win the ACC tournament but as Mark said it is possible. Who would have thunk it, when Cooper Taylor knocked the ball out to beat FSU or Marcus Wright jumping on the fumble in the 3rd qtr. at the UGA game. All I am saying it could happen…….
pws
March 11th, 2009
4:25 pm
Hey Mark:
As others posted in your article about the coaching earlier, this team has no leader, and no chemistry. They will turn the ball over and it will be as painful to watch as all the other games have been this season. DRad is losing our fan base, and we faithful are having a hard time justifying the cost of the season tickets when we see a head coach who doesn’t seem to be into the game anymore. This year PH has just sat on the bench and watched the bleeding, in years past he would have been jumping up and down on the bench. He looks like he gave up on the team in December. At least Bobby Cremins did get involved, even if my 7 year old daughter at the time did get mad at him because he wouldn’t allow girls to attend his summer camp….
A funny side story about Coach C, this same kid asked him at picture day what he would do if a girl had gotten the signed football program that included a free camp for the recipient. Coach C looked funny, and then said he guessed he would have to allow her to attend if her parents would let her, then he quickly asked her if she had gotten that program! He was really great to a 7 year old girl who was in love with his basketball program.
Just a Fan
March 11th, 2009
4:32 pm
I really miss Bobby
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
4:37 pm
Fifteen turnovers a game isn’t an inordinate amount. Twenty is.
Cary Jacket
March 11th, 2009
4:41 pm
Coach Hewitt’s teams — even the good ones such as the 2004 team that went to the Final Four — seem to start the season slow and then pick up the pace by the time the ACC tournament rolls around.
Granted, this year’s team didn’t start slow, so much as it started in reverse and then accidentally hit the self-destruct button when clamoring for the gear shift. But it almost seems like CPH’s philosophy of working on improving individual skills results in slower development of team chemistry.
Working on individual skills might help guys like Mario West and Anthony Morrow catch on with NBA teams, but it likely costs the team wins early in the season and it makes the team chemistry look non-existent at times.
Certainly, the Jackets are playing better now than earlier in the year. (How could they not? *rimshot*) But that team chemistry thing still has a long way to go.
Sadly, this will start all over again next year when new players are on the roster and Coach Hewitt begins with all of the personal-instruction drills again. It’ll be good for improving the Jackets’ individual NBA prospects, but the on-court performance of the team? Well, not so much.
Last Note: The comparison to Uga’s accomplishment last year fails b/c the dogs didn’t have to go up against UNC and Duke-caliber talent and coaching.
jacketbacker
March 11th, 2009
4:46 pm
mark….it won’t happen for tech in the ACC…too many good teams…..eventually, they will run into duke or UNC and the party will be over…..it can happen in the SEC beacuse its basically a bunch of average to bad teams…..a team can get on a roll, as ugag did last year, and win it…..no dominate teams to stop them…..beisdes, i don’t want to see Tech make a run at anything this year….it will only prolong CPH’s tenure….he has destroyed this basketball program and needs to be fired!!!…the sooner the better!!
Phildo
March 11th, 2009
4:53 pm
What is Clinch smoking? For that matter, what has Hewitt been smoking for years?
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
4:55 pm
Tech can’t afford to change coaches anytime soon.
And I know Carolina is really good, but there’s a chance Ty Lawson won’t play this week. That could change the dynamics of the tournament, could it not?
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
4:57 pm
And let’s not be too hard on Lewis Clinch. What’s he supposed to say — “We’re going to lose to Clemson by 12 and then head to Florida for spring break”?
Simple Jack
March 11th, 2009
5:05 pm
I have a good brain and I thnk tech will win the ACC tourney and I will meet many beautifull tech girls at the finals. I have a good brain.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
5:12 pm
Jack: Very nice!
Born2Buzz
March 11th, 2009
5:13 pm
Because I like Clinch and his ability to persevere through some tough academic times (of his own making) and the fact that I’m a TECH fan, I would love to see them run through the tourney and win it all.
But I watched just about every game this year and I can’t really see it happening. Shumpert will have to suddenly grow up and improve every aspect of his game, Miller will have to make his 3pt shots and not turn the ball over, Lawal will need to make his FTs, Aminu also, and Peacock will have to stop being the enigma of going from the best looking guy on the court to the worst within consecutive trips down the floor. And of course Lewis will need to be on fire with his shooting. And all of this for 4 consecutive games!!!
And monkeys might fly out of my…
I’ll be watching and hoping.
The only good thing about next year will be that both Shumpert and Miller will be a year older. It’s hard to win in college ball with freshmen and sophmore PG’s, unless they are Derrick Rose.
jacketbacker
March 11th, 2009
5:23 pm
true…i admire clinch’s positive attitude….this is all probably a moot point because its doubtful we get by clemson ( bad match ups)….i’m sure CPH will get one more year, but when is enough enough….watch what happens with all the talent next year….once the losses start coming we’ll start hearing the same excuses (academics, injuries, chemistry, bad breaks, etc…) is retaining hewitt less expensive than the destruction of a program with empty seats at AMC, no TV, no enthusiasm, reduced AT giving, etc??…..i say no….
Gen Neyland
March 11th, 2009
5:27 pm
Ted Striker : But ya gotta be able to hit the curve ball or that’s all you’ll see. 0-12, take a seat…
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
5:46 pm
Gen. Neyland and Ted Striker in a debate over sporting metaphors — are these blogs great or what?
Ted Striker
March 11th, 2009
5:54 pm
## Gen Neyland: Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come.
0-12, I no fear. Jobu will come.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
5:56 pm
Perhaps I spoke too soon.
George
March 11th, 2009
6:00 pm
So tell me why is Derrick Favors going to Tech? What’s up with this? coach Hewett is by far a great recruiter, but with the talent that is on this team they should be 14-2
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
6:02 pm
Not 14-2, I wouldn’t think, but no worse than 7-9.
TechDad
March 11th, 2009
6:06 pm
I hope they can make a run for the players. They played hard all year with an absolute joke of a coach doing nothing to help there cause. So I will be pulling for the players(good luck.) As for CPH you bought yourself one more year with the excellent recruiting class coming in next season, but once Lawal,Shumpert, and Favors jump ship for the NBA next year after a 8-8 ACC season and first round NCAA loss nothing will save you. I for one think Tech should have never let Cremins go but thats water under the bridge.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
6:11 pm
Next year is a big, big deal for this program and this coach. But you knew that.
TechDad
March 11th, 2009
6:12 pm
Mark, I agree with you. We should not have been no worse the 7-9. We have as much if not more talent on this team then Clemson,Wake,FSU,Miami,and Maryland.
Ask the leadership coach » Could lightning (and thunder) strike for Tech, too? | Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
6:13 pm
[...] Brian Grasky, Grasky Endurance Head Coach posted a noteworthy aricle today onHere’s a small snippetSadly, this will start all over again next year when new players are on the roster and Coach Hewitt begins with all of the personal-instruction drills again. It’ll be good for improving the Jackets’ individual NBA prospects, … [...]
BCWRECK
March 11th, 2009
6:52 pm
This team is not a 7-9 ACC team. That is just dumb. Are you telling me that with Dickey and Bell, that this team would be 10-6, Hewitt’s best ever?
I think Tech is about where they should be with this talent. And they should have possibly won 1 or 2 more of the OT games and maybe last week against BC.
This is a 2-4 win ACC team.
Next year Tech should improve to near 7 or 8 wins, like in 2003 when Tech signed Jack and Bosh.
I’m hoping for .500 next year.
Big Al
March 11th, 2009
7:07 pm
I miss Bobby. Hell, I even miss Duane.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
7:09 pm
BC, I wouldn’t say you’ve set your goals overly high. You take the nation’s top recruit and a top five class of signees … and you’re thinking 7-9 or 8-8?
BCWRECK
March 11th, 2009
7:19 pm
I am basing this on history. Don’t get me wrong; Tech will have tons of talent next year. But PH finds a way to lose leads and to put his teams in a position to lose. Any most times he comes through with the loss. I think next year’s team should be a 11 or 12 ACC win team, but I see an 8-8 bubble season; one of PH’s better ones.
Mark Bradley
March 11th, 2009
7:22 pm
I get your drift, BC.
And Big Al, do you mean Dwayne Morrison or Duane Allman?
ga_tech_92
March 11th, 2009
8:34 pm
If you look at how our recruits are ranked by the people who do it for a living, then you cannot deny that we have middle above the middle of the ACC talent. Clearly, year after year, there is one problem, coaching. My theory is, that occationally superiorly gifted team leaders (Jack) can take over the team and win IN SPITE of lack of coaching. We can make a run in the tourney, but if we do, it will be in spite of coaching. We have NO lack of talent.
Is the problem talent or coaching?
I suggest that if you traded Duke’s roster with ours, that Coach K would still have more wins than GT. There is no reason for that, other than his teams CONSISTENTLY play smart fundamental basketball. Hewitt’s play consistently also…consistently chaotic unfundamental.
Groundhog day. Let’s be honest here. Next year’s class didn’t so much “buy Hewitt another year”, as it serves as a reasonable excuse to put it off another year or two. Hewitt would be gone by now if it weren’t for his bullet proof contract that Brainless intentionally stuck us with on the way out. Jobu no help us now?…I say FU Jobu!
GPB
March 11th, 2009
9:15 pm
Considering we could have potentially 5 or 6 All Americans on the team next year, we had better do something. The current 3 are Clinch, Shumpert, and Lawal with Favors and Udofia as favorites for AA and Rice/Holsey as maybes or honorable mentions. And Bell was an honorable mention himself.
I really turned against Hewitt this season. I gave him the benefit of the doubt post-San Antonio but I’ve been losing some respect for him each season. I feel like he’s deviated from what I feel made the Final Four team great – significant depth with consistent scoring players. We can’t even do either anymore. Hewitt has to do something for a couple of years unless he wants his legacy to be awful.
The biggest part that gets under my skin is player retention. Duke and UNC get great talent that stays a couple of years in many cases. There should be no excuse for us not to be able to do the same. Atlanta is much better than the entirety of RTP. But perhaps that’s part of the problem.
There is occasional discussion of lousy assistant coaching. I did some research and pulled the backgrounds on all the current and 2003-2004 assistant coaches. I honestly don’t know what conclusions to draw but this is the result of my research.
2003-2004
————–
Peter Zaharis – 3 years (3 as director of operations)
Willie Reese – 4 years (4 as assistant coach, credited as guy behind Luke’s improvement)
Dean Keener – 4 years (4 as assistant coach, recruiter for much of the team that year)
Cliff Warren – 4 years (4 as assistant coach)
Current
———
John O’Connor – 4 years (4 years as assistant coach)
Charlton Young – 3 years (3 years as assistant coach, listed as a good recruiter – behind the recent classes)
Peter Zaharis – 8 years (4 as director of operations, 4 as assistant coach, credited as good recruiter and floor coach)
Willie Reese – 9 years (6 as assistant coach, 3 as director of operations)
Reese and Zaharis are obviously still here. Keener went on to coach at JMU unsuccessfully (31-83) but lead into rebuilding the program after his departure (19-14 this year). Cliff Warren left to coach at Jacksonville U and continuing to develop their program (52-66 but 51-40 in three seasons after a 1-26 start).
StingerSplash
March 11th, 2009
9:55 pm
Cliff Warren is building a good thing at JU. They lost in their conference finals to ETSU.
But throwing out how Lawal has played, that Shumpert made the all-freshman team and that Clinch is hot over the last four games and those are all losses kinda points back to the coach.
Hewitt’s time as Tech coach needs to end Friday morning, about 16 hours after another 15-point loss in the ACC tournament. I don’t want to wait for another alleged “great” recruiting class, with another one and done superstar.
Is that to suggest nobody wanted Lawal? Aminu? Clinch? Shumpert? Miller? Peacock? OK, that’s hyperbole to Limbaugh-esque reaches. But there is a point to that. Hewitt has recruited what should be a good starting group with a couple of decent players off the bench, enough to contend in an ACC where the rest of the league isn’t quite on UNC and Duke’s level right now.
But the Jackets can’t even do that. Gailey’s continued mediocrity was enough to warrant a change (long overdue at that). Why is what Hewitt has done, or rather, failed to do, over the last few years remaining acceptable achievement?
Irish-Heel
March 11th, 2009
10:03 pm
I have a feeling this is going to be a tournament of surprises. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tech beats Clemson. The Tigers are notorious for having short stays in March tournaments. Also as much as it troubles me, the Va. tech Miami winner may pull the upset over my Heels. Roy wants Lawson close to 100 percent for the big dance.
With the Heels more than likely already locking up a No. 1 seed, Lawson will probably be in street clothes.
His loss is bigger than Tyler being out. Like Reggie was for the Yankees in the 70s, Lawson is the straw that stirs the drink. Drew II and Frasor can’t feel Lawson’s shoes at the point.
The Va.Tech Miami winner also is playing for their respective tournament lives, which can only improve with a trip to the conference semifinals.
I have a bad feeling I paid a lot of money to see UNC play one game. I hope I am wrong but I’ve got that bad feeling.
Ted Striker
March 11th, 2009
11:22 pm
Mark: Duane Allman, haha.
Tech92: Sounds like a nature vs nurture debate.
GPB: That’s a lot of analysis. My brain got bigger just reading it.
Irish-Heel: The Tigers could choke drinking a cup of gatorade.
GT '13
March 11th, 2009
11:40 pm
I can not believe people here keep referring to GT’s “great talent”. I’ve been to almost every home game, seen the away games on TV and suffered as much as the rest of you. With that being said, who on the team has great talent? I love watching Lewis play but he’s turned into this year’s version of Matt Causey. Watching Gani, Zach, and Alade only makes me long for Dickey (ever think you’d read that anywhere?). What this team lacks (besides talent) is a leader. A true captain. When the team was doing well under CPH, they had on court leadership. You want to mess with Jeremis in the locker room after dribbling the ball off your knee (ask Zam about that). The fire that guys like Jack, Muhammad, Bynum, Elder, and even Javaris as a freshman brought to the game is what’s missing. They didn’t win solely on talent. Yes, it’s true CPH recruited all these guys and didn’t plan appropriately for early exits, so he has to take blame here too. At least, he’s brought in 5 legitimate players next year to help recover should Favors and Lawal, and even Shumpert leave early. With that said, just because somebody averages 15 and 10 doesn’t mean they have great talent.