Live from the Stegasaurus: Hewitt looks to break a drought
Paul Hewitt just can't understand what happens in Athens. (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Athens — Paul Hewitt has beaten Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. (Once, but it was a big “once.” In 2004.) He has beaten No. 1 UConn in Madison Square Garden. He has beaten a North Carolina team that would win the 2005 NCAA championship in the ACC tournament. He has taken Georgia Tech to the national championship game. But there’s one thing he hasn’t yet managed.
He hasn’t beaten Georgia at the Stegasaurus.
Which makes no sense. The Jackets who beat Duke at Duke and who played for the NCAA title came here in January 2004 and lost in overtime to a band of Bulldogs that didn’t qualify for the Big Dance. (Tech fans maintain to this day that the refs won — or lost — that game.) Three other times Hewitt has come to Stegeman Coliseum and left a loser.
He’s 4-1 against Georgia at home, but that doesn’t say much since Georgia has been in flux for more than a decade. (Mark Fox is the Bulldogs’ sixth coach — seventh if you count interim man Pete Herrmann — since Hugh Durham was fired in 1995.)
Having seen both sides in person — having seen Tech lose to Florida State and Georgia beat Illinois — I can imagine no way the drought doesn’t end tonight. Georgia has one player (Trey Thompkins) who would crack Tech’s 10-man rotation. Tech might well be the most gifted team in the ACC, which means you’re by definition among the most gifted teams in the land. But the Jackets, as we know, can do some strange things.
And now, a metaphysical question: If a drought is broken and nobody’s watching, does it count? I’m guessing 99 percent of Hewitt’s target audience will be watching another game — Thrashers at Penguins — tonight. (Kidding about Thrashers-Penguins, don’t you know.) And I figure Tech winning here won’t matter much to Jacket fans if the football team doesn’t do likewise at Land Shark Stadium.
But they’re going to play this one nonetheless, and I’ll be here to watch, report and converse with anyone who cares deeply about the lost art of repartee. Join me between Orange Bowl commercials, won’t you? Please?
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500 comments Add your comment
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
6:53 pm
my daughter told me the other day that CMR was at a local eatery with a man that looked suspiciously like Kirby Smart.
Keith Brooking
January 5th, 2010
6:54 pm
pssst. Want to hear a secret? I just soiled my britches thinking about covering Brent Celek on a 3rd and 16 with 2 minutes left and no timeouts, down 27-21 in the 4th quarter. I am a proud, proud Jacket!! he-he. I think I just tinkled.
Floundering Fox Hounds Batman!
January 5th, 2010
6:54 pm
Hire Willie !
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
6:55 pm
I patronized the Five Points Deli and did not see Kirby Smart. Just for the record.
John
January 5th, 2010
6:55 pm
I have DTV. I don’t have comcast. Hence, I don’t get the game. But I do get Longwood at SC!!! Stupid.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
6:56 pm
Folks, if you’ve ever wanted great seats at a Tech-Georgia game … tonight’s your chance. Not many folks on hand for this tilt.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
6:57 pm
Chicken fingers, mmgtfan. But I, as noted, had the corned beef at the Five Points Deli.
Vince Dooley loves the Fives Point Deli, you should know. He lives just up the street. In his pool house.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
6:57 pm
this was at chick filet
Floundering Fox Hounds Batman!
January 5th, 2010
6:58 pm
I saw Willie at the Pool house last night.
Bryan Evans
January 5th, 2010
6:59 pm
Let me play basketball. I cover point guards just as well as I cover receivers.
Sonny Clusters
January 5th, 2010
6:59 pm
Clusters don’t play basketball but we don’t mind blogging it. Mark, do you see Arthur Blank there at the game? We was told he might be trying to buy a college team.
Charles Claxton
January 5th, 2010
6:59 pm
Mark, am I in the starting line-up? Wait….am I alive?
2 Quick ?s Mark
January 5th, 2010
7:00 pm
MARK,
How far do you think the 03 bulldog team would have went in the tournament if they were allowed to play?( they were great that year with Ezra Williams, Daniels, and Hayes). and what do do u think about Favors so far?
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:00 pm
who’s your pick? you picked tech in the football game. maybe that will work again.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:00 pm
Glad to have you, Sonny C. I haven’t seen Mr. Blank. But he usually doesn’t make his on-the-field — or court, as the case may be — appearance until the final few minutes.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:01 pm
who does the PA? just about as loud as Brook.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:01 pm
I can’t imagine Tech losing to this Georgia team, Coach Willie.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:03 pm
Good questions, 2 Quick. I think the 2003 Bulldogs would have reached the Sweet 16 at worst and maybe the Elite Eight. They didn’t defend well enough to be a Final Four qualifier, but they should could run an offense.
And Favors hasn’t been quite as impressive as I figured he’d be. But it’s still early, and I get the feeling he’s deferring to Gani Lawal.
Sonny Clusters
January 5th, 2010
7:03 pm
When we was playing ball they didn’t schedule the football team and the basketball team at the same time. That would have made it tough on Stinky Wintes since he played every sport we had. That would have made it tough on the AJC, too, since they covered us like the dew.
Gilbert Arenas
January 5th, 2010
7:03 pm
Dear Coach Hewitt,
Ive got $5 on Tech. Don’t test me.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:04 pm
it can be a game if it doesnt get out of hand early.
Buzz Aldrin
January 5th, 2010
7:04 pm
I like how UGA’s basketball team has taken the GT football anthem to get them pumped before tip off…
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:04 pm
First possession: Favors misses a jumper, Lawal rebounds and scores and gets fouled.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:04 pm
Slonaker?
Reggie Ball
January 5th, 2010
7:05 pm
Let me play I always find a way to beat Tech.
Atlanta Jacket
January 5th, 2010
7:05 pm
Looks like the dog fans stayed home to watch the Orange Bowl tonight
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:05 pm
Ricky McPhee ties it with a trey.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:06 pm
i really need to go to wal-mart but this is too much fun.
Buzz Aldrin
January 5th, 2010
7:06 pm
We forgot to guard the white guy…that will kill us against Duke
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:06 pm
The PA announcer here is Dave Johnston, I believe.
Atlanta Jacket
January 5th, 2010
7:06 pm
Looks like the doggies stayed home to watch the Orange Bowl.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:07 pm
McPhee with another 3-pointer off a long rebound.
Brunswick-Tech
January 5th, 2010
7:07 pm
wow is it me or does UGA look small? Mark is that what you see?
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:07 pm
the dogs are unconcious!!
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:08 pm
Georgia actually has some size. The Bulldogs hammered Illinois underneath.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:09 pm
Two air balls in a row for UGA.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:10 pm
Favors is guarding Thompkins. That’s a tough take for a freshman. And he just fouled Thompkins.
Nostradamus' cousin sees CWM
January 5th, 2010
7:10 pm
I see that Mrs. Dooley will be seen holding hands with the pool boy. His name starts with a V. Vince maybe. But for some reason, it won’t be a scandal, even when she and the pool boy move into a newly renovated home together.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:10 pm
so far so good
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:12 pm
8-7 lets call it a game
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:12 pm
UGA by one at the first TV break.
Folks, there might be 5,000 people here. “Might,” I said.
Floundering Fox Hounds Batman!
January 5th, 2010
7:12 pm
I wonder if if Mrs. dooley will have Vince to get a makeover after the house is done?
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:13 pm
This would be a bad crowd for a midweek February game against Auburn. But against Tech? Unbelievable.
2 Quick ?s Mark
January 5th, 2010
7:14 pm
i agree mark, but they did defend better than what u are giving them credit for, remember Reshad Wright… as for Favors is it me or sometimes it seems as if he isnt playing hard.
Nostradamus' cousin sees Reggie Ball
January 5th, 2010
7:15 pm
Late substitution Reggie Ball will inexplicably dribble the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds left and Tech down by one. When Hewitt asks him why he’ll say, “To stop the clock coach. It’s all about game management.”
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:15 pm
Thompkins fouls Favors. A reach-over. Bad foul.
Russ, the Temporary Mascot
January 5th, 2010
7:16 pm
Being a mascot on a hardwood floor is different than being a mascot on grass. You can’t have any slip-ups here or somebody will step in it and fall down. I was the perfect mascot for any arena until they painted my a$$.
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
7:16 pm
Pace definitely favors, no pun intended, Georgia. It’s a grinding game. Can’t see Georgia breaking 70 tonight. Or most nights.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
7:16 pm
Mark Slonaker? radio guy
Brunswick-Tech
January 5th, 2010
7:16 pm
Mark would you think maybe the football game has pulled some fans away?