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
Rob
January 5th, 2010
9:11 pm
Same ole same ole!
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:11 pm
see how quick i’ve caught on to basketball? football was much harder to learn.
21 seconds 69-63 18 seconds
Jeremyoo7
January 5th, 2010
9:12 pm
Mark, I thought you said there was no way Tech wouldn’t break the streak this year??? Paul Hewitt continues to underacheive with great talent. Give Mark Fox sometime Georgia Basketball will run this state just like the football program!!!
just like football
January 5th, 2010
9:12 pm
maybe next year…..not
JV
January 5th, 2010
9:12 pm
Put my Georgia hoodie in the wash at halftime, just in case.
CanHewitt
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
The guy that started the can-chan campain and website needs to start the can-hewitt
Denver Dog
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
Flowery Branch, should be ok, Florida or Alabama is not the other team!! I heard on ESPN today that Alabama starting line has not had a holding penalty since the 3rd game of the year. That ought to tell us all something there.
Great Game Dogs. Clean sweep
Flowery Branch Yellow Jacket
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
Well Mark … I guess this Tech basketball team will just continue to be full of unpleasant surprises. Kind of reminds me of a few other recent seasons. I guess it doesn’t really matter how good the players are if they don’t have a coach.
La Jolla Dawg
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
Pretty sure they are no longer the 20th-ranked team in the country …
dawgfan13
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
Mark is you know anything about basketball you know Teech is vastly overratted Dont make it seem like this Tech team is a good team. They have beat a bunch of nobodies and when you look at all their loses they have come against teams who can match up whith them and play, Dayton, Fl. State, UGA, and DUKE will run them out the gym!!!!! Tech is overratted big time. I am still trying to find out what so good about this recruiting class GTech has. Favours has been average at best! Tell me Mark whats good about this class? They suck! LOL
IndyGT
January 5th, 2010
9:13 pm
And in a few days, Duke is going to come in to AMC. How you have this type of talent, and these types of losses.. ahhhh! Its all on the coaching. I really don’t think we are a top 25 team.
Flowery Branch Yellow Jacket
January 5th, 2010
9:14 pm
I predict that the Jackets will play just well enough to finish the season ranked #26 in the country. Everytime they make it into the top 25, they lose their next game.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:14 pm
16.5 seconds. mcphee on the line. 71-63
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:14 pm
71-66
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:15 pm
5 secs
Mark Bradley
January 5th, 2010
9:15 pm
Georgia wins. I am amazed. Though I shouldn’t be, probably.
bjfussell
January 5th, 2010
9:15 pm
yeah baby yeah
Saint Clarkston
January 5th, 2010
9:15 pm
so far so good for the foxdawgs
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:16 pm
2.3 seconds. ware at the line. 73-66. its OVER!!!!!!!!!!
Floundering Fox Hounds Batman!
January 5th, 2010
9:16 pm
Iowa on Tech 45 Tech 4 possessions 4 punts
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:16 pm
Hope the play-by-play wasnt too distracting.
RW
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
Dawgs beat jackets ……again.lol
bjfussell
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
how bout them dawgs?
Frank Wren
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
Georgia wins. I am amazed. Though I shouldn’t be, probably.
Are they cutting down the nets?
Ozzy
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
Phew is 4-6 against effin Georgia!!!!!
Fire his sorry ass tonight, maybe before the bus ride home.
Ugghhhhhhhh!
Hoyt Palmer
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
Hewitt has to go! Has to go!! enough!!!!
FalconUGAFan
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
No appreciate the play by play up here in DC.
JV
January 5th, 2010
9:17 pm
20 minutes into the Orange Bowl, the bees don’t have a first down.
This is shaping up to be a pleasant Tuesday night.
bjfussell
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
fox and the hounds.. has a nice ring to it
Denver Dog
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
Wrenn, looks like they are about to roll the posts in the O Bowl too!
bulldawg
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
ha ha ha lost again…tired of losing to my dawgs!!!!!!????
Temporary Iowa Fan
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
Looking bleak for Tech. Can’t get anything going on offense.
Russ4Heisman.net
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
Suck it, Trebeck!
Fox > Grant.
And Smart isn’t the only fish in the sea.
Matt the Brave
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
Hey 14 mill, I know you’re looking at this. Just not gonna show yourself, are you?
Hey MB, do you think that this will make Tech push more towards a new coach at the end of the season, or is it too early still? Personally, I think that if they don’t do well in the ACC, they’ll be looking at another coach.
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:18 pm
wonder what Coach Hewitt’s take on the game will be.
Larry Munson
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
Boy is there gonna be some property destroyed tonite !
wayxdawg
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
I guess it was the refs fault again
dawgfan13
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
If you cant see that Mark Fox is a way better coach than Paul Hewitt you are smoking some bad stuff! Look at what this guy has done with the team he puts out! They play hard, smart , and under control. They beat Illinois, Tech, …………… If they get 18 wins and a few suprises against a shorthanded Tenn or Miss St. and Florida maybe at home they will make the tourney! GTech will NOT!
Saint Clarkston
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
“we run the floor in this state”
bjfussell
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
well mark your assessment?
Barkin'Dog
January 5th, 2010
9:19 pm
seems like a bad month to be a tech fan, huh?
Tech's secondary status
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
Last year, a blind yellow squirrel found 2 nuts with football and basketball wins. This year, it’s starving again.
Asheville Dawg
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
Hewitt really sux if can’t beat the Dawgs. Congrats to Coach Fox.
Michael
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
“Just like football.” Awesome.
Floundering Fox Hounds Batman!
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
Iowa on Tech 30
ICMIII
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
Tee hee hee. Woof!!!
willie martinez
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
thanks falconsuga fan. the pleasure was all mine.
Ozzy
January 5th, 2010
9:20 pm
Phew is 4-6 against effin Georgia!!
Fire his sorry butt tonight before they get on the bus.
No excuses. Save us Dan Radakovich!
MontyP
January 5th, 2010
9:21 pm
NO THEY CAN’T! I hope Iowa compounds Tech’s misery. What Fox has already accomplished with this team is amazing. The players have dedicated themselves to Mark Fox. They are fast learners. They can even shoot free throws! All about the fundamentals. Doesn’t get any easier. Next 3 games against Top 20 teams Kentucky, Florida and Ole Miss. Go Dawgs!
sarfdawg
January 5th, 2010
9:21 pm
Tech’s fans: “wait ’til we get you in basketball.”
oops.