UGA wins a shocker, but should we really be so shocked?
Tech's Paul Hewitt was brought low in Athens yet again. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
ATHENS – There’s a good team in there somewhere. Maybe it’ll show itself Saturday when Duke comes to Atlanta. It needs to show up soon. We’re into January now, and Georgia Tech still acts as if it’s just another collegiate aggregation. It could, and should, be much more.
“This team still has a pretty high ceiling,” Paul Hewitt said Tuesday night. He said this moments after his tall and talented team had run face-first into a closing door.
The Jackets came to Stegeman Coliseum to play a game not many folks watched — another Tech team was busy elsewhere — and for that Hewitt can be grateful. Tech fans, as we know, have seen it all before. But here, for late tuners-in, is a recap:
Once again the Jackets allowed a lesser opponent to dictate tempo. Once again Tech seemed determined to match every basket with a turnover. Once again it lost.
Yes, yes. We must credit Georgia at the same time we castigate Tech. The Bulldogs have one player (Trey Thompkins) who would make the Jackets’ 10-man rotation. Mark Fox is doing brilliant things with this undermanned team. And Hewitt … well, he’s not looking so brilliant.
Three days ago Georgia lost to Missouri by 28 points. On Tuesday it beat Tech and was the better team throughout. You kept waiting, as is always the case with the Jackets, for talent to have its way, but talent, as is often the case with these Jackets, meant little without direction.
Tech’s best play was an offensive rebound — it had 19 of those and 18 second-chance points. It didn’t make a trey until the game’s 33rd minute. Its famous freshman Derrick Favors finished with more turnovers (five) and fouls (four) than baskets (three). I hate to keep harping on coaching — really I do — but if you’re ranked 20th in the land and you can’t handle the team picked to finish last in the SEC East, what does that say about the man at the top?
It wasn’t as if the Stegasaurus took on the charged ambience of Cameron Indoor Stadium. The place was barely half-full. But Tech allowed Georgia to become the aggressor early, managing but 12 points in the first 11 minutes. You can’t do that on the road. You have to hit the other guy harder sooner. Tech did nothing but counterpunch.
The Jackets finished with 66 points. With their size and speed, they should be playing games in the 80s. But they don’t know how to press the issue without throwing the ball away. (They finished with 20 turnovers against 23 baskets and eight assists.) They’re young on the perimeter, sure. But they act even younger.
In the end it came down to Georgia making the assertive plays and the Jackets being unable to guard Ricky McPhee, who’s listed as 6-foot-1. When in doubt, the Bulldogs put the ball on the floor and made something happen in the lane. Thompkins drove for a huge hoop at the shot-clock horn, and McPhee, of all people, shook free down the lane for an underhand banker to clinch it.
Tech, by way of contrast, did its stand-around thing. When it got the ball low to Gani Lawal, it was OK. (He had 21 of the Jackets’ 66 points.) When it couldn’t, it was at sea. And that, sad to say, is the impression Tech has left after 14 games. It has won 11 times, but when put to the test by Florida State and now Georgia it failed. FSU is a decent-enough team. Georgia still has miles to go before it can lay claim to decency.
But say this for the Bulldogs: They know who they are and how they have to play, and they keep doing it. “We have limitations,” Fox said, “but we know what they are.” Contrast this with Tech, which has assets almost everywhere but doesn’t seem to know where to turn.
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451 comments Add your comment
Dap01
January 6th, 2010
7:34 am
UGA seems to have a good coach. Tech seems to not.
Dawg Man
January 6th, 2010
7:40 am
Good grief, don’t tell me we are gonna take over the state in basketball too!! Maybe Tech should just shut down their athletic program due to embarassment by UGA!! Congrats Coach Fox on the first of many big wins for ya!!! Go Dawgs!!
Ozzy
January 6th, 2010
7:42 am
How bout this?
We’ll trade you Hewitt for Fox and throw in Wommack for Def. Co-ordinator.
Let me know. We gotta do something with Hewitt today.
UGA is Tech's DADDY!!!!!
January 6th, 2010
7:45 am
Who’s your daddy? UGA
30-34!!!!
73-66!!!!
k483
January 6th, 2010
7:47 am
Gee, Mark, you seem to have been saying “a lesser UGA team has beaten a superior GT team” a lot lately. Perhaps your assessment of what is superior and what is lessor needs to be revisited…..
Jeckyll Island
January 6th, 2010
7:47 am
30-24!!!
30-24!!!
30-24!!!
30-24!!!
73-66!!!
73-66!!!
73-66!!!
73-66!!!
The Georgia Bulldogs OWN Georgia Tech!!!!!
DAWGS RULE!!!!
Dawgs in bowls
January 6th, 2010
7:49 am
UGA & GA Tech have each gone to a bowl for 13 consecutive years. The Georgia Bulldogs record in that time is 11-2. What is Tech’s? LMAO
30-24!
73-66!
Mark Fox can coach!
UGA is SUPERIOR!
January 6th, 2010
7:50 am
GA Tech is inferior!
30-24!!!
73-66!!!
Dawgs make beating GA Tech a habit!
NC Dawg
January 6th, 2010
7:54 am
73-66 hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Tech you suck in everything.
Buzz
January 6th, 2010
7:57 am
OZZY!! Womack wasn’t our problem last night!!! Our defense played pretty good. Hewitt needs to go!!!
Buzz
January 6th, 2010
7:58 am
NC DAWG I was pretty good at DRINKING last night!!!! OZZY womack wasn’t the problem last night and CPH needs to be FIRED!!!!!
Da' Da' Da' Da'
January 6th, 2010
7:59 am
Da’Rick Da’cant Da’catch Da’ball….
The man at the "top"
January 6th, 2010
8:00 am
should do the honorable thing!
Techer
January 6th, 2010
8:00 am
Losing to the lowly georgia bulldogs is the ultimate embarrassment in basketball. Hewitt must go, ASAP. The man just can’t coach a lick.
2007 was an illusion
January 6th, 2010
8:01 am
Any news on a DC for UGA yet ???
Fred
January 6th, 2010
8:01 am
I can’t decide which is funnier!!! Watching all the tools crying leaving Landshark Stadium, or watching all the tools crying leaving Athens!!! LOL!!!! What a perfect night!!!
Tech Man
January 6th, 2010
8:01 am
Paul Hewitt is the greatest underachiever in all of college basketball. Mark, you are correct to focus on coaching. Stay the course. Hewitt’s problem – his ego. He will never be able to lead until he finds a way to get his nose out of the clouds and find a way to communicate to young men with clarity and consistency. Give Hewitt the Hawks and he would go 7-9 in the ACC. That said, why would anyone buy him out? The money is better spend with Paul Johnson who will create a greater return on the investment. DRad must instead call him out publicly to the point where even he agrees he should polish his resume and find another job.
ryan
January 6th, 2010
8:02 am
hahahahhaa!!!!!! Yech athletics is an absolute joke!!!
Kirby
January 6th, 2010
8:03 am
I can’t decide which is funnier. Watching the tools get dominated on the hardwood, or watching the tools getting ran all over by a little white RB from South Dakota!!! LOL!!!!!
DvilleDawg
January 6th, 2010
8:04 am
30-24, 73-66
Nuff said
Billy Lickstein
January 6th, 2010
8:05 am
Paul Hewitt is an excellent coach and will prove his mettle when he gets into the thick of the ACC race,The Basketball Conference of college basketball !!
DirtyDawgDaze
January 6th, 2010
8:06 am
While the Jackets were getting blasted in the Orange Bowl, the Dawgs were dunking all over their face, neck, chest and breast area in Stegeman Colisium last night. Woof!!! We Run This State!!!
Scott
January 6th, 2010
8:10 am
Which ambush was more devastating? The beatdown in Miami by the slow white boys? Or the schooling in Athens on the court?
rdnblkdawg
January 6th, 2010
8:11 am
Just a thought. Why do I keep hearing UGA gets all these 4-5 star athletes in football and can’t produce on the field. Looks like Tech gets all these 4-5 star athletes in basketball with the same result on the court. Shouldn’t the standards be the same if the supposed results are the same? Just a thought.
richtfan
January 6th, 2010
8:12 am
30-24
73-66
tech can’t even beat uga at their own game, basketball
lol
Ditto to what a joke!!!!
January 6th, 2010
8:14 am
Hewitt is a nice guy and an awful coach. He calls time outs at weird times and the team makes the same old mistakes over and over, Pay off his big contract and let the team play without a coach,,,,because that’s what they are doing now
back under the rocks you go!!
January 6th, 2010
8:14 am
It should be quiet on here now and back to normal. The tools and their waaaaaaay overrated coach have been fully exposed in football. And their basketball program is a walking punchline. Can’t wait to watch the Dawgs destroy them in baseball again this year as well. Looks like another sweep!!! What else is new!!
Great to be a UGA Fan Tonight
January 6th, 2010
8:15 am
Hey Bradley,
I have to apologize to you about the UGA fans who think you’re putting us down! They probably haven’t been following you on the whole “Paul Hewitt can’t do it” thing okay? But, even you have to admit it’s a great day for a UGA follower when Tech loses a bowl game in which they were favored and also lose a basketball game to an under-manned UGA team with a new coach even though they were heavily favored there too! I would love to hear some of the conversations going on on the Tech campus today.
Mark Bradley
January 6th, 2010
8:19 am
No apology needed, Great to Be … I’m used to the abuse. From both sides, as you doubtless know.
Why ?
January 6th, 2010
8:23 am
I believe its coaching staffs. CMR recruits talent but team suxs and struggles. Paul Hewitt recruits talent but team suxs and struggles too.
30-24 Dawgs - WE RUN THIS STATE
January 6th, 2010
8:23 am
Coach Paul Hewitt is ALMOST a big of a failure as Coach Paul Johnson, who can’t prepare his team for a bowl game to save his life! One month to prepare and his GT bowl offenses are averaging 5 points per game.
It’s great (woof woof) to be (woof woof) a Georgia Bulldog!
St. Simons
January 6th, 2010
8:24 am
Guys I’m having a nervous breakdown. In the same night we lose the Orange Bowl to Iowa (((24-14))) and lose to Georgia in basketball (((73-66)))).
Georgia won their last two games while we managed to lose 2 out of 3.
My fellow Tech fans, it’s becoming increasingly clear UGA owns us as we’ve lost 8 out of the last 9 games and 5 in a row at Bobby Dodd stadium to the mighty Bulldogs. It should also be clear to us that Paul Hewitt is going to be schooled by Mark Fox for years to come. I’m also getting worried about our High School offense. It seems to me that every time we run up against a fairly good defense we get shut down. We’ve become too one dimensional! The option may work for the service academies, but it isn’t going to cut in the big leagues.
In short we suck!!!
Tech Fan
January 6th, 2010
8:25 am
Groundhog Day – same story different year, month, day for Hewitt of the Golden Contract. Can we fire him yet or what?
jeeppers
January 6th, 2010
8:26 am
I think it’s time for Yech to shutdown all their athletics and save the money
Baba O'Riley
January 6th, 2010
8:28 am
As a Tech fan, I am more discourage about the basketball loss than the Orange Bowl. We have the talent to be AT LEAST a Sweet 16 team in basketball. It’s obvious to everyone that our coaching is sub-par, at best. And if he can’t win the this group of players, he will NEVER win. Brad Sheehan may be starting at center for us next year. YIKES!
As to the Orange Bowl, just as the Georgia game, both of our lines were soundly whipped. It was frutrating to see Iowa complete a pass on 3rd and 6, when we drop 7 into coverage and the is STILL someone running free on a crossing route. The better team won the Orange Bowl. The better coached team won the UGA-Tech basketball game.
Vick=Dog killing thug
January 6th, 2010
8:28 am
Hey Mark, Little tip here buddy.. When you write about a game, mention the score huh ? geez
Baba O'Riley
January 6th, 2010
8:29 am
DirtyDagdaze- Ironically, dunking is one part of the game UGA definitely needs to work on. How many dunks did they miss last night?
Mike Leach
January 6th, 2010
8:30 am
Hey Tech … Do what I did, put a spoiled brat in a dark room and the contract wont be honored.
David H.
January 6th, 2010
8:31 am
That’s why you’re Georgia Tech and we’re not. Just like in football, you win the occasional fluke game and choke on everything else.
59bulldawg
January 6th, 2010
8:31 am
LOL! Hahahahahahaha!
Baba O'Riley
January 6th, 2010
8:31 am
I already called for the recruitment of Adam James.
Starring Kam Fong as Chin Ho
January 6th, 2010
8:32 am
Where is the 14million vs guy today? It must be horrible to be him today. How ’bout them Dawgs’ heck, “How ’bout them Hawkeyes’? Wonder what Tech will put on their rings now?
Iceman
January 6th, 2010
8:32 am
Woof Woof Woof!!!!
jerry
January 6th, 2010
8:33 am
So THUGA runs this state. I guess you take pride where you can get it. Enjoy.
2007 was an illusion
January 6th, 2010
8:36 am
Any news on a DC for UGA yet? CMR still having trouble in hiring one? Has Urban out SMARTED him again ???
SuperB
January 6th, 2010
8:36 am
For all you who haven’t heard: Georgia also beat Illinois recently.
Baba O'Riley
January 6th, 2010
8:37 am
Mark- I see the Braves signed Eric Hinske today and Wren sid that we were nearing our spending limit. So where is this “big bat” going to come from?
booby cremins
January 6th, 2010
8:47 am
For all of you that havent heard ,UGA lost to tiny Wofford as well !
MASSDAWG
January 6th, 2010
8:51 am
Mark,
Your right Coach Fox is doing an exceptional job! However, yesterday you were giving ESPN hell about not picking Tech earlier in the yr. Well, you picked Tech twice last night and guess what you were wrong on both accounts!!!
Wayne Guskind
January 6th, 2010
8:53 am
Are Bulldog fans SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO stupid to think by denigrating Hewitt and the basketball team that we Tech fans will be upset? We welcome it! We, TECH fans, would love nothing more than for EVERY UGA basketball fan in the state came on this board and blasted TECH and Hewitt to smithereens!
As much as you Bulldog fans think you may hate Tech basketball – we, TECH fans, hate Hewitt more than you could possible know.
So, please flame on Bulldog fans. We welcome it as TECH fans. Anything that could contribute to Hewitt’s firing is welcomed.
P.S. If you were smart you would “compliment” Tech’s efforts and their coach (in total jest) – this way you can continue to beat us. But, of course, you would have to be “smart” to do that.