Here’s what caused Paul Hewitt to stop reading the AJC
Paul Hewitt exits after losing to Louisville in the 2005 NCAA. (AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin)
Perhaps you heard Paul Hewitt say last week he hasn’t read the ol’ AJC since 2005. Perhaps you heard him mention he stopped because “our columnist here” — he meant me, I believe it’s safe to say — declared the 2004-2005 Jackets underachievers. And he’s correct. I did.
I believed then — and believe still — that a Tech team returning six of its top eight players from a run to the NCAA championship game (and that had added freshmen Anthony Morrow, Jeremis Smith and Ra’Sean Dickey) should have done better than 20-12 overall and 8-8 in the ACC. It should have done better than to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed and then lose by 22 points in Round 2 to No. 4 seed Louisville.
Was U of L good that year? Absolutely. It reached the Final Four, where it lost in the semis to Illinois, which lost in the title game to North Carolina, which Tech had beaten in the ACC semifinals only eight days before its crash against the Cardinals. After that game, Hewitt opened his press briefing by saying: “This was no upset.”
OK, that’s the background. Here, presented without one keystroke of revision, is the apparently offending article that ran in our paper on March 21, 2005. Judge for yourselves if I had, as Hewitt claimed on 790 The Zone last Friday – here’s a link to the audio – forfeited all claim to objectivity:
Nashville — Georgia Tech has come many miles these past two seasons, but the Jackets didn’t get as far as they could have this March. Paul Hewitt believed this team was more talented than its immediate predecessor, but all that talent exited Sunday as a 22-point loser in Round 2. Louisville threw a zone at Tech, and the way to beat a zone is to shoot over it. The Jackets couldn’t. Their most renowned shooter, B.J. Elder, made one basket in his final game as a collegian.
And that was your ballgame right there. Yes, Louisville fashioned a frenzied start, making eight of its first nine shots and seizing a 13-point lead not seven minutes in, but any observer of this weekend’s doings knows that 13-point leads can be overcome. But Tech needed to make treys to pull the Cardinals out of that 2-3 zone and clear the path for drives to the basket, and the Jackets could make only six.
The knee-jerk reaction is to say that the scheming Rick Pitino outcoached Hewitt, but Tech pretty much knew Louisville would play a zone and prepared accordingly.
“What it comes down to, ” said Willie Reese, Hewitt’s assistant, “is you have to make shots.” And these Jackets, for all their skill and tenacity and seasoning, weren’t good enough shooters. There was a time when Hewitt believed Elder to be one of the nation’s best players, but as an injury-saddled senior he was never a consistent force.
Louisville smacked the Jackets hard early and sat in its zone, waiting for the run that never quite came. Elder’s lone basket drew the Jackets within nine points with 10 minutes left, but Jarrett Jack threw away an inbounds pass and Luke Schenscher walked in the lane and Taquan Dean hit the two killing 3s. “They shot extremely well, ” Will Bynum said. “There was nothing we could do.”
Well, Tech might have made a few shots of its own, but Jack and Bynum are better slashers than standstill shooters. Tech had everything it needed to reach another Final Four, everything except a reasonable facsimile of J.J. Redick. “[Louisville] did a great job of staying on shooters out of the zone, ” said Elder, who played 24 minutes and hoisted five shots, one fewer than Anthony McHenry.
Give Louisville its due. Francisco Garcia had the same sort of inspirational performance that Dwyane Wade authored when Marquette thrashed top-ranked Kentucky in a 2003 regional final, with the point being: A splendid player can, on a given March afternoon, will his team to a higher plane. Tech had lots of players, but no one who could do as Garcia did. Bynum scored 35 points against North Carolina nine days ago; he managed eight Sunday.
The Jackets’ offense failed them too many times this season. They were fine as long as they could drive to the goal, but Louisville made them play in a confined space. The Cardinals simply wrong-footed Tech. “Today we got beat by a better team, ” Hewitt said, and then he added: “A better-coached team.”
It will come as cold comfort to Tech that the Cardinals saw this game as their test. “If you can beat Georgia Tech , you can go to the Final Four and win the national championship, ” Pitino had said Saturday, and here we pause for reflection: Louisville has won two NCAA titles and been to seven Final Fours. Louisville has been a fortress of a program for 60 years, and yet the proud Cardinals and their famous coach regarded Tech, which three seasons ago was happy to make the NIT, as their peer if not their better.
Having played for one national championship, Hewitt assembled enough players to make a run at another. The indifferent regular season can be written off to injuries, but Tech had no excuses Sunday. The Jackets needed a shooter to rise up and make shots, and nobody did. This really gifted team met a really rude end.
And I’ll leave it at that — almost. The folks at 790 were kind enough to ask for my reaction to Hewitt’s contention that it has become a “personal” issue with me regarding his program. If you’re inclined, here’s the audio link to my response. (And if you’re not inclined, here was my answer: No, it hasn’t. No, it isn’t.)
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286 comments Add your comment
FullMetalJacket
March 1st, 2010
6:19 pm
Bumper sticker: WARNING! I ACCELERATE AND SWERVE TO HIT BULLDAWGS!
Chollie's
March 1st, 2010
6:24 pm
“what cause Paul Hewitt to stop reading the AJC” was S.O.I. Sudden Onset Illiteracy. An affliction common among those can’t take the pressure, which may explain why we STILL can’t make an inbound pass against the press.
Chollie's
March 1st, 2010
6:25 pm
Sorry for the sloppy post just now, I guess I just got a case of SOI myself.
Chollie's
March 1st, 2010
6:30 pm
Knight, Price, Neal, Kennedy (Ole Miss), Alford, Sendak, Rip Torn,Brad Stevens,…. just the beginning of a long list of guys who would take a job in the ACC and who could be better at it than Hewitt.
WisonDunkit
March 1st, 2010
6:33 pm
Bobby Knight. Craig Neal. Brad Stevens. My dog, Trevor. List of better coaches than Hewitt who would work cheaper and achieve better results.
collegeballfan
March 1st, 2010
6:51 pm
Your column on the Louisville game was about as fair and balanced as any you have written. Hewitt probably has an over active imagination –
although looking at his offense you would think he has no imagination.
WisonDunkit
March 1st, 2010
6:54 pm
How do you make a hormone? Let Mark Bradley write a column about his basketball coaching ability.
Gordon
March 1st, 2010
7:22 pm
FMJ,
I don’t think Craig Neal would be on anybody’s radar if he wasn’t a former player. There is no way we should hire anyone who has never been a successful college coach, at least at the mid-major level. Just my opinion. We can’t afford to get this wrong. We are going to be paying Hewitt for a long time, and we can’t affort to pay two people not to coach basketball. Neal may be a great head coach one day, but he is too much of a risk at this point.
ND
March 1st, 2010
7:45 pm
If Blewitt looked like me he’d already be gone.
BCWRECK
March 1st, 2010
8:25 pm
I’m a PH critic, but Mark this article is cheap. You lost a little credibility. I appreciate your columns, but you shouldn’t pick specific quotes or articles and quote them to support an “I told you” so position. You sounded like rest of us opinionated hacks.
4 jacks
March 1st, 2010
8:40 pm
If not already, Hewitt is becoming somewhat of an embarassment to this great institution. It has been ten years now, and the excuses seem to always be there. Nothing at all wrong with the article Mark. Most of the Tech fans no where the problem lies. I do wish that Paul Hewitt would just man up as they say, and let GT off the hook for some of the buyout we would owe him and resign. He has lost most of the fan base. Unless Hewitt can somehow survive, do to his buyout, he would need to put back to back 20 plus win seasons, and most important improve his conference record to be competitive for the ACC, to turn the fan base back around. He has yet to do this in 10 years, how much longer? I am sure that Paul Hewitt is a nice enough guy, but the fact is, he has lost the majority of the fan base. As a Tech fan, this is tough to watch as the fan base is about as divided and fragmented about this situation as it was with Coach Gailey. If GT doesn’t make some noise in both the conference tournament and the NCAA’s (which just getting there should not be enough) then it is just going to get uglier. To bad Hewitt does not have the love for GT that Bobby had. If he did this could be put to bed, before it does get ugly, but Mark, at least it should give you guys plenty to write about.
Mike
March 1st, 2010
9:58 pm
As a true Tech fan(I work with several others who feel the same way) think that Georgia Tech basketball has been as good under Hewitt as any other coach. The only GT basketball Coach that has done better than Hewitt was Cremins. One more trip to the Final 4 and Hewitt would probably surpass Coach Cremins’ accomplishments. I gurantee you that North Carolina has more high school talent than Tech, but no one is bashing their Coach. Coach Richt has garnered more high school football talent that anyone in the country during his tenure at Georgia, but he has receive far less criticism than Hewitt who has had only one top 5 recruiting class since he has been at Tech. Yet, Hewitt has played in a Championship Bowl and Georgia lost to Georgia Tech in the same year that they were a preaseanon number one and had 2 upper first round draft picks.
Jeff
March 1st, 2010
11:10 pm
As a Georgia fan, I don’t have a bone to pick with either party, so I’ll make as candid an observation as I can: Hewitt appears to have VERY thin skin if this article from 2005 was what got him PO’d. I mean, my god, I watched that game… Louisville kicked Tech’s BUTT! And in reading that commentary from Mark, I think he was spot on: Louisville played better and coached better than a Tech team that was LOADED and tournament tested. This Tech team was SUPPOSED to make another run at an NCAA championship… instead, it fell flat on its face, and Hewitt has not gotten the program to the heights its fans expect ever since.
Sure, sometimes Mark may make an outrageous prediction now and then, and sure he may sometimes have personal battles for god-knows-why (see: Bradley vs. John Smoltz)….. BUT, I think for the most part, he’s always been fair with both UGA and Ga. Tech. Remember, folks, he didn’t grow up here or go to either school, so he could care less about sticking to tradition… if something smells like a rat, he’ll say it, and if a team stinks up the joint, he’ll call ‘em on it.
Hewitt sounds like a whiny, spoiled brat through this whole thing… but, then again, so does the Tech fanbase, who for some reason think this overrated club SHOULD BE a top-5 team and ACC champ and Final Four team every year.
The fact of the matter is that Tech should feel fortunate to play for an ACC title once every 6 or 8 years, fortunate to make an Elite 8 or Final Four every decade, and a national championship is a pipe dream. Attitudes of entitlement show your arrogance… isn’t that what you Techies always say about us Georgia football fans?
I hope Tech makes a strong run in the postseason just so Tech fans all get behind this team once again, saying “Hey, this is more like it, I knew they could do this!” etc. etc. etc…. then when Tech gets knocked out of the NCAAs, the fans will again call for Hewitt’s head.
And, just as a friendly jab to my Tech bretheren…. 73-66! LOL (just a friendly poke, people, don’t get offended!)
J.
March 2nd, 2010
7:24 am
Hewitt is a baby.
messin with sasquatch
March 2nd, 2010
8:46 am
why not invite hewitt to write a guest column?
messin with sasquatch
March 2nd, 2010
8:47 am
jeff you are guilty of piling on.
Tony B (from the SWATS)
March 2nd, 2010
12:13 pm
Full Metal Jacket – Get off the couch & get a life. Obama=Hewitt, dub-ya had a chance to kill Bin-Laden as well (Every poll except Fox (faux) news has Americans wanting a public-option), chollie -you left out Lee Goza as free-throw expert (DA). Athletic Supporter, et al, you’re talking about a man’s genetalia? Somehow we’ve swallowed the “blue pill” (from “The Matrix”). WE ARE AN AVERAGE ACC TEAM. WE’RE NOT AN ELITE PROGRAM. When I arrived @ Tech in 79′ coach Morrison had a bunch of “oakies” there that couldn’t get selected in a SAC p/u game. Then Bobby Cremins arrives & the program gains some marginal success (354-237 in 19 seasons, 9 NCAA appearances)Critics of Bobby C. stated that he had a short rotation & no bench players. Now enters P Hewitt, so for he has a record of 154-131 in 9 seasons, 4 NCAA appearances). We (GT alumni) are now a well cultured group of basketball officianados that want to make a change. We’re starting to sound alot like UGA football fans. (ABOI) Here’s an idea, Let’s get coach K to coach here, then all our problems will be solved. (He knows basketball-Mark, he looks like you-ND, he could coach ft’s – Mark, FMJ, et all, & he’s a republican – Obama=Hewitt) (YBORDDH)
1 Dead DAWG
March 2nd, 2010
12:23 pm
This reminds me of the 4 years Mark Bradley spent trying to run Cremmins out of town. MB is a no talent ass. The columns are juvenile and meaningless.
Skeezix
March 2nd, 2010
12:41 pm
His teams underachieve, way underachieve. Want proof?—he has arguably as good or better talent than Maryland, Va. Tech or Duke– yet Ga. Tech ain’t even close to sniffing first place.
Hewitt = Obama
March 2nd, 2010
1:10 pm
Tony B, I don’t know what polls you are looking at, but even CBS shows that the majority of Americans DO NOT WANT A PUBLIC OPTION!!! The government can’t run the agencies they already run without going deeper and deeper in debt; why would any sane person think they would do any better with health care. If it’s so good for us, then why doesn’t congress (and all other branches of the federal government) want the same plan for themselves? For the same reason they don’t want social security for themselves. They know they can do better taking care of themselves, and to hell with the rest of us and what we want, need, or think. If you buy into this BS from Obama and his “czars,” and Pelosi ane Reid, then you are a fool. Pelosi will probably get re-elected, since she comes from some far-left extreme district anyway, but most of your all-knowing, and all-caring dems (plus a few similar republicans) are going to get “fired” next November. That’s why they want to ram this crap down our throats now, but they WILL PAY….unfortunately, if they succeed, so will you and I.
anybody that blogs politics .....
March 2nd, 2010
1:56 pm
is an idiot!
anybody that blogs politics .....
March 2nd, 2010
1:57 pm
and I don’t like you.
Hoops Guru
March 2nd, 2010
2:14 pm
Let it be known…..GT under Hewitt has won the fewest number of Conference games in the ACC during the past 10 years. We have won 27 games holding up NC State who has won 28. Furthermore, in the past 10 years we have a had a winning conference record only one time. That was the 2004 year when we went 9-7. The only folks that want to keep Hewitt at Tech are the other 11 coaches in the ACC. Hewitt has literally twittered the season away.
Montrell J
March 2nd, 2010
2:57 pm
The white media in this city is constantly trying to put the black man down with all these negative stories. I’m tired of this and when the economy picks up, I’m moving back up north to New Jersey!
Mike
March 2nd, 2010
3:15 pm
The fact that you are writing this for no reason proves that you do have a personal reason for writing this – why else would you write it?? Is it that much a news story around Atlanta that people are waiting for your response to a non-story?? You are bringing up stories from 4 years ago… why???? Everyone is hating on PH because he hasn’t gone back to a Final 4 again yet?? Crazy – its the ACC – how many Final 4’s have been reached by ACC Coaches other than Duke, Carolina?? Gary Williams and Paul Hewitt are the only ones!!!!
He had a dip (every program does!!!!!!) He has GT on way back up- just relax! Be careful what you wish for (ala NC State..).
Hewitt = Obama
March 2nd, 2010
3:16 pm
The only black men who are being “put down” are those that aren’t any good to begin with. And there are plenty of no-good white men who are being (or should be) put down too.
Supersize that order, mutt
March 2nd, 2010
3:17 pm
on the way back up??? how do you figure that? the Jackets are no different this year than they have been any year since 2004, except they have more talent—-going to waste
Mrs. Bradley
March 2nd, 2010
3:18 pm
You people be nice to Marky!
Bubba
March 2nd, 2010
3:19 pm
Mike – Hewitt insulted Mark on the air a couple days ago – he has a right to defend himself by showing this article. I’m sure you’re used to being insulted since you’re such an idiot.
Supersize that order, mutt
March 2nd, 2010
3:19 pm
I don’t “hate” Hewitt because he hasn’t taken us back to the Final Four. I think he sucks as a coach because he can’t even field a competitive team in the ACC, and he has a losing record to the mutts.
Billy Profitt
March 2nd, 2010
5:09 pm
I use Mark Bradley comments and bet on the teams he says will lose. He saw the Saints never had a chance to beat Indianapolis, Manning this and Manning that so I bet on the Saints. Thanks again Mark I won money on your predictions. Did they have sports teams when you grew up, where did you get your ignorance from also you said tech was going to beat Georgia wrong again but I made money again on you. I guess the Braves ae going to win the World Series is that what you think!! Paul Hewitt is smart he does not have to read stupid things your column.
Bill
March 3rd, 2010
12:49 am
Mark Bradley used to be the very best of all writers covering College Hoops. Sometime over the last few years,he has become a shell of his former self. Sort of like Dick Vitale has become the last decade. Once very informative, but now relies on other’s info. Is he correct about Hewitt not fufilling his team’s potential and not putting this talent in the position they should be in? Yes. But anyone who reads his columns knows his predictions are wrong quite a bit more than the ones he gets right. I don’t have a complaint he defended himself vs Hewitt’s comments….but he does seem to revel in Hewitt’s agony. He has spent this year touting this team as Final Four worthy when he knows that wouldn’t happen. So, when Tech fails , he has ammunition to attack Hewitt. THe AJC is the same pretty much. They didn’t cover a home game LIVE vs BC after the Tweets, but made sure they covered the Clemson game. It would be better if you just were honest and say what you mean about Hewitt.The facts speak for themselves. You guys aren’t wrong, but the way you have gone about the last few days isn’t professional.
BuLLdawg
March 3rd, 2010
7:04 am
Why all the press about a lousy program on NCAA PROBATION, limited to only 11 scholarships ?
8 players. That is what Georgia tek has in men’s basketball. 8.
This is because Georgia tek is on NCAA PROBATION this season with only 11 scholarships because of ACADEMICS on Paul Hewitt’s men’s basketball program.
APR Academic Progress Rate of 914. Try saying that Mark Bradley, sir.
Just once.
5 of Georgia tek’s players shoot at 39 percent or less from the FIELD.
Iman Shumpert 39 percent from the field.
Mfon Udofia 36 percent from the field.
Maurice Miller 35 percent from the field.
Brad Shehan 35 percent from the field.
Sam Shew 33 percent from the field.
Pretty awful.
Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal are the only 2 Gerogia tek players who shoot any free throws and they are BOTH 59 PERCENT from the Charity Stripe. They also are the only 2 who get any rebounds.
You have 9 players who have over 30 turnovers on the team.
You have 6 players who have over 60 turnovers on the team.
This is a bad basketball team because you are on NCAA PROBATION, limited to only 11 scholarships, and the reason for that is that Georgia tek men’s basketball has turned into a sham Academically under Paul Hewitt who also has a LOSING RECORD TO UGA in his career, now over, at Georgia tek.
bartlow
March 4th, 2010
9:07 am
So we have articles re: Smoltz hating Bradley, Hewitt hating Bradley, etc. Why should they be any different from the rest of society, including most other sportswriers in this town and beyond? Two articles about himself are good proof as to why.
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