Tech leaves us wondering how much it might have done
D'Andre Bell's postmortem on his Yellow Jackets : "We were just inconsistent." (AP photo)
Milwaukee – Elbows on knees, a scowling Iman Shumpert bent forward in his chair. Someone asked if Ohio State was better than Georgia Tech. “Not at all,” Shumpert said.
So: Was Tech better than Ohio State? Said Shumpert, almost spitting the words: “A lot better.”
Judge these teams 1-10 and there’s no comparison. Brad Sheehan, Tech’s 10th man, was pressed into service Sunday and contributed a three-point play. Ohio State deployed only seven men, and its two reserves worked a total of 13 minutes. (Brian Oliver, Tech’s eighth man, played 16.) But college basketball isn’t a draft lottery, and it isn’t a beauty contest. It’s a matter of what coach can take talent and mold it into a team.
Paul Hewitt spoke this season of his Jackets having a “high ceiling.” They altered our perception of them as rank underachievers with a stirring run in the ACC tournament and a Round 1 NCAA dismissal of Oklahoma State, but in the end that ceiling remained untouched. This team took Hewitt back to the Big Dance for the first time since 2007, but with three McDonald’s All-Americans was that the ultimate goal? Just to make an appearance?
Said D’Andre Bell: “We were inconsistent. At certain points we showed how great we can be.”
A great team would have beaten Ohio State on Sunday. As strange as it sounds, there was a clear imbalance of talent between the No. 2 seed and the No. 10. Tech had the three best big men this day, and yet Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors got called for the fouls that changed the game. Jacket fans will complain forever about the officiating, but here’s the thing: With no Ohio State post presence to defend, Tech’s post players still fouled. How? Why?
The Buckeyes left the door open almost all game: They fell eight points behind early and gave back 11 points off a 15-point lead late, and they missed six free throws and made 18 turnovers (to Tech’s 21). Evan Turner scored 24 points but needed 19 shots to do it, and his nine rebounds and nine assists were undercut by nine turnovers.
But Tech didn’t lead over the final 22 1/2 minutes because it could never punish the Buckeyes, who essentially start four guards, and when the Jackets’ offense crumbled the game became a flurry of Ohio State fast breaks and transition treys. If it wasn’t easy for the Buckeyes, it was never as hard as it coulda/shoulda been.
So much awaited Tech if it could have upset Ohio State. The Midwest Regional would then have been without its No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds, and nobody in St. Louis — not even Michigan State — would have matched the Jackets on manpower. Asked if Tech could have reached the Final Four, Derrick Favors said: “I think we could have. But we ended up losing this game.”
Loading ...Thus do we take our leave of the most gifted team in Institute annals. If its legacy won’t be of utter failure — it did reach the ACC finals and win a game in the Big Dance, both accomplishments Tech hadn’t managed since 2005 — neither did it approach its potential. It finished seventh in a diluted ACC, seventh with a losing conference record. It lost to Georgia. It made the NCAA as a 10th seed and was gone on the first weekend.
Said Hewitt: “We got to the [NCAA] tournament, and that’s a really major accomplishment. I think our guys played really hard and were really unlucky at times, but their effort never wavered. We had a great year.”
Then, perhaps realizing he’d oversold his case, Hewitt said: “A very good year.”
Actually, it was neither. It was a B-minus season. If losing 13 games with Favors and Lawal and Shumpert is a “great” — or a “very good” — year, standards need to be recalibrated. Hewitt can and will endeavor to put the sunniest of faces on this season, but the empty looks in his locker room Sunday told a different story.
The Jackets knew how much they had and how far they might have gone. Sad to say, this team of vast promise was done playing before it really got going.
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481 comments Add your comment
Californiabuck
March 23rd, 2010
2:32 am
GoDawgsGo, Sorry, just had to comment about your last comment. That is just plain funny! Too many folks here take those words literally, ouch… Old, Married hillbilly here…
Johnny FuPa
March 23rd, 2010
3:47 am
GREAT COLUMN MARK! I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU STEPPING UP WITH A VERY ACCURATE, WELL WRITTEN ARTICLE. I AGREE WITH YOU COMPLETELY AS DO MOST GEORGIA TECH FANS OUT THERE! THANKS FOR YOUR EXCELLENT COLUMNS THIS SEASON!!! I WISH THE SEASON COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT, BUT THANKS FOR NOT SUGAR COATING ANYTHING AND GIVING US YOUR TRUE OPINION.
indianman
March 23rd, 2010
5:57 am
if any body thought that could done better i know where their is a brain doctor is
Your a Fool Bradley
March 23rd, 2010
6:18 am
kind of like when I read your opinions—hmmm, how much more could this have article been if Bradley had done his job and tried to live up to Bisher standards instead of taking the low road
GTFan1
March 23rd, 2010
6:29 am
Whats the best Sweet 16 story? You decide! Hate to see the season end for the Jackets!
http://thesportsdebates.com/category/tsd/the-2010-best-sweet-16-story-debate/
2 and done!!!!
March 23rd, 2010
8:07 am
Another typical overrated, overhyped, disappointing Yech hoops season down the drain with nothing to show for it!!!! And now they’ll watch YET another of their “student athletes” execute the annual ONE AND DONE practice that is common for Yech thugs!!!!
LOVE IT!!!!!!
A Rob
March 23rd, 2010
8:10 am
Every year the same…..Disappointment and underachievement. Another sour taste in your mouth until football. Nothing will change until he’s gone for good along with Braine and Gailey.
Andy
March 23rd, 2010
8:13 am
Instead of a Nazi-style government take over of our healthcare system, why not instead put the final nail in the Buzz’s coffin, and just disband all Tech athletics and put that wasted money to better use??????
Jamar
March 23rd, 2010
8:14 am
Now the tool nation can jump on their annually overrated baseball team just to watch them suffer the same fate as every year passed. Tech is a running joke in the collegiate sports world.
north ave.
March 23rd, 2010
8:15 am
Tech’s already home from the Big Dance? So what else is new?
bawahahahahaha!!!
March 23rd, 2010
8:17 am
As usual, nerd fans making excuses and trying to spin the obvious, that they flat out SUCK at everything!!!!!! LOL!!!! Just more of the same!!!! The tech implosion continues!!!!!! LOL!!!!!
dark days down in the ghettos
March 23rd, 2010
8:23 am
Poor tech fans. Just another overrated team to fall flat on their faces in humiliating fashion. Now we’ll get to enjoy watching the most overrated baseball program in the country do the exact same thing, and then again in the fall with the gimmicky offense that can only succeed in a crappy conference with Gailey’s talent. This is hilarious.
MORE OF THE SAME
March 23rd, 2010
8:33 am
Can’t wait for GSU to get their football program up and running. Atlanta deserves a college they can be proud of for a change.
JACK IT
March 23rd, 2010
8:41 am
Ealey just rushed for 12 more yards… 1st down Georgia!
A Realist
March 23rd, 2010
9:06 am
You’re beating a dead horse, Mark……give it up. Georgia Tech Basketball under Paul Hewitt will always be second best or worse. I’d say to those who want to leave for the NBA…..go ahead, there’s someone out there we’ll recruit that’s better than you anyway and hopefully, more loyal to their school. DRad, stop giving scholarships to these people who you know are gonna leave…..we don’t need ‘em or want ‘em.
Mike
March 23rd, 2010
9:32 am
WilsonDunkIt: I promise you there is no bigger Tech fan when they play there in state rival than me. Furthermore, I love Tech baseball where I attend between 5-8 games per season. I am sure the Bowl loss to Iowa “stung”. People really underestimated Iowa though. There Def. line put pressure on QB’s all season long.
Bill
March 23rd, 2010
9:35 am
With a damn good Coach…The sky was the limit. With Paul DA Hewitt you can forget it!!!!!
Fire PH……………
Hoops Guru
March 23rd, 2010
9:43 am
It really hurts to feel that your team may have lost a game just so they could get their cell phones back!
Need a new Coach
March 23rd, 2010
9:51 am
Hewitt sucks and has got to go. Make no mistake about it he blows. Let’s hire Northern Iowa’s coach.
Iblameurparents
March 23rd, 2010
10:02 am
GTguy44, please pardon me if I did not understand your point completely. I concur you did state that you wanted PH to get the best players available regardless of race. My point regarding the coach is this; I do not think it would matter one bit if Tech had black or white players on the team if the outcome was more favorable. If Tech reached everyone’s expectations, as lofty or as misguided as they may be, this point would never be brought up. Clearly, many Tech supporters are frustrated, rightly so and as history has shown when we feel this way we resort to seeking comfort in things that are just below the surface of our consciousness, subtle, subliminal. We all at one point or another travel this path but I urge you to fight it. Tech success or lack there of has nothing to do with the teams ethnic makeup but your point is well taken. The fact of the matter is there is just not very many white kids playing basketball as perhaps there once was. That is why the NBA scourers the globe for diverse talent. Although I would not put PH on the level of Tubby Smith nor was his winning percentage even close to Tubby’s but didn’t Kentucky wish him gone for reasons besides basketball. Same for PH, early success made him palatable but for what ever reason he was never the guy you wanted to begin with for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball. Just the unfortunate way of the world. I have never watched the Braves and said why don’t they have more blacks out there? Not because they would steal more bases or run down more fly balls but because it would sure be nice if Cox went after some black players in a city with the ethnic makeup of Atlanta. Just a thought.
Letfryman… the 800lb racist in the room is the one comparing PH to Rupp. There is nothing racist about me or my perspective at all. I would not hire a black just because he is black and I would not play a white kid just because he is white. It is all about merit. When you get frustrated and circumstances go beyond what you can control you resort to the juvenile pea brain perspectives of name calling, race baiting because your intellect will not allow you to comprehend what is going on so you have involuntary blurts of phrases you heard around the house growing up. It is really not your fault. Iblame…
Tech Master
March 23rd, 2010
10:15 am
Tech had a good run, not great. How did Ga do this year and also, how in the world does Ga’s AD keep his job??? The football teamed sucked, going to a minor bowl, the basketball team sucked, not even making the lowly NIT, the baseball team sucks. Oh, I forgot: the tennis team is pretty good, so I guess he’ll take credit for that and ask for another big raise!!!!
Is that you Sigmund?
March 23rd, 2010
10:22 am
Can we please stop with the pseudo psychiatric BS of what is going on in some sports bloggers sub consious? What a boat load of BS. JUST STOP. You know no more about what someone is thinking than the next swinging richard walking down the street.
Enough with the black/white BS. Nobody gives a rip. Just give us someone that can win basketball games, both players and coaches, they can be purple if they win. If your post is going to be about black/white BS, just don’t do it. Go find the sociology blog.
Gordon
March 23rd, 2010
10:34 am
One school’s football team went to a BCS bowl. The other’s went to Shreveport.
One school’s basketball team went to the NCAA. The other’s didn’t make the NIT.
One school’s baseball team is ranked #3 in the nation. The other’s has a losing record.
FUGA
March 23rd, 2010
10:53 am
Andy said: “just disband all Tech athletics and put that wasted money to better use.”
Why dont we do ALL THE TAXPAYERS IN GEORGIA an favor and disband UGA.
With majors like:
Womens Studeis,
Housing(UGA Athletes Favorite),
Fashion Merchandising,
Recreation & Leisure Studies,
Art History, etc etc etc
and all of the rest of USELESS WASTE OF MONEY programs at UGA……..
think of ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the money the taxpayers would save.
oldfart
March 23rd, 2010
10:53 am
Cornell is proving that you can win in college basketball as a team. The sum of lesser parts will work in a team game. I would much rather have players recruited that want a degree and learn the discipline required to play as one unit. Future NBA players are nice to have but not to the detriment of the team. I don’t begrudge a guy going to the NBA for the money but I would rather have a guy around for four years and give you some junior/senior leadership for the future.
T3
March 23rd, 2010
11:00 am
As I predcited before the ACC-T, Hewitt WILL BE leaving for St. Johns.
SJU is preparing to up to $3M up-front, on the table…just to get him to come.
SJU was preaped to offer Billy Donovan $3M to come to SJU.
Count it as a Done Deal for Hewitt.
I give it no more than 2 weeks before Hewitt announces he’s leaving.
And with that, both Favors and Lawal will leave.
Hewitt knows the overall GT fan sentiment has definitely turned against him.
And, knowing that Favors, Lawal, Peacock, and Bell are all gone for next year,
why would Hewitt choose to stay.
If Hewitt thinks the GT fans were hostile THIS year,
just wait until next season!
Richard Dawson
March 23rd, 2010
1:03 pm
(((((30-24))))) Ha ha ha.
Charles Williams
March 23rd, 2010
3:05 pm
Let me get this straight now. A team goes from 12-19 to 23-13 without a point guard. Personally I think the arm-chair coaches who continue to villify Paul Hewitt need to open their eyes. If you really thought adding Derrick Favors was going to elicit more of an 11 game turnaround then maybe your expectations are out of whack. Tech plays outstanding defense. Not good defense, but outstanding defense. Yes, their offense is scary to look at sometimes but give Shump and Favors another year. Next year will be a better indicator of whether this team is underachieving or not. 12-19 to 23-13…..Just think about that
bubba jones
March 24th, 2010
6:02 am
Paul has no clue, He completely destroyed the moral fiber of the team. He again sacrificed the team for freshman who didnt earn the right to start , they were promised. He made promises to all the kids that have come. He promised Iman that he could shoot the last shot in every game last year and if he stayed he could run point. Made similar promises to Glen Rice and Oliver , who cussed Hewitt out every game and he still played them. The inexperience killed us. Then he tries to go to Maurice Miller down the stretch to save his a-s . The Mfon experiment was a joke , Why have Mfon and Iman on the floor at the same time. Hewitt set Mfon up for failure , now he’s disgruntled and causing behind the scenes problems. Actually none of the freshman had respect for the game or the senior leadership because they were given position to fast. Thus expanding their egos , thus causing more internal strife.
Years before he did not allow his guards unless the last name was Clinch to shoot the ball. He controlled Storrs and Miller like robots. This year all that out the window, Shot selection and the guards refusal to get the ball to the post cause second half leads to disappear.
Hewitt is an idiot, he didnot create a team atmosphere , he destroyed kids careers due to his inability to adapt to his talent. He carries grudges against players and fails to create a spirited competitive environment. In the old days it used to be , practice hard and earn your spot, Upper class man have seniority. This year it was make promises to freshman , let them come in and start without earning a position and destroy the any chance of competition. With the exception of favors , none of those freshman should have started or played as many minutes , they didnt understand how hard ACC play was , and they spent way too much time fixing the hair for ESPN and trying to keep up with the John Walls of the world.
This team was poorly coached , when you have a senior on the floor and you cant get the ball inbound , you need to be fired. Rotation was terrible, and u over coach. Please leave us.
He is an idiot , he needs to go. I would pay the 7 mil and get his tail out of
bubba jones
March 24th, 2010
6:02 am
Charles can you say Maurice Miller..
chad hartley
March 28th, 2010
12:59 pm
Listening to university of kentucky fan’s response to their basketball team’s loss to west virginia you would have thought that the world had come to an end and there existed no purpose to live on.I suppose if you live in a state with no professional sports, whose public education is near the bottom of the country, is one of the poorest in the country, whose beloved university of kentucky is ranked number 221 in US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT,S LIST OF BEST NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES perhaps there is no reason to go on.Kentucky is ranked number one in the distinction of the highest rate of smokers in the country