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
scottm
March 22nd, 2010
10:04 am
Damn, Mark: I didn’t think to email you until this morning. I spent all the second half yesterday trying to figure out how to get a text message to Coach Hewitt. He needed a little with tactical strategy – “one of our players has to actually guard Diebler too”. Too late. We squandered a great opportunity this season…..
jarvis
March 22nd, 2010
10:10 am
Hewitt sure does talk about luck a lot.
jarvis
March 22nd, 2010
10:12 am
And Bradley…you are never right.
G$
March 22nd, 2010
10:25 am
Same old Hewitt: “They tried really hard…” Blah, blah, blah.
Tell It Like It Is
March 22nd, 2010
10:26 am
There is a lot on individual talent and little team talent. The little white boys from Northern Iowa, St. Marys and Cornell demonstrate the importance of teamwork. If Coach Hewitt cannot make them jell as a team, I do not know who can. Maybe he needs to stop recruiting blue chippers who only think of the NBA. I watched in amazement at the sloppy passes and poor court spacing. One thing that might be good is that Favors needs to come back at least one more year. He is not ready for the NBA. As for Coach Hewitt, I do like him. However, if he cannot get better performance out of his players, then maybe a change is in order.
Fungus McGee
March 22nd, 2010
10:33 am
A very nice column, mark.
Hewitt has to go. I’m tired of this crap year after year.
PMC
March 22nd, 2010
10:35 am
I know Favors is saying 50/50. I’d love for him to comeback to Tech. He could be fantastic next year. That said. Hard for me to see a guy pass up generational money to play one more year. I mean he’s going to have to learn whether he’s still at Tech on scholarship or making multiple millions. It’s not like Tech wouldn’t take his money if he wanted to continue his work on his degree in the offseason either.
bugeye fan
March 22nd, 2010
10:39 am
Quit calling tOSU a one man team with unmemorable teammates. Of the 5 starters for tOSU: 4 have scored 20 or more points multiple times, 4 have collected 10 or more rebounds in a game, 4 have had 7 or more assists in a game. Lighty was named captain of the SI all glue team (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/seth_davis/03/09/glue.guys/index.html). GT lost to a well rounded basketball team that gets the whole concept of what a TEAM is.
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
10:44 am
When CPH took the Jackets to the NCAA finals (on a below average salary contact), you stood in line with a cup ready to drink his pi$$. Now, you expect to win 30 games every year. Ask Kansas what does it mean to win 30 plus games just to get sent home in the second round.
I’m sure that all of the people complaining (including Bradley) has better than average performance reviews on their jobS (like Hewitt). Are you advocating to your bosses to be fired? Didn’t think so. Maybe you all should try be-friending CPH to find out how you too can get ‘PAID’ for done just slighly better than average.
I bet you all are the same SUCKERS that are complaining about the passing of the healthcare reform bill.
Dale
March 22nd, 2010
10:49 am
Luck has nothing to do with throwing the ball away time after time and looking completely lost against any kind of back court/full court pressure. These are the same problems that Tech had in the ACC Tournament. Tech had a chance in the game against Ohios State, but literally threw it away. I blame this on lack of preparation and poor coaching.
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
10:50 am
When ignorant people get angry or drunk, they always revert back to to the completely irrelevant demographic of race. NEWS FLASH: The same number of white guys that played for OSU yesterday is equal to the same number of whites guys played by GT. Irrelevant.
DawgDad
March 22nd, 2010
10:53 am
OK, so the local High School All-American team is out after picking up one win in the tournament. Sure, this team had talent, or they wouldn’t have won the first game, but it’s obvious to to all it had precious little experience or discipline. Some of the giveaways on uncontested passes were grade-school caliber gaffes, not even high school stuff.
You have to wonder why parents let kids like Favors sign with a school like GT; the kid obviously needs to go to class, go to practice, make grades, gain life and team-play experience, and grow up before he’s ready for the real world (or even the NBA, for that matter). The whole one-and-done thing gives kids an excuse to sell away a solid future for some fast cash, and except for the top cream-of-the-crop few I’m not convinced it’s a good deal. Favors to me, looks like one-in-hundred college big men; certainly many in this tournament outplaying him. If Favors wasn’t smart enough to go to class he shouldn’t be at GT at all, and I don’t mean this to pick on him, just using him as an example. NCAA needs to change the rules and re-qualify players before the conference and NCAA tournaments based on current academic status, not the prior semester. If that blows up some ranked teams so be it; maybe that will help put the focus back on COLLEGE.
Tar Heel Mike
March 22nd, 2010
10:53 am
Keep Paul Hewitt!!! The rest of the ACC loves him!!
another ptc dawg
March 22nd, 2010
10:54 am
did the players get their phones back?
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
10:55 am
Syracuse wins 2009 NCAA Lacrosse Championship of Cornell. I guess Cornell’s team was composed mostly of uncoachable black players… Head coach Jeff Tambroni should be fired!
GTGuy44
March 22nd, 2010
10:57 am
Iblameurparents what bothers some of us long time Tech grads and fans is the fact that Hewitt never goes after any outstanding white players. No one likes or should accept racism of any kind any where, but there are many insiders that will tell you he does not go after any white kids because he simply does not want to. If we had a white coach and he took the same position regarding black players the press and the city officials would be screaming from the rooftops. So it not just his lousy coaching that bothers us it is his sarcastic attitude, never accepting responsibility, always blaming someone else and his recruiting attitude. Oh I forgot academics. We were one of the 12 teams in the tournament with below a 40% (ours is 38%) graduation rate. But Hewitt contends to discuss that is racism. Pretty amazing.
The land of make-believe
March 22nd, 2010
11:00 am
Sub .500 record in own conference …. check
Significant size and depth advantage …. check
execute game plan of hacking the daylights out of opponents superior perimeter players for first 8 minutes of game …. check
take a stomping in 2nd half ….. check
whine like toddlers …… check
review scoreboard …….. check and MATE!
BravesFan79
March 22nd, 2010
11:04 am
GT had the better team no doubt! Unfortunatly, OSU had the better coaching and more intelligent players.
BravesFan79
March 22nd, 2010
11:06 am
Go Northern Iowa!!
lawbuck
March 22nd, 2010
11:06 am
Sorry Tech fans but they just weren’t that good. Favors still needs much work to his game and attitude. Shumpert was outplayed by Turner (clearly), Lighty outplayed Rice and Oliver, Georgia Tech looked slow in transition defense, and Lawal and Favors did nothing to establish a post game on either end of the floor. If Favors stayed another season, I think this team could be good, but , as it stands, they were out classed by an Ohio State team that, sans the turnovers and lapses, could have won by 20. Easily.
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
11:17 am
@ GTguy44: Again, ignorance yields race baiting. Never is such a strong word. Here are a few “white guys” that have played for Hewitt at GT: Brad Sheehan, Ty Anderson, Matt Causey, Tyler Davis, Luke Schenscher, Jim Nystrom, David Nelson, Ed Nelson.
How many white guys played for Cremins? You will find the ratio nearly the same. So the question of the day is: Was Cremins racist for “never” going after white players? Before you answer, due recall that Cremins is white.
Uncle Billy
March 22nd, 2010
11:17 am
Why do you not take up coaching Mark? You know how it should be done, don’t you? I guess it is easier to comment from the sidelines and from a third rate newspaper.
Uncle Billy
March 22nd, 2010
11:20 am
DawgDad, did you get through Grade School? Probably not!!!!
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
11:25 am
@ Uncle Billy
Dawgdag has official copies of transcripts and SAT scores… so he can make that statement. LOL
Joe Fan
March 22nd, 2010
11:30 am
No matter how loud fans and alumni yell Hewitt is going to be back next season. Maybe this is for the best given the financial demands on the GTAA. However, there remains immense pressure on Hewitt to put a competitive product on the floor consistently and once Gailey’s payout is complete the GTAA will have the flexibility to move Hewitt if the product hasn’t improved. I would expect no less but now is the time to exercise patience and hope the team grows and improves in the 2010-11 season.
Nutbuck1
March 22nd, 2010
11:31 am
Typical losers’ reaction–blame te refs. GT was clarly beaten by a superior team. All the pontificating about how they could have been a Final Four team–they had their chance, and didn’t come close. Another year or two of maturity and it may be a diffrerent team..
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
11:34 am
Well put Joe Fan. I would just add that we might as well support him since he is what we have.
Finebaum
March 22nd, 2010
11:34 am
Mark, you have to admit the second personal on Favors was a freshmen mistake. It was a fast break and he had to let the guy go. He was our best player and was not strong enough to lead a team that desperately needed leadership. Our freshman foiled our run this year. The problem with that is we were depending on a freshman. So tell me this, lottery pick is great…… do you think he will have a great impact in the near future in the NBA… maybe. Let’s think Chris Bosh. Favors could do a lot more coming back another year and growing as a basketball player, but we won’t see it. Now, we as fans are left wondering how long it will take Hewitt to reload and get a decent team. Consistency is the issue with this program.
GTsupporter
March 22nd, 2010
11:35 am
Iblameurparents and Sporty Black sound like a d..k h..ds!!!! Kansas has natl championships, reg season conference championships, and conference tourney championships..Notice everything written has an “S” at the end. Sporty “S” means plural. GT doesnt have sh.t on no scale!!! OK sporty so i guess you feel Hewitt could have taken Kansas to a Natl championship??? Hewitt is a recruiter no a coach….I have yet to see the man “COACH” someone to be an all freshman or ACC player of the year or to the NBA for that matter. His most notable players were one and done guys except Morroow…AND MORROW SHOULD OF/COULD OF BEEN A DRAFTED NBA PLAYER HAD HEWITT COACHED PROPERLY. Hewitt doesnt allow his guards to play to there strengths.
Shumpert isnt a PG and Udofia isnt a SG. I’ve watched Udofia and he can play!! But when you dont let a player utilize what got them to college why recuit him??.Udofia can lead a team but Hewitt is drinking Shumpert’s p.ss and doesnt have the fotrtitude to say to Shumpert “your gonna be the starting sg and Udofia will be the starting PG PERIOD!!! Shumpert is good but has the potential to be a great ACC SG! Let it go Hewitt is not a good coach.What team begins to feel like a team with the regular season all ready over?? Are u kiddin me!!
Iblameurparents college teams are usually assessed by how many “pro” players they have.
You see the majority of the NBA is black. Last I checked kobe and lebron are the best in the league.
I would like you to state that these two players are not intelligent…you would be a fool. FYI and neither went to college. If you dont like the “direction” college coaches are taking as far a talent, call you local city/state goverment. Perhaps give these guys more access to become doctors lawyer engineers educators etc..and maybe “blacks” want have to depend on the NBA NFL etc… Its the only way it seems Blacks can be a succes in this country or of course if I can sing and dance jig or tell a joke.
jacketcdv
March 22nd, 2010
11:42 am
OK, I agree with the OSU fans that they’re far more proven this year than GT, but comments like the following from lawbuck are just one sided.
“they were out classed by an Ohio State team that, sans the turnovers and lapses, could have won by 20. Easily”
Really? That’s exactly what I was saying about Tech only being up by 8 early in the game because of senseless turnovers. Wake up call; GT had more turnovers than OSU did, and they were not caused by good defense but rather by ineffective point guard play. So your theory of a 20 point margin of victory is unsubstantiated. Oh, and Shumpert’s an idiot for saying what he said, especially considering he’s a big reason why they’re so inept on offense.
mimi
March 22nd, 2010
11:44 am
PLEASE DO TECH A FAVOR AND PUT THEM ON THE MAP WITH BOBBY KNIGHT OR TUBBY SMITH!!!!
FREE HANDOUTS NO MORE
March 22nd, 2010
11:46 am
Sporty Black….your posts became ignorant and unreadable when you showed support for the Health Care Bill.
Nutbuck1
March 22nd, 2010
11:53 am
Whiners, continued: David Lighty had bruised ribs, a cut arm and a bloody leg after the game.. He wasn’t whining about the referring. He beat a guy 5″ taller than he, but probably four years younger. Get it?? Welcome to the Big Ten. OSU has plenty of experience with one-and-done, and it would be as big a disaster for Favors as it was for Mullens and Kostakoufus to leave early. If Lighty can pick him apart, imagine what it would be like in the NFL–whoops, NBA..
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
12:15 pm
@ GTsupporter/Free Handouts: Blah, blah, blah. You guys seem so unhappy in your life. As far as politics, I only support the fair tax movement. As far as my ignorance… I have three university degrees (plural with an ’s’) whose programs were top 3 in the nation upon completion. And, I fall into the top 5% of income earners. Not bad for being ignorant an ENGINEER AND LAWYER WITH AN MBA wouldn’t you say. BTW, I have a big D and I only do white women! So I guess you are really pi$$ed now. LOL
Finebaum
March 22nd, 2010
12:18 pm
Got to second that emotion about Shumpert. Wow, what a let down. On again mostly off all other times. What the heck has he been doing?
ODaized
March 22nd, 2010
12:23 pm
Has is anyone seen Marks baseball? Those Mcdonald all americans are gonna be flops in the NBA.
GO GET EM BUCKS!!!
Bball hound
March 22nd, 2010
12:32 pm
Ohio State had a mediocre game for them or it would have been worse Shumpert. Tech got called for about half the fouls they actually comitted.
Roundball Fan
March 22nd, 2010
12:33 pm
Tar Heel Mike – Weren’t your Tar Heels oh and three against Hewitt this year? Just sayin’. . . .
Roundball Fan
March 22nd, 2010
12:34 pm
law buck – sans turnovers and lapses, GT could have won by 20 also.
that game meant everything to Tech
March 22nd, 2010
12:38 pm
look on the bright side you Flagboy nation fans…….you at least got to the tournament! and your basketball thug round flagboys learned the importance of not using a cell phone for several days…..you bunch of sissies…lmfao……oh and you nerdnation fans are second in this state …at best….73-66
that game meant everything to Tech
March 22nd, 2010
12:39 pm
30 to 24…..not long till your return to Athens…tell PJ….to wear a helmet …he may get tackled after his offseason comments about the UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
GTGuy44
March 22nd, 2010
12:43 pm
Sporty Black what I stated was a fact and not race baiting. I said he never tries to recruit Outstanding White Players. Sheehan, Anderson, Davis, Nystrom and David Nelson were terrible and hardly ever played. Hewitt ran off Ed Nelson after he won rookie of the year in the ACC and then did not play him the second half of his sophomore year after he led us in rebounding during the first half of that year. Causey walked on and Luke sought out Tech. You have no argument because he has NEVER actively recruited any outstanding white players. Cremins recruited Mark Price (all pro, olympian and all time free throw leader in NBA history), the Barry brothers, Matt Geiger, Craig Neal, Matt Harpring, etc all played pro ball. How many of the white guys you named even played much in college no less pro ball? To point out facts in not racism or implied racism.
Tommy In Carrollton
March 22nd, 2010
12:43 pm
You’re so all over the place you have zero credibility. I personally would bet you were a mediocre athlete wanna be who tries to play/ coach through your equally mediocre journalistic talent.
Stargazer
March 22nd, 2010
12:51 pm
Why even bother to respond to Sporty Black? He doesn’t understand most of the big words anyway. The kindest thing to do is just leave him a big tip in whatever restroom he is working at as an attendant this week.
GTGuy44
March 22nd, 2010
12:54 pm
Sporty Black you are ignorant, crude and not funny. Your comment about white women is disgusting and has no place on a sports blog. I am confident that 90% of the bloggers on this site would hope that you just went away.
GTsupporter
March 22nd, 2010
12:55 pm
Your a corn ball sporty black and you throwing your credentials around on a basketball blog displays that. Take you and your d**k and those degrees and kill yourself just like GT basketball.
People who want everyone to know what they have are usually compensating for something they dont have….!!!
P.S. Take Paul Hewitt with you.
Tell It Like It Is
March 22nd, 2010
1:14 pm
GTGuy44,
The really good white guys go to Duke and not Tech. Introducing race into this is not very bright. Sporty Black makes that point very clearly. I believe that the Tech players have the NBA on their minds and not a degree in engineering(which isn’t worth much in today’s economy anyway). I don’t think that they are playing for you and the rest of Tech’s alumni who watch them in that little rinky-dink Gym. The players are recruited to compete and win in the ACC and make some TV money of which they are not allowed to pertake. If those black guys were not at Tech or the rest of the ACC, how much TV time and money would Tech and the ACC get? Big time basketball and football is a business and not an educational process as people would like to believe.
Sporty Black
March 22nd, 2010
1:26 pm
GTguy44: I’M BACK!!!
You are a liar. See your post at 10:57am: “what bothers some of us long time Tech grads and fans is the fact that Hewitt never goes after any outstanding white players.”
Why are you people so angry?? It’s okay to for GTguy44 to throw ignorant, racially subjective opinions around. But when Sporty Black injects a joke about the “High Goddesses Whom beith on Top of Totem Pole,” it disgusting. You may not find me funny, but I am in stitches after reading y’all comments.
“Can’t we just all get along.” I will not stoop to name calling like GTSupporter, that’s what the unintelligent does.
GTGuy44
March 22nd, 2010
1:28 pm
Tell It Like It Is why is it okay for Hewitt to claim that the academic progress rating is racist and not be called on it. He was stating an opinion and not a fact. I was stating facts. You are the one that associated my statement of facts as an introduction of race into the discussion. You have no idea that outstanding white players would not like to come to Tech. What do you base that on? It might be nice to recruit a few and see what happens. Cremins never seemed to have a problem in recruiting both white and black players. Why would you want to defend the indefensible?
JP
March 22nd, 2010
1:30 pm
MARK – Your premise that GT is one of the top three or four teams in the nation tells me how little you know about basketball – - not much. I expect more from our only newspaper… can’t they find someone who knows a little about the sport?