If Hewitt leaves, would Tubby coach Tech? UPDATED!
Update: Apparently it’s a moot point now: ESPN and the New York Daily News are reporting that Paul Hewitt has turned down St. John’s and is staying at Georgia Tech.
We don’t yet know what Paul Hewitt will decide regarding St. John’s, but the inevitable speculation has begun: If Hewitt leaves, then Tubby Smith must be the first choice to replace him — mustn’t he?
Two things to note about Tubby Smith: First, that of all the college basketball coaches I’ve known, he’s my favorite; second, that of all the Tubby rumors since he left Georgia for Kentucky in 1997, not one has been accurate. And there have been a bunch.
Tubby to Auburn this year. (Obviously didn’t happen, given that the Tigers just hired Tony Barbee from UTEP.) Tubby back to Georgia last year. Tubby to South Carolina a while back. (Almost happened but didn’t.) Tubby to the Atlanta Hawks on at least three different occasions. (Never got close.) Tubby to the Charlotte Bobcats. Tubby to Michigan in 2007.
Back to that last one: Tubby finally did leave Kentucky in 2007, but it wasn’t for Michigan. It was for Minnesota, and here, as I understand it, is the way that happened: Smith got so fed up with the lack of support from AD Mitch Barnhart that he called his agent and said, “See what’s out there.” The Gophers didn’t pursue Tubby. He pursued them. It happened so fast that there wasn’t even a Tubby-to-Minny rumor.
Speculation has long held that Tubby won’t stay in Minneapolis because it’s cold up there. Two things more: The man is 58, and he’s not apt to want to start over many more times before he retires, and I have it on good authority he can afford a house with central heating.
I don’t see him coming to Tech if the job comes open — and let me stress: It might not – and I can’t see the Jackets pursuing him if it does. He’s a a fine man and a great coach, but he is, as noted, 58. I would guess Dan Radakovich would prefer a younger man. Just my guess, you understand.
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212 comments Add your comment
Connie Lingous
March 25th, 2010
11:44 am
Although I think that Coach Hewitt has, on balance, been a great representative of our University and an outstanding influence on our kids, my firm belief at this point is that better coaches are out there and available.
I wish Coach Hewitt the best at St. John’s and I hope our entire University community does the same and leaves the bitterness to Coach Hewitt behind.
Thirty Points To Your Twenty-Four Points
March 25th, 2010
11:44 am
These are the same fans that are convinced Groh was a good hire. They completeley overlook the fact he was FIRED from VIRGINIA!!! Not Virginia Tech…VIRGINIA!!!!
{{{{{30-24}}}}}
kenbud
March 25th, 2010
11:45 am
Tubby cannot recruit … it’s a given. He won with Pitino players and then faltered mostly after that.
Thirty Points To Your Twenty-Four Points
March 25th, 2010
11:46 am
Why does Georgia Tech Football have trouble seling home game tickets??
Thursday nights are “Salute to Shatner” nights on the SyFy channel.
17 wins to your 3 wins
March 25th, 2010
11:47 am
Being a gator and seeing the stupid childish posts from the uga’ers on here makes me laugh. We will make it 18 out of 20 this year. Brantley is going to throw all over your sorry team. Any more qb’s there getting drunk and arrested in bars?
Tiger
March 25th, 2010
11:49 am
Why would any good coach for any sport come to TECH
Its the Vietnam of college athletics.
FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thirty Points To Your Twenty-Four Points
March 25th, 2010
11:50 am
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Florida fans are so distraught over losing their Golden Child that they come to an Atlanta Georgia Newspaper Blog to interfere with a state rivalry.
UGA89
March 25th, 2010
11:50 am
GT = 2009 conference championship
UGA = 2005 conference championship
GT = 2009 BCS bowl
UGA = 2009 Shreveport bowl
GT = 1990 national championship
UGA = 1980 national championship
GT = 2004 ncaa basketball national final
UGA = 1983 ncaa basketball final four
GT > UGA
Bruce Mac
March 25th, 2010
11:51 am
17, no more drunks arrested this week. Thanks for asking. Any more crying and whinning in Gainesville this week. Why yes, it happens every week. Don’t count your chickens just yet my good man, you better worry about that little game you have in TTown first. Or have you already put the one in the L column?
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
11:51 am
Thirty, if Tech only has 800 basketball fans, does that means that UGAG only has 5? That’s about the ratio of attendance at Tech games to UGAG games, isn’t it? And you can trash Groh all you want, but he has already paid off at Tech in bringing in two last-minute recruits. He certainly can’t do any worse coaching defense than what we’ve had, and I think it will be a lot better. To those wanting Mark Price, get a life; he has NO COLLEGIATE HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE AT ALL!!! Although I have never been a Tubby fan, I do know that he’s a good coach, and although on the one hand I don’t really want anybody with connections to UGAG, I would love the HATE that it would inspire in the mutts in knowing that they had let a good one get away, and that he had ended up at Tech. What a hoot that would be. Personally, I like Steve Alford, but that’s just my opinion.
GT45
March 25th, 2010
11:52 am
MARK PRICE
Mark Bradley
March 25th, 2010
11:52 am
Good point, Paul. Bosh was from Dallas, Jack from Maryland, Young from Memphis.
Eman
March 25th, 2010
11:55 am
GT will never get top NBA talent here again!! I feel sorry for the fans because they will never win a ACC championship never mined a National championship.
Cameron
March 25th, 2010
11:57 am
Eman, since you mthink so highly of our team, who do you pull for?
ArkyTech
March 25th, 2010
11:59 am
I like Tubby, but if we are looking for a coach who can win big, why would we want to hire a coach who had trouble winning big at Kentucky?
Mr-Ed
March 25th, 2010
12:00 pm
I here Bobby Knight is available also
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:01 pm
I pull for GT but I hate fans that think that the grass will be greener on the other side! If the new coach is not a big name, than GT recruiting will not be great any time soon!! GT will never finish on the top of the ACC because this is not Duke or NC.
CJ
March 25th, 2010
12:01 pm
I remember at a game earlier this year John Salley was honored with his former teammates at half time and he mentioned coming back to coach at Tech. That’s my vote for pure entertainment purposes.
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:01 pm
Eman, “never mined” ??? Did you study spelling at UGAG? We had NBA talent under Cremins. We’ve had NBA talent under Hewitt. Why wouldn’t we continue to get NBA talent? Although frankly, I don’t care if a guy makes it to the NBA at all, as long as he stays four years at Tech and helps BUILD a team.
Cameron
March 25th, 2010
12:02 pm
Eman? Hello? I think we have been getting top NBA talent for 3 decades now, is there a reason for that to change?
boilerup
March 25th, 2010
12:02 pm
I’m telling ya.. Cuonzo Martin @ Missouri State. Now’s the time.. He’s building a program there now like Matt Painter did @ S. Illinois before he went to Purdue. He’s from the Gene Keady school of playing and coaching. He’s got a lot of connections in Indiana and will be able to recruit there as well as East Chicago. He’s a young African American who will be able to win over recruiting in Atlanta over Fox @ UGA. Example, Kevin Stallings, Bruce Webber, Matt Painter, Steve Lavin.. Lot’s of Media support and would bring in GOOD kids that would get their education and bring class to a classy school.. Boiler Up and good luck Tech!!
Bruce Mac
March 25th, 2010
12:04 pm
I don’t think Tubbs would do a bad job but also believe if they ran him out of Lexington the Tech fans would run him out of Atlanta. He is not a great X’s and O’s coach. He is a Hewitt type. Recruits well and lets them play. He will not compete on par with the NC and Dukes at the end of the day. Mike Anderson is another matter, he is a ball coach.
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:04 pm
I sure hope we’re not all putting the cart before the horse here. Let’s get rid of Hewitt first. PLEASE GO TO ST JOHN’S, PAUL !!!!!
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:04 pm
We had two really good recruiting coaches!! Do you really think that GT will get top NBA talent now? Why would I come here when Duke or NC are better for my draft status?
boilerup
March 25th, 2010
12:06 pm
Enter your comments here
Thirty Points To Your Twenty-Four Points
March 25th, 2010
12:06 pm
Ok, so it’s true that I’m a moron like many of you have pointed out. But that doesn’t prevent me from backing UGA and hating anything that says Tech. It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t get into Tech and I consider any techie a nerd. Nerds are smart and I’m not a nerd… so what? So I’m another idiot that backs UGA. At least we outnumber you nerds.
CanHewitt
March 25th, 2010
12:07 pm
Tech will not get NBA talents right away with new coach. But the result in ACC would be better than before.
Duke Blue
March 25th, 2010
12:08 pm
Why would you hire Mark Price? He has no coaching experience in college. You do not go from a single A high school to a D1 college school. Just does not make sense.
thwg
March 25th, 2010
12:09 pm
No brainer on GT’s next coach – STeve Alford.
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:09 pm
Eman, “we had two really good recruiting coaches”? So why would you think we wouldn’t get another one? Nobody knew that Hewitt would recruit the kind of talent he has recruited when he came to Tech; he was hired because of his coaching at Sienna, and because of his (unrealized) NY connection. Coach K, despite how good he is, is not the be-all and end-all of college coaches, and he won’t be around that much longer. Duke will then be facing the same problem any other college faces in finding and hiring the best possible coach. Who’s to say that whomever Tech hires (IF Hewitt leaves) won’t be better than any of them in the long run? It’s pure ignorance to say that can’t happen.
Dawg
March 25th, 2010
12:09 pm
Paul Please don’t leave Tech!!!!!
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:10 pm
I bet if Tech offered, which of course we won’t, Fox would leave Athens in a hearbeat.
GT
March 25th, 2010
12:10 pm
The one thing Hewitt can do and the next crowd will need to continue is recruit. None of his players by the way came from NYC, don’t understand his rep there. On Hewitt his assistant coaches are so weak. Look at their resumes compared to almost any other school in the ACC or even Georgia. I can’t imagine what he was looking for in those resumes outside recruiting and once again most of the coaches come from the northeast which has no representation on the roster outside a very reserved center. Half of the assistants were not even head coaches in the high schools they coached. They were just strictly talent scouts for the AAU either in high school or college, I am guessing. But unlike a tennis team where you bring them in and line them up in an order, basketball players have to have some coaching. The pure fact that Tech is in Atlanta and the ACC will recruit well in itself. Hewitt was heard to say Tuesday that he didn’t hear the recruits or current players complaining about his coaching ability. Sitting in the lobby or the hotel during the ACC tournament listening to players talk to their parents I heard lots of complaining. Why wouldn’t they complain, does he really think they are putting the blame right or wrong on their backs. It means with all these losses they are not near as good as advertised. One or the other but not both.
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:11 pm
How would the ACC results be better? What the coach is going to play? GT will become the Miami of the conference and then you all would be complaining about not getting talent.
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:12 pm
Eman, you are just plain stupid
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:14 pm
Just like your dumb ass huh?
**Frederick(Bailey)Douglass**
March 25th, 2010
12:15 pm
Nice try Marko…but you, I and everybody else on this blog knows that Tubby Smith is not coming to the ACC to coach any other schools but Duke and North Carolina. He does not need time at a set-up job like TECH**.
Why even tease the masses with this?
Ok, so there is Mike Anderson…what does he bring over and beyond Paul? Tech needs to be begging Hewitt to stay…literally on its knees.
Again I ask you worshippers of change, WHO can Tech hire that would 1) actually take the job and 2) give you something over and beyond Paul in the ACC??
**TECH is not UNC, DUKE, Kansas or UCLA. Heck, TECH is not NOVA, TEXAS or ARIZONA. TECH better be happy with who they have.
Jt
March 25th, 2010
12:15 pm
PJ in football. Tubby in basketball? That’s an all-star coaching lineup
Chris
March 25th, 2010
12:16 pm
I think that Steve Donahue of Cornell would be a great coach. He obviously knows how to develop players. What do you think, Mr. Bradley?
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 25th, 2010
12:19 pm
If DRAD can actually get St. Johns to BUYOUT this contract, then:
He is the greatest AD of all time throughout the country, and St. Johns has the dumbest AD of all time.
DawginLex
March 25th, 2010
12:19 pm
Living in blue land brings a different perspective to basketball chat. Make no mistake, Tubby is a good coach but not a great coach. I see some of the same things happening in Minnesota that happened in his last 3 years at UK.
Tubby can win at Tech but he won’t win like folks think he will. UK helped Tubby a lot. He is a top 25 coach but I’m not sure it is the upgrade wanted by the techsters.
Bottom line: Tubby is a great person, a great father and role model but only a good coach. Kinda like our football coach……..
supersize that order, mutt
March 25th, 2010
12:19 pm
Eman, your naivete about what could or could not happen is pretty indicative of your ignorance. As far as your comparison to Miami, Miami actually probably did more with less than Tech did with more talent. Although Tech can probably not afford some of the coaches mentioned here, it’s for damn sure that virtually any coach in the country would kill to coach at an ACC school, and with the market in Atlanta, as well as the recruiting possibilities just in the state of Georgia, Tech would be an ideal job for just about any of them.
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:20 pm
Paul go to Saint Johns and win a big east championship!! You all will wish we had him back!!
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 25th, 2010
12:21 pm
I’ve got to think there won’t be a buyout.
Shug
March 25th, 2010
12:21 pm
I suggest Tech make a run at Bill Self. There are reports that Self was a bit taken aback by the frustration expressed by some KU fans after his team disgraced itself in this year’s tournament. Maybe he’d prefer to go to a school where basketball achievement isn’t demanded.
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 25th, 2010
12:22 pm
Yes, Eman, you are an idiot.
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:22 pm
We will see!!
Duke Blue
March 25th, 2010
12:22 pm
supersize that order, mutt …What are you smoking with the comment that Fox would leave UGA for Tech. That is just a plain and simple stupid comment!
RAMBLE ON!!!
March 25th, 2010
12:23 pm
One thing is for sure, Miami has a better ACC record the Phewitt does since entering the league.
So, what’s your point again, Eman?
Eman
March 25th, 2010
12:24 pm
Ramble on- You probably a nerd that never played any sports ever!!