Tech falls to KSU: The Wizard of Techwood dazzles us again
It's a brand new season, but it's the same old outcome. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
If Paul Hewitt isn’t the worst basketball coach in the country, it’s only because ours is a mighty big country. And now, having said that, I ask: At this late date, who needs convincing?
There are no real Hewitt defenders. There are a few excuse-makers, but nobody seriously believes this is a first-tier coach anymore. I could cite his record yet again, but here’s all anyone needs to know: In the spring of 2004 he won five NCAA tournament games in 15 days; in his other nine seasons at Georgia Tech combined, he has won two.
On Monday his Jackets took a ride up I-75 and showed us they aren’t even the best team in Metro Atlanta. They lost 80-63 to Kennesaw State, which has only recently become a fully vested member of the NCAA’s Division I. Tech never led. It trailed by 20 points after 15 1/2 minutes, by 15 points at the half. It was one of those games that was shocking and yet not surprising at all.
Afterward Hewitt was his usual serene self, noting that KSU “out-toughed us” and trotting out the boilerplate: “It’s just a matter of showing more maturity.” And thus did the Owls join the list of Hewitt conquerors, a n array that includes IUPUI, Winthrop, UNC Greensboro and Illinois-Chicago (twice).
Tech made nearly as many turnovers (19) as baskets (21) Monday. This from a team that essentially starts four guards. This from a team that lost two McDonald’s All-Americans to the NBA early but still boasts one more McDonald’s All-American than Kennesaw State will ever sign. (Although the Owls do employ what coach Tony Ingle called “our Wendy’s offense — get it to go, cheese on the fries, let it fly.”)
Afterward Ingle was asked if Tech had recruited any of his players. He said, “No.” But somehow the Owls, who were 13-20 last season when Tech was underachieving its way into the NCAA tournament, were much the better team. They didn’t have the better players, but they were the better team. Which is the story of post-2004 Georgia Tech basketball.
The biggest excuse for Hewitt — I heard it from longtime acquaintance Charles Barkley last spring — is that he’s always losing players early to the pros. And that’s true: S ix Jackets have left eligibility on the table to declare for the NBA draft, Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal most recently. But it’s not as if Hewitt has accomplished much with his one-and-dones: Chris Bosh, Thaddeus Young, Javaris Crittenton and Favors managed a total of one NCAA tournament victory.
And it’s not as if the guys who stay fare any better. Hewitt had Anthony Morrow for four seasons, after which Morrow wasn’t able to persuade an NBA team to risk even a second-round pick on him. He landed with Golden State as a free agent. This summer he signed a three-year contract with the Nets for $12 million.
This month Alex Raskin of the Wall Street Journal wondered if Morrow is the greatest shooter in NBA history. (Not just in the NBA now. In the NBA ever.) And here was a quote from Steve Kerr, the former Phoenix general manager whose status as the league’s all-time leading three-point shooter is being threatened by Morrow: “I saw him a couple of times in college and he didn’t really light it up. He got a little lost on his team. It just didn’t seem like he really blossomed there.”
Who does blossom under Hewitt? Bosh and Favors didn’t get the ball enough. Apart from Jarrett Jack, no point guard has ever really directed a Hewitt team. (Moe Miller, who saved last season after being relegated to the end of the bench, is again not starting.)
But enough. You know what’s going on. Hewitt is a lousy coach, but his golden contract makes him untouchable. Dan Radakovich, the Tech athletic director, sat behind the bench at the KSU Convocation Center last night and looked pained. The man with the $7 million buyout was losing to a school based in the county where Radakovich lives — by 17 points.
Oh, and if you haven’t seen my take on Kennesaw State and its coach … that post can be found here.
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496 comments Add your comment
Al
November 16th, 2010
12:18 pm
Losing to Kenn St is bad enough but they were blown out. I could possibly stomach a buzzer beater but to get beat this bad. Nope. Article is spot on. Time to get rid of the dead weight.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:18 pm
Even more great news!!!
We just made $7 Million from Greg McGarity speaking at the Touchdown Club of Albany yesterday.
Coach Hewitt...
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
Guys…. my good friend Dave Braine called this morning while I was having breakfast with my UGA School of Law agent. He told me to hold my head up, It’ll get better. Oh Yea…. He said hi to all you nats BB fans too…LMMFAO…
$7.1 million or GTFO… I Own this School….LMMFAO!!! See ya at the next game fans, Paul…
Hankie Aron
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
Dagny- Every big time school has black eyes like you are talking about. UGA fans aren’t any more happy about it than you are, but they support the school and the athletic teams because it’s their preferred choice. Do you really think everything that comes out of the UGA is bad?
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
Techies…..
If we lent you $7 MIllion to get rid of your coach…. what you YOU be willing to do for US to pay it back??
Tech75
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
PMC’s got it right… these are not players you can coach. Tons of athletic talent, playground ball ingrained in each of them to the point where they can’t be broken of the bad habits.
Essentially not coachable. As they say: Don’t try to teach a pig to dance. You’ll only get dirty, and it will annoy the pig.
He’s recruiting the wrong kind of players; he needs to look at the types that Coack K and Bobby Knight recruit.
gte773w
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
Mark, how about all of the administration that agreed to the $7 million dollar buyout option have the $7 million taken out of their salaries for the next 10 years? It would be fitting for the stupidity of signing a Scott Boras type contract with Hewitt.
Thanks for the great writing,
A sad ‘94 GT Alum who remembers the Lethal Three
Dust Jacket
November 16th, 2010
12:19 pm
Dagny = Mirror Mirror
Another copy and paste posting by the same guy, as usual. What’s the matter? Couldn’t come up with an original thought? Loser.
North Avenue Ned
November 16th, 2010
12:20 pm
Another long season for the cagers. Bring back Roger Kaiser!!!
techgirl
November 16th, 2010
12:21 pm
god I wish he had taken the st. john’s job. hewitt is pathetic, and I’m tired of being embarrassed by our basketball team
Bobby Cremins
November 16th, 2010
12:21 pm
Miss me guys??????????
Money Wheel
November 16th, 2010
12:21 pm
Don’t look now–Hewitt’s contract just rolled over again! Pay him more millions!!!!!!!!!
bye
November 16th, 2010
12:22 pm
Picture is priceless, those coaches on the bench nknow they are without a job soon. Idiots.
ga_tech_92
November 16th, 2010
12:22 pm
Year after year it’s the same thing…Ground-Hog Day….FIRE PAUL HEWITT ALREADY!!!! Let someone work for almost nothing till we can afford to pay a new coach, they can’t do worse.
Hankie Aron
November 16th, 2010
12:23 pm
Dagny,
I can tell you right now, for every arrest that is made for some of the thugs that go to UGA (you have to recruit them if you want to compete in the SEC and in other conferences as well), there are players like Josh Bagby and Jeff Owens who run businesses and are contributing members to society who if left to their upbringing would be in Jail. I know, of course, you dont’ want to talk about that.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:23 pm
Just signed a check for $7 Million to upgrade the food at Snelling Hall.
busy day!!
Skeezix
November 16th, 2010
12:24 pm
Tech has become an embarassment to the ACC.
Yurtle_the_turtle
November 16th, 2010
12:25 pm
Hewitt Fan…please go away, you’re embarrasing yourself. The bandwagon is empty except for you. It was old 5 years ago and you’re showing your stupidity.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:26 pm
Oh!! NICE!!!
We just got word that we made $7 Million from a David Greene and David Pollack golf fundraiser!!!
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:28 pm
What to do with all our monies???????
Abnerish
November 16th, 2010
12:28 pm
It begs the question: why do all of these prized recruits keep going to Tech when Hewitt has such a horrible track record? My take is that these “prized” recruits are looking at the only positive stat Hewitt has going for him – % of players drafted in the NBA. With this stupid one year policy, they’ve effectively turned college basketball programs into halfway houses.
Navigator
November 16th, 2010
12:28 pm
Braine, Braine, Braine, gave a long term contract to Gailey and Hewitt, but wait, he had to get permission from the top folks at Tech to approve it. It’s obvious now he had a huge disdain for Tech, and nearly everyone wanted him to leave. The curse of Braine will cripple this program for years to come, and Paul Hewitt will serve outs his contract (because of the money). After all, who’s going to hire him when he leaves?
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:28 pm
Anybody need, or know somebody who needs, $7 Million???
We have a surplus over here in Athens.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:31 pm
Just signed a $7 Million check to open a second Five Guys in Downtown, Athens.
wes
November 16th, 2010
12:31 pm
I’m glad we lost.
Worm
November 16th, 2010
12:31 pm
Should rename Hewitt “Screech”..Who gives a HOOT?
Hal
November 16th, 2010
12:32 pm
How many more years does CPH have on his contract?
marcus
November 16th, 2010
12:33 pm
georgia tech is a great university; it sits in the heart of atlanta, which is, take my word for it a better city to live in than new york. tech has some of the better “public” ivy education money can buy. atlanta has the class, the professional sport’s teams and such a diverse population one would almost have to move to new york to experiece it. tech’s students get to interact with students from all over the world via spelman, calrk-atlanta, georgia state and a host of colleges and universities in the area. what we need is a feaking coach, not a damn recruiter. face it! hewitt can’t coach! he should have taken his butt to new york and tried to ressurect st john’s. this crap stinks! we should get any player we want. we got evrything here in atlanta.. did i mention the women! my god.. who would not want to play here.
Gtfan11
November 16th, 2010
12:33 pm
@GloryGlory. Tech Basketball reminds me of UGA football. Tech gets these “one and done” athletes and does nothing with them. Much like UGA, your football team historically gets these 4 and 5 star recruits and yet they struggle to beat Tech year in and year out who MIGHT have a handful of 3 star recruits. While Tech fans are questioning it’s future of its’ basketball, I don’t really see where you can justify ANYTHING by being on a Tech blog. I mean really, a loss to Colorado (who lost to Kansas), and you want to jump over here on a Tech blog and beat your chest? How pathetic can your life really be?
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:34 pm
Just wired $7 million to Clarke County Correctional Facility. That should take care of the bail for last month.
marcus
November 16th, 2010
12:35 pm
hewitt sucks!
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:35 pm
Just paid $7 million to migrant workers to clean up the garbage and human waste left on North Campus after the last home game.
GTBob
November 16th, 2010
12:35 pm
Thank you Mark for writing this. The fans and the media seriously need to start putting more pressure on this issue. Every season, the main topic around GT basketball is how bad Paul Hewitt is. It would be nice if we could move on to brighter days.
Done
November 16th, 2010
12:35 pm
The only positive here is that it seems that the final chapter of the Hewitt tenure has finally begun.
Hewitt No More
November 16th, 2010
12:36 pm
Fire Hewitt, and save the GT fanbase and its players from further embarrassment!!!!
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:39 pm
It’s simple Tech…….
We give you $7 Million……. Your Football team(sic) plays in Athens 5 straight years…….
We gotta deal???
GT
November 16th, 2010
12:40 pm
You know I bet the ACC would toss in a few million too. What happen last night is not very good for the brand, in fact I think it may be worth 7 million for the ACC to not have this happen again in this media center. Richt hasn’t even gotten this bad, he still carries the SEC label well, kids still want to go to Georgia because it is in the SEC, and they have respect of who he is. We lost some kids last night, in recruiting, the conference may lose some kids because of this too. I think Virginia lost a game this bad 20 years ago in Hawaii, but these are not good things to happen to any of the ACC teams and would only happen to Tech, in this era.
Tech75
November 16th, 2010
12:40 pm
Hewitt can’t coach; they only reason he’s done as well as he has is because he manages to recruit the on-and-done types. He’ll continue to be able to recruit the on-and-done types because he has a track record of getting into the NBA. However, he has NO track record of taking non-Lottery talent and doing anything with it; so those “next-tier” players won’t be fooled anymore by his “I’m President of the Black Coaches Association” speech intended to convey the level of respect and esteem by which he is held by his peers.
Then, the next domino will fall… the one-and-done types will stop coming. This guy is clueless. GT cannot continue this; We have to bite the bullet. And as alumni, we need to vote with our pocketbooks.
I fully expect DRad to drag his sorry *ss into the office and ask him directly “Is that the best product you can put on the floor? You’ve got 5 games to get your **it together; if we haven’t seen SIGNIFICANT, SUSTAINED IMPROVEMENT then we will be forced to take action. Regardless, be on notice that your employment is PROBATIONARY based on your past performance; we will re-evaluate on a bi-weekly basis for the foreseeable future.”
And I “care not” for another Sting Daily where DRad pleads for patience…
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:41 pm
Just sent $7 million to Richt for his monthly Rogaine and spray tan allowance.
Gordon
November 16th, 2010
12:41 pm
UGA Athletic Department,
Since we’ve won 3 in a row in Athens with coaches not named Chan Gailey, we’ll take that deal.
ManUp...
November 16th, 2010
12:42 pm
Tech grad here. I’m still watching the games, but I’m not believing what I’m seeing. I held out last year with the run to the tournament. Now, though, I think it’s time to say it – Fire Hewitt.
It makes me very sad that he’s dragging our colors through the mud and making us a laughing stock to our rivals. Radakovich needs to find a way to get this program turned around like he needed to when Gailey’s number was up. This really can’t be allowed to fester much longer.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:42 pm
We earned $7 million off SEC Championship rings on eBay.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:44 pm
We just spent $7 million to expand bandwidth for our wireless internet on campus.
http://www.ajc.com/news/uga-student-charged-with-682903.html
ManUp...
November 16th, 2010
12:45 pm
Tech75 for president? I’d vote for ya.
UGA Athletic Department
November 16th, 2010
12:45 pm
We got $7 million from Colorado to travel out there and boost their program. Sorry the other teams on your schedule weren’t so nice, Coach Hawkins.
GoJackets!
November 16th, 2010
12:47 pm
Hewitt’s not even recruiting anymore. There’s no McD AA on the horizon. The best one committed for next year is ranked at 90. There’s no reason to keep him unless he turns it around quick.
Tech fan plus
November 16th, 2010
12:47 pm
Mark, I really hate to say it but you “hit the nail on the head” This loss is no surprise. The program has been going down hill for years. A few years ago I was a season ticket holder. I went to one game last year. I have for a number of years now just lost confidence in Hewitt. I can only hope Hewitt is just half the man that Cremins is. When the program waned under Cremins he was man enough to move on. I believe Hewitt will do the same irregardless of his contract. It would be hard for any of us to do that, but I believe a settlement will be worked out and we will not have to pay the 8M or whatever the figure is. Will always be Tech fan. Hope this situation can be resolved sooner rather than later.
Paul in RDU
November 16th, 2010
12:49 pm
ManUp… GT may be a laughingstock in GA, but up here in RDU they are not even mentioned. UNC, NCSU and Duke worry about GT about as much as they worry about Word of God HS. On 2nd thoughts, they worry about Word of God more.
sableman
November 16th, 2010
12:49 pm
Wow, I did not know that Tech would lose and give you ammunition to start your attack on Coach Hewitt again but here you go. I did call this a few days ago even before this game that you would start your personal attacks on him again. So how many consecutive days will continue your attack now? He has almost a completely new team, it takes awhile to start chemistry and make adjustments. Think this will be the biggest upset of the NCAA basketball season? Probably not. And as always, you will write about things like this because you know nothing else about sports. Of by the way, glad that Auburn, the coach and everyone else involved, did not listen to a moron like you and went ahead and played Cam Newton against Georgia. Thank God, most people ignore you and your ravings!
Jethro Bodeen
November 16th, 2010
12:50 pm
You are right on Mr. Drysdale about PH!!