Are you stunned by Georgia Tech’s loss at Siena? Me, neither
This marks the third time in 11 seasons Georgia Tech has lost five non-conference games before Christmas under Paul Hewitt. This is significant because Tech under Hewitt has only once done better than 8-8 in ACC play.
Simple math: Five non-league losses plus eight conference losses plus another in the ACC tournament — the Jackets have never won that event under Hewitt — and you’ve got 14. Fourteen is too many to get a team into the NCAA field. (Yeah, I know the field has expanded this season — by three. Same difference.) And Hewitt has said he believes this team is good enough to be an NCAA team.
More history: The two other times Tech under Hewitt has lost five non-league games before Christmas, it hasn’t just missed the NCAA — it has finished with a losing record. (The Jackets were 15-16 in 2000-2001, 15-17 in 2007-2008.) Should Tech have a losing season in 2010-2011, that would make three in the past four tries. That would be enough under ordinary circumstances to find a new coach, but the circumstances at the Flats aren’t ordinary. Hewitt has that perpetual rollover and his $7 million buyout.
On Wednesday the Jackets lost at Siena, where Hewitt used to coach. The Associated Press used the word “stun” to describe what the Saints had done to Tech, but why should anybody be stunned? Tech’s first loss of the season was by 17 points at Kennesaw State, which has gone 0-9 since. Its third loss came by 21 points at Northwestern, which just lost to St. John’s, which was so desperate for a new coach it spoke with Hewitt in March. (Against Tech, Northwestern scored 55 points in the first 20 minutes.)
Now Siena. The Saints played a zone and dared Tech to shoot from the perimeter, something the Jackets had done well in a loss against Syracuse, which plays the nation’s best zone. Tech made eight second-half baskets against Siena, only three of them on jump shots. When you have a team laden with guards, you should be able to make jump shots. Not this night, alas.
Oh, and here’s the really depressing part: Siena’s second-leading scorer on the season didn’t play (bad ankle), and its leading scorer played sick. (Also hurt. Ryan Rossiter caught an elbow in the first half. Still scored 19 points.) And while there have been good Siena teams in years past — the Saints have reached the past three NCAA tournaments — this wouldn’t appear to be one. The victory improved the Saints’ record to 4-6.
As for Tech, it was Loss No. 5 against a schedule that hasn’t been terribly imposing. The Jackets have faced one ranked opponent. The aggregate record of the six teams they’ve beaten is 35-39. Only one ACC team has lost as many as five games already, and at least Wake Forest has the excuse of playing under a new coach. Tech, as we know, is working under the same coach.
By Mark Bradley
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253 comments Add your comment
Big Ol Stinger
December 23rd, 2010
3:27 pm
I’ve followed GT b-ball since 1985, and had season tickets until this year. When they called to ask me why I wasn’t renewing, I told them I wouldn’t buy tickets again until Phew was gone. The guy said “yeah, but we made the tournament last year”. I thought, “big effin deal”, but I didn’t say it. I told him the last five minutes of last years NC State game did it for me. We couldn’t even in bound the basketball.
I’ve got two kids at Tech now, and they don’t even go to the basketball games. They tell me it’s become a campus wide joke.
Now or later, it’s still going to be $7mm. Just get it over with………..please.
Rednecks
December 23rd, 2010
3:29 pm
Obviously, we rednecks look down upon Georgia Tech Yellow Jackettes!!! GT is mostly noted for losing in sports and producing graduates that mostly work as municipal engineers that calibrate traffic lights. Add to that the fact that Techies are just wimpy in general and cry and whine all the time. So naturally, we rednecks have no respect for you!!!
Ted M
December 23rd, 2010
3:30 pm
Fordham’s next for GT at home on the 27th. Are they worried?
Ted M
December 23rd, 2010
3:32 pm
Fordham just beat Kennesaw State by 17.
Big Ol Stinger
December 23rd, 2010
3:33 pm
If they play a basketball game and no one is there to see it, does it still count in the standings?
reality check
December 23rd, 2010
3:36 pm
Being in a distant land there is NO mention of Tech other than going online to the AJC. That Kennesaw loss is good???? Have they beaten anyone else????
Bad condition for the program for sure
Mountain Dawg
December 23rd, 2010
3:37 pm
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of slime bags.
NoCoach Blewitt
December 23rd, 2010
3:43 pm
As always I dropped some $$$ on Tech’s opponent. And as is the case 70% of the time i came away a winner. About the only redeeming quality of Blewitt.
I suggest all Tech fans get something from this bozo and start betting with me and against his hapless bunch of non-coached, there is an I in team, rejects.
Why pay Evans #1 mill when you can just give the worst run organization in the world, MARTA, a few thousands bucks to have a bus take him out. Merry XMAS Paul I hope your wife (you know the one with the nuts in your house) enjoys her new Porsche and expensive jewelry.
GT Alum
December 23rd, 2010
3:46 pm
juvenal-
RDU = Raleigh-Durham, which is the name of the airport in that area, and RDU is the airport code, so the area is known by both. Also known as RTP or Research Triangle Park, because the area around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill is fertile ground for research companies. So, it’s the home of Duke, NC State and UNC, and not far from Winston-Salem.
So, Paul lives in the heart of Tobacco Road, in the part of the country that cares more about college basketball than anywhere else.
BobbyGodd
December 23rd, 2010
3:49 pm
Must have been an unusual slow sports day Mark! How is this news??? We all know that Hewitt should have been fired several years ago. Most felt he was surely gone last year but the nature of his “Golden Contract” simply will not allow Tech to part with him. Tech is not loaded with cash like UGA and simply can’t afford to pay the 5 million needed to buy him out. He will likely be the coach at Tech until he dies which obviously is long after the death of the Tech program.
Paul in RDU
December 23rd, 2010
3:51 pm
GT Alum – You got it!
SuperB
December 23rd, 2010
3:53 pm
Good recruiter — mediocre coach. I hope he NEVER gets fired! Mark Fox is passing Hewitt so fast it would make your head spin!
i think that we have the big men to compete
December 23rd, 2010
3:57 pm
we just dont have a coach who can coach them up nor provide the right x’s n o’s to put them in position to win.
our big guy from last year graduated after 3 years and he thought so little of phew he decided to play pro frisbee rather than play his senior season. this player prob averaged 2-3 points for 3 years and 2-3 rebounds if that.
keep in mind that this player chose gt over syracuse. the same syracuse that is a perennial top 10 program that is coached by boahiem sp? anybody that thinks that he would not have done better playing at syracuse than at gt if nuts.
i gurarantee that coach k would have these same jackets sitting at 10-0 right now especially when you consider the schedule.
we have the players to do well and have for years!
Techsucoffski
December 23rd, 2010
3:57 pm
Don’t worry Jacket Fans, you will forget about Hewitt for a couple of days once GT loses by 35 to Air Force on Monday. Not a good year to be a GT fan!
GT in CT
December 23rd, 2010
4:00 pm
It’s painful to look at the players individually and see one good player after another that have somehow been coached into making a poor team. It seems that with CPH, the whole is almost never greater than the sum of the parts.
Agreed with the comments on his post-game quotes. As usual, there’s no idea of what to do to fix things.
Road Scholar
December 23rd, 2010
4:01 pm
I used to have season tickets but now I even forget to turn on the game. I’m past getting upset! The team comes out and cannot maintain focus for 40 minutes. Shumpert had finally learned to maintain control of his game, but now others have taken up “it’s my turn to shoot…even if I’m covered…so I’ll throw sh@@ up anyhow!” game. Udofia should stay on the bench; all that energy without a clue on how to use it. The new guys need a leader and hewitt isn’t it. The clip of the UGA game says it all.
If you won’t fire Hewitt, let him coach an intermural team!
choices choices
December 23rd, 2010
4:01 pm
Either fire CPH or get more of this. Some choice?
link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgNIULxolI8
NC
December 23rd, 2010
4:05 pm
The only thing that surprises me about a Hewitt team is when they win
BravesFan79
December 23rd, 2010
4:06 pm
Before last season i supported Hewitt because i didnt want to mess up a chance to land the #1 player in tha nation in D. Favors. But i also said in additon to bringing in Favors he needed to bring in a TOP assistant coach like the experienced ones he had in 2004.
This did not happen, Hewitt has shown his stubborness year after year about bringing in coaching help. Think about it, in the NBA alot of the head coches would LOVE to have a ex head coach like a Don Nelson as a assistant. But not Hewiit. Hewitt has a “do it myself” approach! Which might work if he was coach K of Duke,but hes NOT!! He must go, because of his stoborness to bringing in top help. Phil Jackson wouldnt hesitate to sign a top assistant, why cant Hewitt do the same and swallow his pride!??
tech lost to who?
December 23rd, 2010
4:08 pm
since you tech grads make so much money with your degree why dont you just come together and buyout his contract? Oh yea you guys really dont make that much money huh! Man you lost to siena! Tech should just drop down to d-1AA
Ken
December 23rd, 2010
4:10 pm
@UGA Athletic Department: You do realize the AD is an independent entity from the University? Of course you don’t, you’re a knuckle dragging neanderthal that doesn’t realize GT has over $1 billion (that’s 1000 million) of operating funds in its endowment, as where lowly UGA has less than $500 million. GT also maintains an investment fund of over $10 billion for new construction, recruitment of staff, etc., and poor (literally) UGA’s investment fund in under $200 million. By any metric you can find, the pocket books are not comparable. Our AD chooses not to spend the $7 million because it’s a waste. That’s the kind of financial sense that garners great GT a war chest that UGA couldn’t build even with a 100 year head start.
BravesFan79
December 23rd, 2010
4:10 pm
Is anyone else tired of seeing these “athletes” that pretend there guards!?? They cant shoot, cant pass, but hey…they can Dunk and jump really high! Apparently, thats all it takes to play for Hewitt.
Big Ol Stinger
December 23rd, 2010
4:10 pm
Because he’s not going to let “mighty whitey” tell him what to do BravesFan79. That’s not how the president of the BCCA rolls. He’s going to continue to recruit kids who have no business at Tech, continue to watch them not graduate, continue to play pitiful basketball, and continue to lose. And they will lose………..a lot.
its time to do the george o'leary shuffle...
December 23rd, 2010
4:11 pm
when bill lewis was sinking our ship in the 90’s our brilliant ad homer rice put george oleary on the staff. we all know how that worked out.
wjhy not put a former jacket like mark price on our team as coach. we are guard laden so he couldnt hurt. he is a shooting guru. he could gain some experience,,,which many claim is his resume’s achilles heal.
than we have a coach in waiting/training on the staff just like oleary was.
maybe ol paul could put his f’m hugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggge egp aside and learn something from an nba allstar/ shooting legend who has been coached by the best in the world. ya think he knows a few things?
mwh6767
December 23rd, 2010
4:12 pm
Its to the point where we Tech fans just don’t care anymore. Thats the sad part, as much as I love football, as a tech fan basketball has always been just as important. That is def. not the case anymore. What is D-rad gonna do in two years when the new arena opens up? Gonna have a nice new arena with 2000 people in it if Hewitt is the coach. The uga fans come on here and try to make fun of techs basketball team but it just doesn’t effect us because we KNOW the program under hewitt is a joke. Gotta get rid of this guy. Oh and uga fans let your team finish a season with its first winning record since D. Wilkens before you get too full of yourselves.
Nerds Unite
December 23rd, 2010
4:15 pm
To The Grinch: Your comments were thoughtful, but you got the wrong AD. Our former AD, referred to as “Braine-less”, made this dumb deal.
mwh6767
December 23rd, 2010
4:20 pm
The Tech coaching job is an above average job in college basketball. New arena coming online, in one of the top b-ball conferences, really good recruiting base with the atlanta area alone. If tech will just get rid of Hewitt tech will get a good coach. I’m not saying petino, or R. Williams is gonna leave their job to come here but a young, energetic up and coming coach will gladly come here. I bet Mark Fox would have his stuff packed and at tech tonight if it was offered to him!
juvenal
December 23rd, 2010
4:21 pm
thought we were the only folks tagged ourselves like the bags…”ATL”…folks with $ usually practical, don’t give ridiculous proportions to entertainment……..nice area, Paul, thanks GT Alum…
juvenal
December 23rd, 2010
4:23 pm
thought we were only folks tagged selves like bags(ATL)…….
juvenal
December 23rd, 2010
4:24 pm
weird echo(weird is itself a weird word, ON)……
GTZ
December 23rd, 2010
4:24 pm
Seems to me the whole team should be coached by Jarret Jack.
Not a knock against CPJ, but I think he has lost the confidence in himself to get through to his players and the expression, “the bench is a great learning tool” needs to be enforced.
Kindness doesn’t win basketball games…
jay
December 23rd, 2010
4:26 pm
This is so pathetic its not even funny. I don’t even see why talent of any relevance would even play for this Bozo. There is absolutely no excitement in watching this product. When a win is a surprise against non tournament teams how can they expect even to go 500 in the conference. His “athelete” style of ball doesn’t work. No point guard to take over a game when needed, no big man forcing a collapse from the perimeter defense. Just a bunch of 6′4 to 6′8 guys running around fast taking bad shots. Hooey
BravesFan79
December 23rd, 2010
4:26 pm
I gotta idea on how to make GT instatly better, and have for years!
Bring in a TOP ex head coach. Bringing in a Don Nelson, or a Lefty Drisel, or a Bob Knight as a “Special Assistant” under contract for 1 or 2 years, and see how much things change!! Surely that would be a cheaper option than the 7 million to fire Hewitt. But since this was not done years ago, i wont be holding my breath for this to happen. But THAT is the only way to keep Hewitt, and save the program.
GT Alum
December 23rd, 2010
4:26 pm
juvenal -
Well, I give RDU a bit of a pass because it’s used to refer to a region, rather than just a single city. Typing Raleigh-Durham all the time would be a bit cumbersome.
GTZ
December 23rd, 2010
4:32 pm
“running around fast taking bad shots”
I am positive CPJ doesnt coach this way, but the players do it anyway. So what does CPJ do, defends them by saying “we just didn’t knock’em down”
I saw jason morris only played 12 minutes last night and was shooting above 50 %… now tell me why he isn’t playing more.
GT is a team of “shooters” if we aren’t knocking down jumpers we aren’t gonna win. So, my coaching would be play the ones hitting the shots, not play the guy with a memorable last name or upperclassmen.
Coach K, would win with these players… that’s all I am saying!
BravesFan79
December 23rd, 2010
4:34 pm
4 of 22 from the from 3 pt land.. really? Wow, i dont feel so bad that i couldnt dunk anymore, or even touch the rim for that matter. The “athletes” on this team remind me of choosing a team of average white guys that can shoot and play smart, and blowing out a group of football players that think they can ball. I can imagine real teams are lickng their chops thinking about playing a team heavy on guards, but still cant shoot! sad, just sad.
Gordon
December 23rd, 2010
4:38 pm
The picture of Hewitt above must have been taken in the first half. We’ve all seen the picture of Hewitt with his face in his hands near the end of the game. Different arena, different Armani suit, but the same pose.
Associated Press
December 23rd, 2010
4:40 pm
Breaking News! This just in! Ga. Tech loses to Dalton State!
choices choices
December 23rd, 2010
4:41 pm
Here’s what happens with Hewitt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgNIULxolI8
Bob Knight
December 23rd, 2010
4:41 pm
How do you like me now Mark?
BobbyDodd21/20
December 23rd, 2010
4:41 pm
When I saw the headline, I thot fb first,.. and BB has been disappointing for years…anyway, re: fb, this season was no surprise, the Iowa game showed we had no passing game…and once Josh got hurt, turn off the lights…
Turnovers
December 23rd, 2010
4:42 pm
Jayson Morris had a key turnover in a situation at the end of the game when GT was going to tie it up.
Bobby Cremins
December 23rd, 2010
4:44 pm
What about me Mark?
danny
December 23rd, 2010
4:46 pm
UGA’s football team did not stun you Mark.
howard
December 23rd, 2010
4:47 pm
Hewitt continues to drag the Tech basketball program down and Tech continues to drag their feet on getting rid of him. Every year Tech waits to act means they are three years from results. It will now be AT LEAST 2012 before they compete at the top levels…wait another year and 2013. Any wonder why I don’t go to Tech games anymore??
Techmun
December 23rd, 2010
4:54 pm
You guys forget Hewitt is at a disadvantage trying to recruit at Tech. Do you realize how hard it is to find chemical engineers that are also good basketball players?
Seriously, the players he signs must be more interested in hitting on the hot chicks around the Atlanta Universities, than winning basketball games. Why else would they sign with Tech?
JimO
December 23rd, 2010
4:55 pm
1) Fire DRad. He did not hire Hewitt or do his contract, but he hasn’t fired him yet.
2) Do like Dan Synder (Redskin’s owner) did to Jim Zorn – take away his power. That is, give an assistant coach the ability to make the starting lineup and subsitute players and don’t let Hewitt do it. Make it so embarassing to him that maybe GT and PH can come to an agreement over the buyout.
3) Bring back Wack Hyder, but please not Dwane Morrison.
JacketBacker01
December 23rd, 2010
5:01 pm
Money is not the issue here UGA Athletic Department, if it was Tech wouldn’t be spending over $52MM to upgrade athletic facilities including a new indoor football facility. You’re obviously ignorant to endowment funds of the two schools. If UGA should write one of those $7MM checks to build their own indoor football facility, oh yeah, they’ve been trying to raise monies for that the last decade.
GT
December 23rd, 2010
5:02 pm
Hewitt can’t beat the team he came from,Siena. He probably can’t beat the team of the coach he replaced after Cremins was fired, College of Charleston, and Hewitt is playing on the Bobby Cremins floor at Tech, which may be in competition pretty soon with a floor in Charleston. Cremin’s team may very well go to the NCAA this year as the odds on favorite to win the Southern Conference at the moment, not to add, wins in the last year against UNC, Maryland and South Carolina. If so he won’t use up one of the three new positions, since there was always a position for the Southern Conference team, and Hewitt can’t even get one of those. Plus Charleston loves Bobby, they have face mask all through the stands, of the happy Irishman, the crowd is going crazy. We got the second wife that turned out to get fat and have a drinking problem, Charleston is the nerd in high school that ended up with your old wife the homecoming queen, moving in next door to rub it in. Merry Christmas.
Ross
December 23rd, 2010
5:11 pm
Some of this is on Hewitt, but most of it results from the implosion of basketball caused by the early-to-NBA farce that turns colleges into farm teams for the NBA – a place where they do not play defense and the product is so abysmally boring that I can’t get through an entire game. Corporate interests basically ruin everything they touch – the NCAA and NASCAR have a lot of blood on their hands. (Make no mistake, the NCAA is a corporation, in action if not in fact.) Lately I find myself thinking the same way about NCAA football – that’s got a lot of life in it yet but the signs of decline are already clear.
If you had told me 20 years ago that I’d go an entire year, much less a decade, without watching a single Indy or NASCAR race, I’d have asked for some of your stash. I haven’t seen a NASCAR race since the BD era (Before Dale). Restrictor plates destroyed it. I haven’t seen a single NCAA basketball game this year – haven’t read a stat, haven’t given a fig, and as Tech grad, find it hard to believe that I do not care at all what becomes of the basketball team. I’m having more and more trouble caring about the football team as well – and football is my religion. I’m just plain sick of the spoiled kids who play these sports, and I’m sick of the way they play the games. It’s just a massive yawn.