No longer at Tech, Paul Hewitt is aiming really, really high
One Paul to another: "Good luck in future endeavors." (AJC photo by Johnny Crawford)
Faithful correspondent Wayne Brown of Tuskegee, Ala., passed along this nugget, and I must admit it made me laugh. The third paragraph of a Rivals post by Jeff Eisenberg contains this quote:
“There’s only one thing left for me to do in college basketball, and that’s try to win a national championship.”
The speaker? Paul Hewitt, formerly of Georgia Tech, now of George Mason.
I could be snide and say something like, “Well, you could also try to beat Georgia in Athens,” but I’ll let you read the article for yourselves. But I warn you in advance: There’s another quote that will give you pause.
Hewitt: “We had a pretty good run there at Georgia Tech in terms of player development.”
OK, enough from me. Read the article. You’ll enjoy it.
By Mark Bradley
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109 comments Add your comment
Gordon
October 20th, 2011
1:20 pm
Hewitt Fan,
In Gregory’s last 6 years at Dayton, he made 4 post season appearances to Hewitt’s 1, and won as many NCAA games (1) as Hewitt did in the same time. He also made the NIT 3 times and won it once. He won more games in the last 4 years (97) that Hewitt did in the last 6 (93) with FAR less talent. I wish Hewitt well, but the results speak for themselves. I’m looking forward to the new Gregory era at Georgia Tech.
Hewitt Fan
October 20th, 2011
1:29 pm
Gordon
October 20th, 2011
1:20 pm
Bottom line is 5 years losing record in the Atlantic ten, when Purnell’s players left, he had only 1 year over 500 in the ATLANTIC TEN..Hewitt took Cremins players to the NCAAS his first year..CBG was clearly on the hot seat at Dayton, The fans were jumping in the street when GT hired him!.. his offense was terrible, defense average and unlike Hewitt, he teams were veterans teams!..So now that he is in the ACC, and will have to beat the opposing team and the refs, I think that Gt just made the worst hire in college basketball in the last 20 years..Roberson asked him about the ACC refs and based on his answer i think he will fully accept getting cheated game after game…If you don’t believe me read it for yourself!
AJC: Lots of coaches come to ACC and get a whiff of Tobacco Road officiating and realize they can’t win, what makes you think differently?
BG: I don’t have any opinion on that because I haven’t gone through it. You are talking about two programs whose teams are very, very good. Teams that are good get the benefit of the doubt. I think it has more to do with how good they are more than anything else.
Okefenokee
October 20th, 2011
1:31 pm
Hard to mistake Wes Durham’s WIDE-LOAD profile in the background.
His butt must weigh 250 lbs. all by itself.
Gordon
October 20th, 2011
1:44 pm
Hewitt Fan,
Hewitt had 10 years out of 11 of non-winning records in the ACC (!!!) and you are worried that Gregory had 2 losing records (6-8, 7-9) in the Atlantic 10 in 8 years? Gregory’s second worst year in the Atlantic 10 (7-9) was as good or better than 7 of Hewitt’s 11 years in the ACC at Tech.
Hewitt DID do a good job the first 5 years at Tech. But then his top assistants left and he was exposed for what he is: a good recruiter who can’t coach. There is a long term record here, not one off-year. He had 5 losing seasons in 11 years at Tech, while Gregory had one in 8 years at Dayton.
By the way, Gregory has already signed a 4-star recruit and is in the mix for a 5-star so your statement about him not being able to get talent to Tech has already been disproven. And maybe signing a few 3 and 4 stars and coaching them up might work out better than signing 5-stars that leave after 1 year.
Ted M
October 20th, 2011
2:04 pm
“There’s only one thing left for me to do in college basketball, and that’s “TRY” to win a national championship.”
“TRY”…Seems right to me, it never appeared he “tried” to at GT.
At some point along the the way Hewitt said something like; His job was to advance black men.
IL Jacket
October 20th, 2011
2:05 pm
KBP, thanks for the post!
RambleOn, Tech has moved on and we should also. Hewitt did not destroy Tech’s basketball program any more the Bobby Cremins did. Let’s try to take the high road and look forward to success under CBG.
Always a Jacket
October 20th, 2011
2:29 pm
Please remove Hewitt’s picture from the GT sports page
All I'm Saying Is....
October 20th, 2011
2:49 pm
AMEN TO WHAT “NICK” SAID AT 8:16 A.M.
YOU ARE A CLASSLESS, MORON, BRADLEY, ON THIS MATTER AND CLEARLY SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW WHEN TO TURN THE PAGE.
Dontavius Supremo
October 20th, 2011
3:05 pm
As for Bradley vs. Hewitt: Who still has a job in Atlanta, and who doesn’t?
home.cooking
October 20th, 2011
3:08 pm
Mark,
The guy is gone! You are still attacking the guy. Everyone can see its personal for you.
I wonder will you have the same scrutiny for Brian Gregory that you had/have for Paul Hewitt.
Also, Coach Hewitt didn’t lie, he did place a lot of kids in the NBA.
dap01
October 20th, 2011
3:10 pm
Hewitt was a bad, bad, bad coach. You can’t reinvent history.
Hewitt Fan
October 20th, 2011
3:13 pm
Gordon,
“Gregory’s second worst year in the Atlantic 10 (7-9) was as good or better than 7 of Hewitt’s 11 years in the ACC at Tech.”
Regardless, CBG coached at Dayton with a very good fan base and all of the resources needed to win in a weak conference..Instead the guy made the tournament once with his own players….and made it to the Big Dance 2 times overall! Hewitt made the tournament 5 times out of 10 in a better conference..Add the ACC refs and you have a conference that is hard to win in..Coaches do not make it in the ACC, the ACC is filled with new coaches right now….if the ACC refs would have called the damn games right, Hewitt would have won at least 5 to 8 ACC titles…Favors never stood a chance in the ACC, the refs called cheap foul after foul!..the year we had Bosh was very sad, NO CALLS!..Even when GT made the championship game, Gt barely had a winning record in conference…once they got away from the ACC, they almost won the whole thing!
Gordon
October 20th, 2011
3:39 pm
Hewitt Fan,
“Hewitt made the tournament 5 times out of 10 in a better conference”
Exactly. Do you think it is easier to get a team in from the Atlantic 10 or the ACC? In the 6 years Hewitt didn’t get Tech into the NCAA’s, he had losing seasons in 5 of them! Think about that. With all the creampuffs Tech and every other school in the ACC plays, he had FIVE losing seasons.
Your statement that Hewitt would have won 5 to 8 ACC titles if the refs were better is the dumbest thing I have ever read. How do you explain Gary Williams, Leonard Hamilton, Bobby Cremins, and many others who have had success in the ACC that aren’t Duke and North Carolina? How do you explain Hewitt’s early success at Tech? I explain it by saying there are guys who can coach and guys who can’t. Hewitt had Deane Keener and Cliff Warren early on doing the coaching (also at Siena) while he did the recuriting and it worked. Then they left and the bottom fell out.
Hewitt had one magical two week run in the spring of 2004, and parlayed that into being the most overrated coach I’ve ever seen. We’ll see what he does at George Mason. Maybe at the mid-major level he can do well assuming he has a decent staff, but he’s proven he can’t get it done consistently at the highest level. As I said earlier, I wish him well.
Mick
October 20th, 2011
3:59 pm
Mark you’re bigger than that, let it go.
more things that phewitt left unfinished....
October 20th, 2011
4:14 pm
-win an acc tourney game
-win an acc tourney championship
-finish in the top half of the acc
-win an acc regular championship
-learn how to couch the last 5 minutes of a game
-beat uga at uga
-beat uga more than they beat you
-recruit some high character blue chippers
-giver your players individual instruction on how to pass a class and stay in school.
and ta da….
admit that you took gt for a ride and return the 7 million.
NATS
October 20th, 2011
4:16 pm
Too bad it wasn’t his goal when he coached at Tech.
Born2Buzz
October 20th, 2011
4:17 pm
MB, I like your column but I have to agree you need to let it go.
I wasn’t a fan of Hewitt’s at the end either, but I hope he is successful at GM. Not sure he will be for obvious reasons.
And Gordon, you cannot argue with Hewitt Fan. He is convinced that Hewitt was undone by the ACC refs and it had nothing to do with his coaching abilities.
GTAAA vp 77
October 20th, 2011
4:20 pm
Hewitt recruited as well as Cremins. He just coached like he was in AAU instead of the ACC. While Cremins sometimes failed because he rode his “horses” to exhaustion, Hewitt had to play everybody every game. His ridiculous cycling of players never let anybody get “hot” or “in the zone”. And his poor use of time-outs was legendary.
Anthony Morrow was a lights out shooter in high-school before Hewitt destroyed his confidence and game. He walked on in the pros and promptly dropped 35 in his first outing and was one of the highest percentage 3-pt shooters his first year. If Hewitt had concentrated on winning games instead of the hearts of his second string GT would have been a lot better off.
hey home cooking
October 20th, 2011
4:21 pm
if phewitt’s main goal was to put players in the nba than he should have coached a semi pro league.
we payed him 30 +/- million bucks over 10 so that we could become a laughing stock both on and off the court.
if he did prepare a few “cant miss players” for the nba then that is all he did for gt. he certainly did not teach them how to graduate. he certainly did not teach them much about being a good person not a ME person.
Born2Buzz
October 20th, 2011
4:24 pm
MB, I like you and your column but I have to agree, just let it go.
I wasn’t a fan of Hewitt’s at the end but I wish him nothing but success at GM
And Gordon, you can’t argue with Hewitt Fan. He is convinced that the ACC refs were the sole reason for Hewitt’s failures, not his coaching abilities. And no amount of arguing will change that.
Heels Rock and Rule
October 20th, 2011
4:26 pm
UGa and Tech better do something quick in football, because basketball is just around the corner and you know what that means in the state of Georgia. “It’s 32 degrees and cold as a dog down on Peach Tree Street”.
NYJacket
October 20th, 2011
4:28 pm
Well the guy certainly thinks a lot of himself!!!!
Kapoonka
October 20th, 2011
4:58 pm
Hewitt is a class act and Mark my man….. move on. There’s not really anything you can can write that will impact him, his ability to sleep at night or his bank account, so….let’s talk about relevant things and current coaches. How bout’ them Hawks?……Oh yeah B-ball is on hold…..How bout them Thrashers?…Ooops..no more hockey team. Dang Braves choked or we could possibly be watching them. For now stick with the iffy Falcons and over rated Dawgs…in a minute there won’t be a need for sports reporters in the A, so Mark be nice……
BG
October 20th, 2011
5:16 pm
Tech sucks!
Matt from MN
October 20th, 2011
5:45 pm
CPH, you will NOT be missed. You poor, poor delusional man.
jayv44
October 20th, 2011
5:47 pm
Blewitt is a joke and never should have coached at Georgia Tech, to not have but one good seasons with the talent that he had is horrible, flat out he doesn’t know how to coach a team…
Skeezix
October 20th, 2011
5:54 pm
Mark: Unreal. The man is out of touch with reality. In total self denial.
Michael Jordan, NBA Owner
October 20th, 2011
5:57 pm
Bryant Gumbel: I understand you called me a slave owner. Where can we meet so I can personally kick your butt?
Illini
October 20th, 2011
6:02 pm
Maybe I read the quote wrong but it sounds like coach Hewitt didn’t ‘try’ to win a championship at GT if that is the one thing he hasn’t accomplished in his coaching carreer. It would be one thing if he said that he wanted to ‘win’ a national championship, but to ‘try to win’ one is something every coach should do. Maybe that explains his results at GT, he didn’t try to win the national championship but was only worried about his players developing.
Dawg48
October 20th, 2011
6:13 pm
And mark called granthem classless? Ajc needs to change up some things as well! The rest of America has reporters look what we get!
Delbert D.
October 20th, 2011
7:19 pm
At least Gregory is not going to be an agent for the Atlanta Celtics AAU-to-NBA scheme.
Paul Hewitt
October 20th, 2011
7:34 pm
There you go again Mark. Saying negative things about me. Now I’ll never be able to be successful at George Mason. Because of you and all those ajc bloggers who say negative things about me, I’ll never win a NCAA championship. So why should I try?
fuzzybee
October 20th, 2011
7:39 pm
Hewitt is a great salesman. That is how he got those great recruits, landed the huge contract, and kept his job for so many years.
Unfortunately, the guy walking the floor at the Ford dealership would be just as good a coach.
wes
October 20th, 2011
8:04 pm
“Hewitt Fan” = full retard.
You never go full retard, son!
Hewitt is just a big whiny blowhard and a jerk
October 20th, 2011
8:09 pm
Take all the jabs you want at Hewitt, he earned every one of them, the whiny jerk.
wardo
October 20th, 2011
8:29 pm
in a word…Loser. Buckle your seat belts George Mason fans. You will be going down hill at a rapid pace very soon.
Talk about a delusional post...
October 20th, 2011
8:39 pm
Hewitt Fan
October 20th, 2011
3:13 pm
….if the ACC refs would have called the damn games right, Hewitt would have won at least 5 to 8 ACC titles…
——–
Hewitt was GT coach for 11 years. In 05-06 GT went 4-12; 08-09 they were 2-14 and in 10-11 they were 5-11. I guess they would have won the ACC in the other 8 years. Apart from 00-01 when Duke won the NCAA beating MD in the final. Or maybe 01-01 when MD somehow overcame the noted Duke-UNC-refs conspiracy and also won the NCAA championship. Or maybe 04-05 when a UNC team loaded with NBA first round draft picks won the NC. Then again there was 08-09 when another UNC team loaded with talent won the NCAA championship. And of course, in 09-10 another Duke team won the NCAA championship.
And in 10-11, how the heck would GT have beaten FSU, since FSU had Chris Singleton, from the MIGHTY ATLANTA CELTICS, on the team?
K
October 20th, 2011
8:50 pm
I actually enjoyed your take on Hewitt’s comments, Mark.
Made me laugh!
GT FAN4
October 20th, 2011
8:55 pm
Does anyone remember that Paul Hewitt is the only coach to lead GT to the national championship game?
Paul in NH
October 20th, 2011
8:59 pm
I read the article on Rivals and don’t have a problem with most of what Hewitt said. He is trying to sell kids on why they should play for him at George Mason and the comment on player development should really have been “We had a good run there at Georgia Tech in terms of putting players in the NBA”.
I have a problem with his last quote:
“…them you can help them develop their talent so they can earn a living playing the game of basketball, which has been a point of emphasis for me and my staff over the years…”
There is much, much more to college sports than preparing a couple of players for the pros. The quote does help explain why GT’s APR under Hewitt was so low that they lost scholarships – scholarships that may have helped non-NBA quality players from poor backgrounds go to college.
Shawdaddy
October 20th, 2011
9:32 pm
Mark: no comment on all the posts calling out your “small” behavior beating this dead horse? You’re usually pretty interactive on here. Maybe you realize how petty you are being? Hope so. Get back to writing thoughtful pieces about then here and now.
ACC refs = THE MAN
October 20th, 2011
10:31 pm
why wasn’t Hewitt more successful at Tech? According to ‘Hewitt Fan’ it was THE MAN (a.k.a. ACC refs). Rrrrrriiiiiiiiiggggghhhhttttt …. its the refs’ fault that Hewitt’s teams had losing conference seasons 10 out of 11 years!!!
Chuck Allison
October 20th, 2011
10:43 pm
Many other schools benefitted from Hewitt’s time at Tech. They learned not to write ridiculous contracts that demotivate coaches and allow them to coast on fat cat salaries without doing their job.
Leave Hewitt alone? Sure, as long as we never hear from him again or see his face.
bobby
October 20th, 2011
10:48 pm
come on Mr. Bradley don’t you think he was aiming high at tech if you think he was’nt then you wrong.
Franklin
October 20th, 2011
10:56 pm
That is me between Coach Johnson and Hewitt. I am smiling because I just took Hewitt’s amex and heading to Vail for some skiing.
roger
October 20th, 2011
10:57 pm
you ripped gailey now you rip hewitt Paul should be fortunate of your evaluation you are never right!!!!!!!!!!
Inoalittle
October 20th, 2011
11:43 pm
I have sat at many Tech games and watched Tech freeze like a deer in headlights, when playing against a 2-3 zone…time after time after time…no kidding, a 2-3 zone.
arizona cat
October 21st, 2011
4:33 am
He’s no Lute Olson, but there was only one.
Larry
October 21st, 2011
4:42 am
Mr. Bradley,
Thanks for the forgiveness. Moving forward, I promise to take my prozac at least one hour prior to posting.
Best regards,
Larry
bcall
October 21st, 2011
5:37 am
continue to give him hell Mark,you know if a crook destroyed something and steals
money he’d go to jail,the difference is HEWITT didn’t wear a mask