Archive for March, 2010

I’m not going to lie…I was hoping Coach Hewitt would take the St. John’s job.

I wasn’t hoping he would leave because I dislike him. I think he’s a stand up guy and have no ill will for him.

I just think it was the perfect time for both Hewitt and Georgia Tech to part ways with both saving some face and moving forward to new starts.

Financially this would have been the best solution for the Jackets. They would have avoided the big buy out of Hewitt’s contract and its likely St. Johns would have stepped up and helped Hewitt pay any money owed the Institute for leaving.

But alas…that didn’t happen.

So what is Tech left with?

The status quo…pretty much.

A head coach who is a great guy and who can recruit, but who has shown a consistent habit of underachieving in conference play and against Tech’s main rival.

This is sort of like when Jim Donnan was at UGA and Tech fans really, really wanted the Dawgs to keep him around.

Since Coach Hewitt has elected to stay here in Atlanta, let …

Continue reading Thoughts on Coach Hewitt Staying »

The Jackets defeated Oklahoma State by hitting their free throws and playing good defense.

24 of 25 free throws is excellent…and the primary reason the Jackets are playing basketball tomorrow. If they’d shot their typical 16 of 25 effort they’d have lost that game by something between 5 and 10 points.

Kudos to the Jackets for making the most of their trips to the charity stripe.

They dominated the boards and held a 15 rebound advantage over the Cowboys.

And they held James Anderson, one of the best scorers in the country, to just 11 points in 32 minutes.

It was a quality win against a quality opponent. And it was indicative of the type of performance that Tech fans desperately wanted to see during the regular season when we were losing to UGA and ACC opponents down the stretch.

The Jackets still had some turnover issues and had some head scratcher moments at times with strange timeouts and some awkward fast break decisions. But that was the type of basketball they …

Continue reading Jackets Survive and Advance »

I’ve been critical of Coach Hewitt in my last few blogs. Rightfully so, I think, and with reason. This team obviously has the talent to perform at a high level. Yet somehow we witnessed another losing record in the ACC regular season.

But I also have to give credit when its due. And tonight its definitely due…

Hewitt has been coaching with a chip on his shoulder the past few days and his team has fed off that energy and focus. As a result, we’re looking at an ACC Final match up against Duke tomorrow afternoon.

Somehow, this Jackets team has persevered and managed to rattle off three wins without playing a complete 40 minutes in any of them. Somehow, this team has managed to survive and advance. And really, that’s all that counts at this point. Those of us who remember the 2004 run will remember how that team gathered up a series of unlikely and dramatic wins en route to the national title game.

But make no mistake…the Jackets must play a complete game against Duke to …

Continue reading Credit where its due, Jackets in Final! »

If Paul Hewitt is reading this, he may want to stop now before his fragile sensibilities are injured any more than they already have been during previous “cyber bullying” here at the AJC.  And yes…those are apparently his words, they’re not mine.

Check out Mark Bradley’s blog if you don’t believe me…

In the past I’ve been called a Pollyanna and berated for sticking with coaches longer than I probably should have. This was most evident with Chan Gailey. I stuck with Gailey longer than most because I saw the challenges and the successes and the improvement in recruiting. He was ultimately done in by the UGA losses and his inability to develop a quarterback at the collegiate level.

I’ve stuck with Paul Hewitt perhaps longer than that…in spite of the fact that Hewitt has better tools to compete with that Gailey did. He had a national title run in 2004 that has paid recruiting dividends and he’s had absolutely no lack of talent. I was a huge Hewitt supporter as my NCSU and UGA …

Continue reading Another Losing ACC Record… »