Hewitt defeats Sidney Approval Poll

by BirdGT on Feb 7, 2010 10:00 AM EST Comment 9 comments

Sidney Lowe, Dino Gaudio, and Oliver Purnell are the only active ACC coaches with sub-0.500 records against CPH.

Poll

Do you approve of the job CPH is performing?

Yes

31 votes

No

89 votes

120 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 9 comments |

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Comments

Hewitt Just Not Getting It Done

I know there are a lot of sympathizers out there, but I first want to ask two questions to everyone.

How often after a game can you say that GT played good, fundamental basketball?

How often after watching Duke can you say that they played good, fundamental basketball?

I enjoy Hewitt’s ability to spot talent. I generally think he spot our weaknesses on the court, and be able to speak about them after the game.

Where I think he falls short, is his ability to relay his thoughts to our players, and make them understand what he is saying. The “coaching” aspect of being a coach.

Despite winning a lot this year, I think there are less than five occasions where we’ve played good basketball. Other than that, we get by primarily on talent: our natural rebounding talent, our natural shot blocking talent, our natural athleticism that lets us beat people up and down the court, as well as play decent defense without solid footwork or team movement. We don’t do the fundamentals well: pass, move without the ball, get the ball down low to our big men, limit turnovers. Most Hewitt teams haven’t done that, either.

The problem is either i) Hewitt can’t teach his players or ii) the players Hewitt recruits can’t be taught. It’s telling that Cremins placed three all-star point guards to the NBA, but Hewitt’s best PGs aren’t full time starters. That’s the position the requires the most basketball IQ of any on the court. Even Jack, without a doubt Hewitt’s best PG, spent hours watching film by himself or with assistant coaches we no longer have. Arguably, he learned just as much from himself as he learned from Hewitt.

Watch Hewitt during a game. He is constantly screaming at his players because they aren’t doing what he wants them to do. I think that shows they are confused as to their responsibilities and that Hewitt is ineffective at telling them what he wants to do. This problem has permeated our program for the last decade.

I’m not challenging Hewitt’s recruiting. I’m not challenging his basketball IQ or knowledge. I am challenging his ability to pass that knowledge onto 18 and 19 year olds.

by Howell on Feb 7, 2010 10:36 AM EST reply actions

Comparing to Duke?

I’m in awe that so many people try to measure our team up against the Dukes and UNCs of the world. We aren’t Duke and we aren’t UNC. We don’t have the national championships, the basketball history, the nationwide presence, the world class coaches, the huge fanbase, the money or the recruiting clout that those teams have to offer. Can we compete with them on our good years? Yes. Are we going to suddenly thrust ourselves to their level and become an elite program just because we say we should be able to? No. Duke and UNC didn’t get to where they are overnight or just because they found some diamond in the rough coach. It’s taken years and years to establish their dominance in the sport and there are hundreds of programs that have tried their best and not been able to get to that same level. Would I love to see us at that level? Of course. Do I think its magically going to happen? Of course not. I agree that we could and should improve our offense and our inbounding. I think he’s done a good job getting these kids to play defense and he’s done a heck of a job with recruiting. We’ve been in the top 25 all year long and we’re projected to make it pretty deep into the NCAA tourney. Why are you all so hard on the guy? Will you never accept our program unless we are number 1 seeds every year? He’s had some good years and some bad years and some so-so years, but on the whole I can’t say he’s done a horrible job. This year, I think he’s doing a really good job. Yes we had 2 bad losses to UVA and UGA, but I don’t think those had as much to do with coaching as they had to do with a young team going through some growing pains. I honestly think we have a good team this year and a good coach to teach them, and I would be surprised if we don’t get to the sweet 16. The majority of teams out there would consider that a good year, but from reading these comments over the past few months, it sounds like unless we get back to the championship game none of you will be happy. At a certain point you need to accept the things you can’t change. Yes, we have him on a bad contract and can’t get rid of him if we want to. We can’t change that. But to be down on him and the team doesn’t help anyone. If one of you has the money and would like to buy Hewitt out of his contract and also has the money to pay for a Mike Krzyzewski you can go right ahead and I will support you all the way. Otherwise we need to work with what we have. Be supportive of the team and embrace the fact that we are doing better this year than the past few. Get excited about them and stop focussing all this negativity on them. I’m sure our players read these blogs and feel like they can’t catch a break, even when they do good the majority are saying they aren’t satisfied with this team. And make no mistake, when they see people voting against CPH, they are seeing people voting against them, the players too. I’m excited about this team this year, and I think the sky is the limit for them. I want to watch every game and they are the best team I can imagine representing my alma mater.

If you want to compare them to someone then compare them to UNC. Look at what they are doing with arguably the best coach out there, with the most talent out there, and with one of the largest fanbases out there. They’ve got more talent than we have and we’re doing a whole lot better than they are.

by EvDiggity on Feb 8, 2010 12:08 AM EST up reply actions

Actually

I would contend that we have more talent than UNC this year, and more athleticism than anyone in the ACC.

by Markthejacket on Feb 8, 2010 3:20 AM EST up reply actions

And Duke did suddenly get to an "elite level" with the right coaching hire

They had played good ball through the sixties, but they were not an “elite” program, expected to be in the Final Four almost every year, until they hired Krzyzewski in 1980. From Army.

In fewer than ten years Duke was a fixture on the national stage.

They have the fan base, and they have the money, because Krzyzewski has won.

by CraigT on Feb 8, 2010 5:35 AM EST up reply actions

I know I have been a vocal no,

but none of my comments have compared us to Duke and UNC.

First, you can be supportive of Tech, the players, and this team without “approving of the job Paul Hewitt has done at Tech”

Second, I feel most Tech fans are looking at Hewitt with rose colored glasses all because of one run to the championship game. We didn’t win it all, we haven’t won an acc regular season or tournament title, our best finish in conference is 9-7, our second best is 8-8. Hewitt is 4-6 against some really bad UGA teams.

Third, this season has not YET proven anything. I would agree that there have been some growing pains for a young team and I have no problem with that. However, to hold up this season as the reason he should stay is ridiculous. Nothing has been proven yet. This team could be really good but they are not there yet. We are 5-4 in conference, we lost to UGA again, we almost blew a 16 point lead at home against the worst team in the conference. Sure we won at Carolina, but they suck. I have great hopes for this season myself, but “we are projected to make the sweet 16” is not an argument. Sure that may happen but I am not about to base my vote on something that may happen. Just like the Young/Crittenton team we may lose in the first round as well.

Your main point seems to be, “he hasn’t done a horrible job” Is that really the standard you want to apply? Chan Gailey didn’t do a horrible job either, but as Tech fans we wanted more, we wanted a higher standard and DRAD hired someone who wants to raise the bar.

Finally, sure UNC is having a bad year. In today’s game there is tons of roster turnover and so it is difficult to maintain excellence year in year out. I was willing to cut Hewitt plenty of slack when we went 4-12. Sometimes your point guard leaves and your number one recruit plays baseball. It happens, but if you go year by year through CPH’s career, the highs do not balance out the lows.

by GTwill on Feb 8, 2010 9:29 AM EST up reply actions

Also Howell's point was that we don't play fundamental basketball.

You don’t have to be Duke to accomplish that. Maybe he should have used Bo Ryan at Wisconsin as an example. A team we kill in recruiting every year that plays awesome defense, doesn’t turn it over and has had a ton of success.

by GTwill on Feb 8, 2010 9:32 AM EST up reply actions

Exactly GTwill

My point wasn’t that we should be competing on the level as Duke or “measuring up to” Duke. My point was merely that there are a lot of teams out there that play fundamental basketball, and we aren’t one of them. Heck, pick uga this year. Fox has them playing some pretty decent basketball. They have next to no talent. Wisconsin is another great example.

The easiest comparison is that there are tons of teams out there that routinely outperform their talent. It’s pretty clear that those teams are the ones that are coached well and play solid, fundamental basketball.

Conversely, there’s us. We routinely have one of the more talented teams in the country. Yet we routinely underperform.

And like’s its been said, Duke did get to where they are thanks to a diamond in the rough coach. They didn’t have a decent program as recent as the 80s.

And why am I so hard on Hewitt? Like you say, he’s done a great job recruiting. That’s it. You claim I won’t be happy unless we make it back to the championship game, but that’s just not true. What would make me happy is a perennial tournament team that stands at least a 50% chance at making the sweet sixteen. That’s what we had under Cremins. That’s not what we have under Hewitt. Need I remind you that the reason we ran Cremins out of town was because he couldn’t elevate our program to the next level? Under Hewitt, the program’s gone nowhere but down.

I’ve pointed these stats out here before. In 9 years, Hewitt has only made the sweet sixteen once. He’s only made the tourney 4 years, and failed to get out of the first round twice. Discounting his best season, he’s only 1-3 in tournament play. (Don’t even get me started on his regular season and ACC record).

On the other hand. take Cremins. His best nine consecutive years (which, by the way, were supposed to be the absolute worst under our new coach when we ran Cremins out), were making the sweet sixteen four times (three more times than Hewitt), making the tourney all nine times (as opposed to four under Hewitt – less than 50%). In fact, Cremins made the sweet sixteen (four times) just as often as Hewitt made the tournament (four times) under that same timespan. More importantly, subtracting Cremins best tournament still leaves him 9-8 in tournament play – far better than Hewitt’s 1-3. Over that time, Cremins amassed an ACC record significantly above .500, while Hewitt has amassed one dismally short of .500. And please don’t argue that the ACC has somehow gotten more difficult – Cremins coached during the heyday of the conference while Hewitt has gotten the benefit of watering down the conference schedule with teams we should beat year in and year out.

Significantly, the only way Hewitt stacks up remotely favorable to Cremins is by taking Cremins LAST nine years, i.e. the performance that got him fired. They have eerily similar ACC and overall records, and while Hewitt made it further into the tournament, Cremins at least made the sweet sixteen twice.

To sum – all it would take to make me happy is consistently i) finishing around .500 in the ACC; ii) making the tournament nearly every year, i.e. consistently be a top 40ish team; and iii) making the sweet sixteen nearly every other year, i.e. every other year be a top 15-20 team.

Frankly, I don’t think those demands are even slightly unreasonable. We play in one of, if not the best, basketball conferences, and we’ve got one of the best recruiting hotbeds in the country in our backyard.

What are you happy with EvDiggity? Making the tournament less than 50% of the time? Winning 30-40% of our ACC games? Crapping ourselves every time we play on the road. Averaging 5-3 at home in conference? Having spent the better part of a decade “teaching” young kids how to play basketball? Making the sweet sixteen once in a decade? Merely winning a first round tournament game with two future NBA first rounders?

To me that’s an irrelevant program, and that’s exactly what we have under Hewitt. I don’t expect an elite team, but I’m certainly not unreasonable for expecting us to be a top 40 team annually and a top 20 team every other year.

by Howell on Feb 8, 2010 2:36 PM EST up reply actions

I agree

I think I stated pretty much the same expectations a few weeks ago. We don’t have to win the championship; we just need to be one of those teams that don’t surprise people when they make the Sweet Sixteen. And we need to be in the tournament every year, maybe missing and advancing in the NIT one out of eight.

by CraigT on Feb 8, 2010 4:28 PM EST up reply actions