Paul Hewitt, we have given up on you
by Winfield Featherston on Mar 8, 2010 8:00 AM EST
31 comments
Georgia Tech basketball is in a state of disarray and Paul Hewitt has lost all control of what little he had remaining over the squad. The fanbase is apathetic and has turned its back on the program. Virginia Tech, if not the final straw, was one of the last for the ticket holders. Hewitt was booed during pre-game and the AMC was empty during the final minute and a half because we have given up. Too many times I have been asked: "is it bad that I want to see us lose so that it's yet another strike against Paul Hewitt?" I know I shouldn't but I want to reply: "No".
The future is in question. Don't believe the "young team" excuses. Gani Lawal himself: "We’ve got a veteran team. I don’t buy that [about being "young"]. Yes, we’ve got young guys, but we’re a veteran team." We were experienced. We were talented. The season opened again with the infamous word, potential. What we didn't get was the realization and production of that potential. What we didn't get was coaching.
The worst thing to happen to Paul Hewitt was Paul Johnson. With Chan Gailey swimming in mediocrity it was easy for Hewitt to maintain the basketball status quo as long as he did something that made it seem like we were doing something worthwhile. We never looked at the basketball numbers too deeply because we were all grumbling about the king sport of football. And now, football has begun to meet expectations and our gaze has turned to Paul Hewitt, the man who can't win on the road and has a continuous rollover contract with an Athletic Association already in debt.
One time, ONE TIME! have we had a winning conference record in TEN YEARS, and have never been a Top 3 seed in the conference tournament. In 2003-2004, we went 9-7. That season is quickly becoming an infamous historical fluke. Hewitt may be the recruiter, but he has lost his handle on being the COACH. I can throw out more stats, more numbers, and sub-par records he has accumulated but it will just make me angry and sad at our completely helpless situation. At this point, I don't even think Bird can disagree with me: PAUL HEWITT HAS TO GO.
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we've got a tough draw
in ACCT. UNC, then MD if we win…
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
if we win...
I will go to the MD game. Greensboro isn’t too far from here.
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
I thought that was an easy draw
We have UNC who we’ve beaten twice this year, which shouldn’t be too difficult to beat again. Then we have a Maryland team that we very nearly beat on their home court, then we would have Clemson, FSU or (unlikely) NC State. Of these teams I’d be most concerned with FSU, as we don’t seem to match up with them well at all, but if they get knocked off by Clemson I wouldn’t be surprised if we make the championship game.
You guys should take care of UNC. Maryland is a tough draw though.
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"The worst thing to happen to Paul Hewitt was Paul Johnson."
Really good point.
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What happened?
The team was playing pretty good mid-season…playing good D, had a few tough losses. But these last two games I see a team that is not playing within a scheme, just guys doing there own thing. Schumpert just hoisting up shots…Oliver comes off the bench and starts doing the same thing (but not shooting 3s). They are just out of control. No perimeter defense what so ever.
Ive tried to support Hewitt all season but if we are one and done in the ACC toruney then I’m on the “Hewitt Must Go” wagon as well. Why would the next Derrick Favors come here? So Hewitt can ruin his game. I’m sick to my stomach to see all the talent on this team and a 19-11 record and 7-9 in the ACC. Hewitt can’t recruit enough good players to overcome his inability to coach.
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How about the women?
I think Hewitt should realize that we may be on the fast track to becoming one of those schools with a strong WBB program but a pitiful MBB program. Coach Joseph has her ladies going to the NCAAT again (almost surely). They made the semis in the ACCT and hung with Dook much of the game. This is a program that had never made the tournament before she got here, and now it’s becoming an expectation that they win 20+ games. Now I think people who pay attention are expecting them to win more than one game in the tournament. In the meantime, GT MBB, which used to be worth something, may very well miss the tournament AGAIN.
Joseph's records over her tenure
2003-2004 14-15 (5-11)
2004-2005 12-14 (4-9)
2005-2006 14-25 (2-12)
2006-2007 20-11 (10-6)
2007-2008 22-9 (7-7)
2008-2009 21-9 (8-6)
2009-2010 (current) 23-9 (8-6)
Coach Joseph doesn’t have to deal with “one-and dones” but I think this shows that she’s gotten her recruits in and she now has her team installed.
by Winfield Featherston on Mar 8, 2010 10:35 AM EST up reply actions
Thanks for the stats
I was too lazy to look them up. As far as one-and-dones goes, I think Hewitt should look at recruiting in the way some of the other programs do that recruit student-athletes who want an education and to play for more than one year there. Or, once he gets them, help them see the benefits of doing so. Get some solid but not #1 recruit type talent and develop it. Perhaps that’s another thing he should try to learn from CPJ.
by NoDak_jacket on Mar 8, 2010 12:51 PM EST up reply actions
I have a conspiracy theory.
It doesn’t hold a lot of water but basically it says that after the 03/04 year, when we had a full TEAM, Hewitt got so desperate to get back to that level that he ended up abandoning all previous recruiting practices and focused on getting the best individual talent he could get. Thus, the reason for the drop off.
by Winfield Featherston on Mar 8, 2010 1:58 PM EST up reply actions
The Tech women had been in the NCAA tournament before Joseph.
Their first appearance was in 1993. They lost to Northwestern in Evansville. I was at that game.
by CraigT on Mar 8, 2010 1:38 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
OK, so it was winning they'd never done.
Looks like they’d made it in 2003, too, losing in the first round. I’m still thinking going from 2 times in 29 years (both losses) to four years in a row (fingers crossed) with wins in two of the three trips that have happened are headed in the right direction. Blewitt on the other hand, well, no comment.
44th in new RPI
Big plunge – hard to see making the NCAAs with a one and done ACCT performance.
Y'all sound a lot like State fans...
…at the end of the Herb Sendek era. Apathy, smattering of boos, etc.
I’m sure y’all see our situation differently, but that’s how it feels to a State fan looking in.
All Wolfpack, all the time.
yeah that's my worry exactly
We get rid of Hewitt and get a Sidney Lowe-type coach… Or we pull a UVA and go into this steady state of decline because we can’t just leave the coach alone.
I spun around... and there I was, face-to-face with a six-year old kid. Well, I just threw my guns down and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass.
Hewitt will never get the program where it should be
I am convinced that it was the Hewitt + Cliff Warren combo that led to Siena’s and Tech’s (early) success. Hewitt as recruiter, Warren as the X’s and O’s guy. Since Warren left Hewitt has been too stubborn to get a quality bench coach and he can’t do it himself. Warren has done a great job coaching up lesser talent at Jacksonville.
The program still has enough of a draw for Tech to recruit a top-notch replacement, if they don’t let Hewitt run it further into the ground. Lesson should be learned from the Cremins era – Bobby was allowed to stay too long (should have let him go to USC) and Tech ended up with a lesser coach (Hewitt) because of it.
What will we look like next year?
This season doesn’t seem to have helped our underclassmen. Derrick Favors is Scout.com’s 16th ranked Center, Gani Lawal is their 17th ranked Power Forward, and nobody else is even in the top 25 position rankings on the site. Is there a possibility that we could get the majority of our roster back next year (less Peacock and Bell)? If he can get Favors or Lawal or any of the others to stay that would greatly enhance our prospects for next year… would this be enough to sway any of you to his side? It seems to me that our point guard play is improving and if we could keep Favors or Lawal with our current group of guards we could be looking at a solid team next year. Also, assuming we come up with the $8Million or so that it would cost to get rid of him, plus the salary for a new coach (~$2Million/yr), who would we grab as our new coach?
Favors and Lawal
They might be the 16th and 17th rated C and PF based on performance, but not on potential. And the NBA drafts players based on potential.
Favors is without a doubt a lottery pick, so I would find it very unlikely that he returns.
Lawal flirted with the NBA last year. Very rarely do you see a guy that was that close to leaving after his sophomore year stay for 2 more years.
Although I’m not a GT fan, I’m a fan of the ACC and have been since I started watching basketball. I will watch GT play random opponents (Dayton) because I like basketball that much. So although I’m an outside observer, I’ve seen a lot of GT basketball games over the past 10 years. Hewitt seems to be a terrible teacher of fundamentals. With 2 very good big men, the game should be very simple. If GT played from the inside out on every possession they would be very tough to guard because they have quality shooters to compliment their big men. I don’t think there is anyway you can let Hewitt stay with the way he has been underperforming for years.
How far us the AA in red ink?
Do we even have the money to get rid of him?should we change our chant of “Fire Paul Hewitt” to “Retire Paul Hewitt”?
by Jeffgt00 on Mar 8, 2010 12:34 PM EST via mobile reply actions
…the AMC was empty during the final minute and a half because we have given up.
I was just watching on TV, but it looked pretty darn empty at the start, too.
"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein
Yeah, it started to fill up halfway through the first half. Attendance was pitiful for the start.
Doesn’t help when people were leaving as soon as the second half started, though.
by Eric Scott Sembrat on Mar 9, 2010 8:05 AM EST up reply actions
Who holds the most losses ever in the ACC?
With 101 acc losses, CPH has to be climbing the board pretty fast.
by Jeffgt00 on Mar 8, 2010 5:21 PM EST via mobile reply actions
ugh
we have to axe him as soon as this season is over. do it quick too and pick up some new up and coming coach that will take a small contract
by The_GT_LineageX11 on Mar 8, 2010 6:51 PM EST reply actions
That's a lot of money
The first thing they have to do is quit renewing the contract, and that has to be done by March 15th, before the NCAA or NIT tournament.
Agreed
From an opposing fans point of view, i have to agree with you guys. Every year we look at the GT game and say to ourselves, man they’ve got some talent. And many of those games we’ve been able to pull out. I think we owe a lot of those to our savior and hero Gary Williams. The whole one and done recruiting method is obviously not working for Coach Hewitt. Rather then recruit the best talent, recruit a TEAM that will learn to play together and mesh together.
This Terp kinda wondered when this would happen
I have nothing against this man but wow would I love to have your level of recruit on Maryland year in and year out. My god. CPH seems to do so very little with the treasure trove of players he always seems to have. I would sorta hope Gary Williams grabs him as an assistant just to tap his recruiting prowess, but once the season starts get him the H outta the way.
Just hope he doesn't make a run in the ACC tourney and win a game or two in the Big Dance
Then you’ll be stuck in the Dennis Felton zone where a coach clearly deserves to be fired but because he fluked his way into the tournament can’t be. That is a sad lonely place, my friends. Trust me, you don’t want to go there. It is okay to root against your coach at a certain point once you realize the program is better off without him.
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