What are people saying about Paul Hewitt's firing?
by BirdGT on Mar 13, 2011 11:58 AM EDT
in Georgia Tech Basketball
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PrintYes, Georgia Tech finally decided to bite the bullet and pay the buyout necessary to send Hewitt packing. That terms of Hewitt's buyout aren't immediately available, but Hewitt is likely to receive up to $7 million from Georgia Tech in the offing.Yahoo! picked up the story a little later than others. They cited our attendance and poor performance as the straw that broke the camel hair jacket's back:
In the end, the financial impact of a half-filled arena for Georgia Tech’s home games overwhelmed the $7.2 million buyout Hewitt will be paid over five years.I'm glad to see the Radakovich is being proactive in his search to find a new coach. I would like to see us pull from the midmajors a young and happening dude that can relate to recruits but has a fresh approach to offensive basketball.
Athletic director Dan Radakovich said at a press conference Saturday that he hopes to hire a coach before the Final Four, which begins on April 2 in Houston.
Jason Kirk of SBN ATL has been killing the coverage of Paul Hewitt. He was the first guy to break the news in the blogosphere. Jason's stream of news has some great info.
The big guns of ATL news aka the Macon Telegraph and the AJC have been diving head first into the firing. Coley Harvey questioned Iman Shumpert about his future to which he received some justfiably vague answers:
"I had heard stuff," Shumpert said, citing season-long rumors. "It sort of caught me off guard (Saturday). Maybe because it’s that it just happened so fast after the game."A recurring theme around a lot of these articles has been Hewitt's disappointment in the Georgia Tech fan base. I find it to be a sad defensive tactic. The fan base gave him a lot (11 years to build a program). He had several soldout seasons but his teams failed to perform consistently. I think most people would agree that college hoop fans don't want to see one and dones. They want to see regular season wins, which translates into higher tourney seeds, which translates into more post season success. Hewitt made it clear all along that he wanted the best players at Tech no matter the length of their stay in school. I think Jeff Schultz points out the obvious here:
So where does the program go from here?
For Shumpert that question cannot be answered just yet. Some time in the next two months, after meeting with Hewitt’s successor, the guard will decide whether he wants to return for his senior season or go on to the NBA. It is a point he will debate frequently internally and with family. There are pros and cons for either decision.
Hewitt was fired as Tech’s basketball coach Saturday. Some of this is about bottom-line results. Hewitt had five winning records and four NCAA tournament berths in his first seven seasons; only one winning record and a tournament appearance in the next four. Even the greatest coaches can go through down periods and survive, but that requires creating a positive atmosphere and giving off signals that a turnaround was imminent.What do you all think? Has Georgia Tech been unfair with the termination of Hewitt? During Hewitt's tenure, he only outperformed Miami, Clemson, and Virginia in terms of ACC wins and losses. During Hewitt's tenure, he was one of only 4 ACC coaches to get to a Final 4. Hewitt dropped more games to Georgie than he won but he also had a winning record against national powerhouse North Carolina. What are your thoughts? Any regrets?
Hewitt didn’t do that. He left little impression that he could do that. Positive energy hasn’t existed around Georgia Tech’s basketball program for the past few years. He would blame critics for that. Critics would blame him. Regardless of where the blame lay, perception was reality.
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First off, this was an excellent piece of journalism
You put together the right threads with the right commentary to lead us to a thought provoking question.
I can only speak for myself but for me last year was the year that broke the camel hair jacket’s back, to use your witty pun-filled term. Last year we knew that some players would be leaving and that they had one chance to jell and put together an awesome season. They performed far below both their potential and the fan’s expectations. After last year when Hewitt refused to acknowledge that this season was going to be tough, saying he thought “we would be fine,” I began to question whether he was realistic about how hard it is to excel at this level in basketball. I began to see past successes as a fluke over which he had little control.
by Atlanta's original team on Mar 13, 2011 12:38 PM EDT reply actions
CPH’s comments on his firing were the perfect example of why he needed to be fired: not only was he not producing results in the W-L columns, but he didn’t get it. He blamed the fans for everything (“cyberbullying”) and never realized that the problem was him not winning. His blaming of the fan base in his post-firing interview was flat-out disrespectful and arrogant, how dare he talk down on our fan base when we gave him ELEVEN YEARS to produce results and he had one of the most dismal ACC records and road records in the conference. A few years ago I thought Hewitt should be fired but still respected him as a person; his comments lately, particularly last season and this season, show him to be simply oblivious (or in denial) and I have lost a lot of respect for him as a person, in addition to the lack of respect I already had for him as a coach.
Hewitt was really thin skinned
but he represented himself well. He was on a lot of committees and was well regarded amongst coaches (high school and college). Also, he ran a clean program and served his players well.
That said, he was a poor offensive coach and I never liked his foul crazy defensive philosophy. I was so tired of him by the second half of last season and am very excited that we get to move on.
Agree on Hewitt and the media
Hewitt allowed Atlanta media, particularly one member, to get to him.
His first five years were about as good as you could ask for. The last six left a lot to be desired.
The program was in a nosedive of support. It was time to move on.
Relative Stability Rankings
The average change in conference wins from season to season during the CPH Era (positive or negative):
1. Clemson 1.3
2. FSU 1.5
3. Miami 2.2
4. NCSU 2.2
5. UVA 2.2
6. Duke 2.4
7. GT 2.5
8. VT 2.8
9. Maryland 3.1
10. BC 3.6
11. Wake 4.1
12. UNC 4.3
UNC had three seasons that saw their team improve or decrease their win total by as many as 8 games. GT’s biggest swing seasons were transitioning from 2008 to 2009 (-5 wins) and 2009 to 2010 (+5 wins), 2005 to 2006 saw us decrease by 4 wins while 2007 netted +4 wins. The biggest swing was by Wake Forest. In 2005, they won 13 ACC games. In 2006, they only won 3.
The average for the conference was a net change of 3 wins/season for every team from 2000-2011.
I write stuff From the Rumble Seat.
Hewitt's biggest issue is not being able to tap the potential of his players
Last season’s team should have performed so much better. A quick exit in last year’s tourneys when we had a very talented team leaves little to be hopeful about after seeing no real replacement of the talent we lost (Lawal, Favors, Peacock). Had they instead made a run to the sweet 16 or better he might had made it through this season’s stinker. But I’ve lost confidence Hewitt can win even with a talented roster.
Of course GT has been fair
Not once has D-Rad hung Hewitt out on a burning limb. He gave his support to Hewitt each year even when it was obvious that he deserved none. Hewitt was the longest tenured coach in the ACC outside of Coach K. Eleven years. That’s a long time in itself, but he’s done nothing with the program since the fames 2004 season. That’s six years of mediocrity and futility, some better than others, some down-right embarrassing.
Some of us have been more patient than others. I gave him up until the end of last year when he squandered a ridiculously talented team. In hindsight, this should have taken place probably three years ago.
"You could spend the next fifteen seconds of your life watching a man and a tiger scream together, or you could be an idiot."
Fact.
And no regrets
Not even for letting him stick around for a few years longer than we should have. Paul Hewitt has faults. His biggest might have been his own self awareness. The 2004 season seemed to give him a false sense of ability. It felt as though that season made him think he could get away with just recruiting. Next to that, he had no ability to indentify holes in his program, mainly with the offense after Warren left. He never coached the players beyond who they were when they arrived on campus. Sure, he put some talent into the NBA, but very few of them have become more than the kid they were when he first recruited them.
All of that is not to say that he is a bad person, simply that he had faults, as we all do. His just happened to make him bad at his job. Paul Hewitt ran a very clean program. Sure, every once in a while one of the kids would have problems with grades, but that’s to be expected at GT. I don’t think anyone has ever seen that as a negative against Hewitt. However, I can’t recall a single incident involving any of his boys off the court. There’s never been a hint of bad recruiting habits either. So for that, I am very thankful.
And then there is the 2004 season. I stated in the post regarding this topic, but I’ll say it again here. I wouldn’t give that back even if it meant Hewitt leaving sooner than now. That was a beautiful year and one I’ll always remember. Thanks for that one too Hewitt.
I wish nothing but the best for Hewitt and on that note, here’s my only piece of advice for him. Go find your next Cliff Warren. You don’t have to do it all and in fact, some would say the sign of a great head coach is the hiring of a great coordinator of your weakness. Good luck and thanks for all the memories!
"You could spend the next fifteen seconds of your life watching a man and a tiger scream together, or you could be an idiot."
Fact.
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