It has not been a good last few seasons for Coach Paul Hewitt and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket basketball program. Since the 2004-2005 season, the numbers look just plain awful.

2005-2006: 11-17 (4-12)

2006-2007: 20-12 (8-8) NCAA Tournament 1st Round

2007-2008: 15-17 (7-9)

2008-2009: 12-19 (2-14)

Overall: 58-65 (21-43)

This is a critical year for Paul Hewitt. In the last four years the Jackets have zero NCAA tournament wins, and 43 regular season ACC losses. Athlon Sports lists Hewitt as one of the twelve coaches that enter the 2009-2010 season on the hotseat, but help is on the way. In the offseason everything that could go right did go right for Georgia Tech basketball. Derrick Favors a consensus top 5 High School player signed with Georgia Tech. Defensive specialist and upperclassman De’Andre Bell was medically cleared to play after last year’s spinal injury. Finally All-ACC forward Gani Lawal decided to return for his junior season. Let’s take a closer at Georgia Tech.

Biggest Strength:

This might be the best frontcourt in the ACC. Derrick Favors is 6-10 freshman that is already considered one of the better frontcourt players in America. F Gani Lawal was dominant at times last year, but wore down late in the year should benefit from the arrival of Favors. Teams won’t be able to double team Lawal as they did much of the time last year. 6-8 Forward Zachery Peacock is a solid player that I think is better when he stays in the paint, but he is capable of hitting the mid-range jumper and the occasional 3. Brad Sheehan is a 7-0 C, who can provide quality minutes in the paint.

Biggest Weakness:

My first inclination is to say where is the perimeter shooting going to come from? G Iman Shumpert is a scorer and is talented, but I wouldn’t consider him a sharp shooter. He did hit 3 3 ptrs in Georgia Tech’s first exhibition game though.  Lance Storrs has some 3-point ability, but he’s not consistent. Tech’s best hope for a 3-pointer shooter might be highly touted freshman Mfon Udofia. Udofia had a reputation as a good shooter in High School. Maurice Miller has shown glimpses of being a capable shooter as well. There’s potential outside, but it’s all unproven or inconsistent at this point.

Final Analysis:

Overall this is a team that features several former McDonald Americans and a slew of top 100 High School recruits. De’Andre Bell’s return gives Georgia Tech’s it’s best perimeter defender since Mario West was there. Hewitt has underachieved as a head coach the last several years. It can be argued he hasn’t coached up a team since the 2003-2004 final 4 team. He’s never made the NCAA’s without a dominant PG, and will have to figure out how to this year without one. Shumpert is a more natural shooting guard. Maurice Miller is coming off injury, and Udofia as we said is only a freshman. In an ACC devoid of major talent in the bottom half of the conference the Jackets should be able to navigate their way to a .500 conference record and 18-22 regular season wins. If the outside shooting can come together, this team has enough frontcourt talent to win 25 games and make a sweet 16.

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