Well Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt pulled in a top 10 recruiting class for this season. A team that features 3 McDonald All-Americans and a slew of top 100 HS players promised a season that would be different than the disasters of recent years. Early results over weak opponents gave the indication the Jackets might be improved. In their first ACC home effort against a good Florida State squad, the Jackets in a 66-59 loss proved that even though the year is different, the result is the same.
Every problem that was evident in recent years was on display tonight– a lack of offensive movement, poor rebounding technique, and untimely turnovers. The Seminoles went zone against the Jackets, and other than Zach Peacock, no Tech player could come up with a big shot. Mfon Udofia has potential, but against ACC competition, he at times looked overwhelmed by the Noles defense. The Jackets lack a player that can get to the basket off the dribble. They haven’t had a player who can do this with any consistency since Javaris Crittenton was in Atlanta. Is it too early to write off the Jackets’ season as another underachieving one, but this was about as devastating an early season loss as the Jackets could have.
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I fully agree with the comments. Tech will be what it has been for the last five years as long as “Chan” Hewitt is the
coach. Eight of Hewitt’s 9 seasons have been anything from mild
to major disappointments. Only one season turned out better than expected, but we all know about the Blind Squirrel.
Even the year before our NCAA runner-up finish, GT had
a crappy 17-16 record, in spite of having basically the same team a the subsequent year PLUS Chris Bosh and Ed Nelson !!
The season after our lofty finish, we had 7 of our top 9 players back, added Morrow, Smith and Dickey and finished a
disappointing 20-12, winning one measly game in the NCAA’s be-
fore being blown out by Louisville in the second game.
After that, it’s been three out of four losing sea-
sons, with many of our supposedly better players regressing,
instead of improving, the longer they played under Hewitt (B.
J. Elder, Dickey, Schenser, etc.).
Another flagrant problem with Hewitt is his total in-
ability to recruit good solid white, middle class 4-year pla-
yers. Not one in ten years. Why not? Everybody else seems to matriculate a few (witness Duke, UNC, Kansas, Indiana, Gonzaga, etc. ad infinitum). All his good players seem to be one-year
wonders from situations where they have to declare for the NBA as soon as they can. No Reddicks or Hansbroughs for us. Cre-
mins seemed to be able to gent them (Price, Harpring).
Maybe we need to apologize to Cremins and bring him back, now that he is “re-charged”. After all, AD David Brain-
less is gone now.
Love,
Carlos
Hi Carlos,
Great well thought out comments.
Personally I think Hewitt just doesn’t coach fundamentals very well. He relies to much on free-lancing. That’s great if you have a dominant PG like Jarrett Jack or Javaris Crittenton, but if you don’t have that, the offense is a disaster against a quality defense.