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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Deeetroit City

    GaTech SG Clinch out for Semester


  2. #2
    Duke recruited (and offered?) him once upon a time.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Tech was already going to be somewhat "talent-challenged" this season, especially in the backcourt. They lost Anthony Morrow and Matt Causey to graduation and D'Andre Bell is out for the year with an injury. They bring in highly regarded Iman Shumpert but it would have been easier for him to have an experienced perimeter player like Clinch to take some of the scoring pressure off him. Tech will do alright on the front line with Zach Peacock, Gani Lawal, and Alade Aminu but their backcourt is going to be weak now and they will struggle to score from outside, I think.

    Of course, if he gets his grades in order Clinch will be back in time to make trouble for the ACC. I just hope that Tech does not foolishly blow an early season game or two that costs them a shot at the post-season and makes the ACC look back.

    Their first 7 games (the ones Clinch will miss) don't present too many problems. Vandy is the toughest team there. They also have Penn State.

    --Jason "Tech is gonna struggle this year in the ACC I suspect" Evans

  4. #4
    Paul Hewitt is taking a different approach to this in playing three big men together. Offensively Peacock will be OK, but it remains to be seen how he will play the small forward defensively. Will Hewitt play more zone (something that doesn't fit Hewitt's style) or just match Peacock up against a quicker player and hope his big men can defend the rim? I have hard time seeing them be successful with this, but I think the approach is very interesting.

    I do believe that this is setting up Iman Shumpert to have a breakout year, as he will be forced to take shots instead of deferring. Of course last night Shumpert dished out a team-high 8 assists and made just 1 of 7 shots.

    Here's our Enhanced Live Box Score for the Georgia Tech game last night.

  5. #5
    How "on the hot seat" is Hewitt considered to be, if at all? In this day and age, despite a national title game appearance, I get the impression GT may be wearing thin, right or wrong. This lack of patience or short leash with coaches may not be a good thing, but that is a different conversation.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hot'Lanta... home of the Falcons!
    Quote Originally Posted by JDev View Post
    How "on the hot seat" is Hewitt considered to be, if at all? In this day and age, despite a national title game appearance, I get the impression GT may be wearing thin, right or wrong. This lack of patience or short leash with coaches may not be a good thing, but that is a different conversation.
    It seems funny to say this but Hewitt's biggest problem has been his recruiting. No, it is not that he is not getting good players -- if anything the problem is he is getting players who are too good. The list of guys he has brought in who only stayed one year is getting long. Young, Crittenton, and Bosh all could have put Ga Tech into the ACC upper tier if they had even stayed to be sophs. Heck, imagine if Crit and Young had stayed a little while together (they were in the same class) -- whew!!

    The problem is, when a kid leaves early unexpectedly, it is rare that a team is able to immediately replace him. No one expected Crit to take off after one year. Tech has been PG-challenged ever since. That said, coaches must figure out how to deal with stuff like this.

    I don't think Hewitt is quite in the hot seat, but it is maybe getting warm. If he can keep Sumpert for more than one season then he could be in good shape as next year's recruiting class looks decent and Tech gets a good PG prospect in Mfon Udofia. They also are getting Glen Rice (son of THE Glen Rice), Brian Oliver (who is not the son of THE Brian Oliver), and a big forward in Kammeon Holsey. It is a very solid class, probably one of the top 5-10 in the nation (so far). Plus, they still are very much in the running for Derrick Favors, a mega stud at C.

    I think Hewitt has at least one more year, especially because they are so much in the running for Favors.

    --Jason "recruiting can only take you so far-- and Tech's in-season play has left a lot to be desired lately" Evans

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Atlanta, GA/Durham, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    I think Hewitt has at least one more year, especially because they are so much in the running for Favors.
    Jason is very right. Hewitt is a very respected member of the GA Tech family and while we've had our share of attrition and bad grades - he's kept the team quite competitive. No one is calling for his dismissal in Georgia.

    Most people don't realize it but Tech actually fancies itself to be a football school so unless the team tanks and does a NC State, Hewitt will be allowed to rebuild.

    Tech is pretty patient with their coaches. Cremins was the coach for nearly 20 years before retiring after 4 mediocre years where he couldn't recover from the loss of "Starbury". 10 years removed from his "Final Four" appearance.

    Just 5 years ago Hewitt was a National runner-up and just a year ago Hewitt took some freshmen to the big dance so he's not what you would call unsuccessful.

  8. #8

    Jackets

    I agree that losing both Bell (Tech's best defensive player) and Clinch (a good long-range gunner) at the same position hurts badly, especially when the position was already hurt by the graduation of Morrow and Causey.

    But don't overlook sophomore guard Moe Miller, who finished last season strong (ave. 15 ppg., 4.5 assts and 4.0 rebounds in postseason). He and Iman Shumpert should be an okay starting backcourt.

    The key, at least early, is sophomore Lance Storrs, a 6-5, 220-pounder fron Decatur, who had a disappointing freshman season, but will now have to be the team's third perimeter player -- at least until Clinch comes back. He was supposed to be a decent prospect, but he didn't show it last season.

    Not sure how certain that is that Clinch returns ... this is the second time Clinch has been academically ineligible (he missed the second semester in 2007). But if he returns in late December, I think Hewitt will have plenty of backcourt options (although Bell's defense will be missed.

    Too bad the ACC can't work trades, like in the NBA. Don't you think Maryland would give up a decent perimeter player for one of Georgia Tech's solid post players? A deal like that could make both teams a lot better.

  9. #9
    Speaking of tech, was just looking at the Celtics/Pistons box score from last night to check out AI's debut and saw that Will Bynum got some burn:

    http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=281109008

    Just one more click revealed that he is actually playing quite well, when he plays (played in 3 of 5 games so far). Unfortunately for him will probably play less now with AI there as bynum will move to 3rd string PG.

    http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/player...?playerId=2816

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