Georgia Tech - Another Lost Year?

[gw67]

A week ago, I posted my prediction for the ACC this year. I predicted that Florida State and Georgia Tech would both finish at 7-9. This assumed that Tech would beat FSU at home. In my post I stated “Georgia Tech has a lot of talent but it is not clear to me that they can get it together over a 16 game schedule. If Tech can’t defeat Florida State at home this coming Sunday, I don’t see them coming close to .500 in conference.” Well, an undermanned FSU beat Tech last night and I now see Tech joining the bottom feeders in the ACC.

IMO, Georgia Tech has had more talent in recent years than any team in the ACC save Duke and UNC. Crittenton and Young were top players, Lawal and Clinch were top 30 players coming out of high school, Smith and Dickey were top 40/50 players, Morrow and Miller were top 100 players. Even considering injuries and other circumstances, Hewitt has done less with the available talent than any coach in the ACC during the last few years.

During his seven years at Tech, Hewitt has been an outstanding recruiter and his early success seemed to indicate that he and Tech were ready to join the Devils and Heels at the top of the league, however, that hasn’t happened. It appears that he is living off the Final Four run a few years ago and that he cannot pull his talented teams together. It may not matter. I don’t see Tech as a school where the alumni require a lot from the basketball coach but I may be wrong.

gw67

[yancem]

A week ago, I posted my prediction for the ACC this year. I predicted that Florida State and Georgia Tech would both finish at 7-9. This assumed that Tech would beat FSU at home. In my post I stated “Georgia Tech has a lot of talent but it is not clear to me that they can get it together over a 16 game schedule. If Tech can’t defeat Florida State at home this coming Sunday, I don’t see them coming close to .500 in conference.” Well, an undermanned FSU beat Tech last night and I now see Tech joining the bottom feeders in the ACC.

IMO, Georgia Tech has had more talent in recent years than any team in the ACC save Duke and UNC. Crittenton and Young were top players, Lawal and Clinch were top 30 players coming out of high school, Smith and Dickey were top 40/50 players, Morrow and Miller were top 100 players. Even considering injuries and other circumstances, Hewitt has done less with the available talent than any coach in the ACC during the last few years.

During his seven years at Tech, Hewitt has been an outstanding recruiter and his early success seemed to indicate that he and Tech were ready to join the Devils and Heels at the top of the league, however, that hasn’t happened. It appears that he is living off the Final Four run a few years ago and that he cannot pull his talented teams together. It may not matter. I don’t see Tech as a school where the alumni require a lot from the basketball coach but I may be wrong.

gw67

You have a decent point but I wonder if the lack of success has as much to do with constant turnover as it does coaching. He has also had to deal with a few difficult injuries as well. Regardless, results are results and if Hewitt can turn things around he'll be replaced.

I think that he could learn a lot from the end of the Cremins (sp) era. Cremins had a habit of recruiting the best studs available but never recruited a lot of them. He went with the idea of getting 7-8 studs and let them run. He didn't like to stress over getting players minutes. This worked for a while but became a problem when early defections became common. In the current college basketball scene you need to balance out the big time studs with a couple of 4 year contributers. Cremins never learned that balance and it cost him in the end. Will Hewitt learn from history?

[sandinmyshoes]

I actually remember being worried about Hewitt as a coaching presence in the league. Not so much now. Hard to put your finger on what has happened. Maybe just some bad luck with injuries, early entry and attitudes. Or maybe he's just not a guy the players respond too? Could be that it would be best for Hewitt if he looked for a fresh start somewhere else, because sometimes incidentals can conspire to create a situation that's difficult to correct.

[Lavabe]

Umm, I didn't watch it last night, but I just heard a report that Florida State started a walk-on grad student, and had only 7 players. Is that correct?:eek:

Thanks,
Lavabe

[gw67]

Umm, I didn't watch it last night, but I just heard a report that Florida State started a walk-on grad student, and had only 7 players. Is that correct?


According to the following link, grad student Zitani was put on scholarship a couple of weeks ago and they only had seven players. From the box score, it appears that they played four guards for much of the game.

http://www.ajc.com/gatech/content/sports/gatech/stories/2007/12/30/techhoops_1231.html

gw67

[juise]

The AP story (http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=273640059) doesn't mention FSU being short anyone, but it does claim that Hewitt's career record is 199-28. I was almost impressed, before I looked back and saw that he had 29 losses in 05/06 and 06/07 alone.

[pfrduke]

According to the following link, grad student Zitani was put on scholarship a couple of weeks ago and they only had seven players. From the box score, it appears that they played four guards for much of the game.

http://www.ajc.com/gatech/content/sports/gatech/stories/2007/12/30/techhoops_1231.html

gw67

FSU is missing Ryan Reid, Casaan Breeden, and Julian Vaughn - all frontcourt players. They did start Zitani for a little size, but he played only 7 minutes. Backup point guard Jordan Demercy I think only played 12. Douglas, Swann, Rich, Mims, and Echefu essentially played the whole game (averaged 35+ minutes).