Know Your Head Coach Analysis

Paul Hewitt filled out a survey for ramblinwreck.com. He was asked mostly about his favorite foods, sports teams, etc.. Here're the highlights with commentary...

Birthdate: May 4, 1963 -- Coach Paul is 46 years old
College attended: St. John Fisher
What I watch on TV: MSNBC, Fox, CNN, ESPN, State of the Union with John King, O'Reilly Factor, Keith Olbermann, Anderson Cooper 360 -- Coach Paul is a Centrist

What music I listen to: Earl Klugh, David Sanborn, India.arie -- Coach is all about that smooth jazz/R&B

What I drive: Ford Explorer -- Way to support Detroit and America Coach Paul


Superstitions: picking up head-up pennies -- I've got this conspiracy that the government uses coin collectors as a sneaky form of deflation.


On my office walls: Ernie Barnes painting (shirts and skins), John Holston painting, family photos and basketball memorabilia


The one person I'd love to trade places with for a day: Tiger Woods, just to see what it's like to hit the golf ball like he can


My first job: Burger King on Westbury, Long Island. It lasted 13 minutes because I showed up late from basketball practice. He fired me on the spot. -- I tried to google maps this location...location not found.


My favorite meal: Lasagna or curried goat -- Curried goat looks more disgusting than it sounds. It must be a Caribbean thing.


Favorite sports team growing up: New York Yankees, New York Knicks -- I think I've always had a strong dispassion for Northern teams growing up. The Knicks, Yankees, Boston, etc.. Can't stand any of 'em. George Can't-stand-ja.


My bucket list: 1. Visit every major league baseball park, 2. Attend Wimbledon -- 3. Win a NCAA Title at Georgia Tech...at least that should be on this list.

Basketball falls short....again

From RamblinWreck.com:

The Academic Progress Report (APR), released today by the NCAA, reveals that the majority of Georgia Tech student-athletes are excelling in the classroom and progressing towards graduation.

Yes, the majority. Now can you guess which sport doesn't fall in the category? BASKETBALL! We "recruit well" but lose. We get the "players we need" but they leave early. Now our Academic Progress Report is not sufficient. The only sport at GT that failed at it. And no matter how you say these reports look at the wrong statistics, it's the same across the board. And F'ING UGA passed! Because of our failing grade, we lose 2 scholariships. Since we were warned about this in July, we already gave them up.

The Yellow Jacket men's basketball team multi-year rate dipped below
the 925 threshold, which triggers an automatic penalty in the loss of
two scholarships. Tech learned in June (2008) that this would be the
likely outcome for the men's basketball program and elected to forego
two scholarships for the 2008-09 season, playing with 11 scholarship
players instead of the maximum of 13. Because of this action, Georgia
Tech anticipates utilizing all 13 scholarships for the 2009-10 season.

Here's the Scoring Chart:

Multi-Year Rate Comparison by Sport:

Team 2006-07 2007-08
Baseball                974    *989
Men's Basketball        931     914
Men's Cross Country     950     974
Football                951     957
Golf                   1000   *1000
Men's Swimming          975     970
Men's Tennis            959     961
Men's Indoor Track      951     955
Men's Outdoor Track     949     953
Women's Basketball      957     952
Women's Cross Country   993     993
Softball                967     981
Women's Swimming        997     994
Women's Tennis          985     978
Women's Indoor Track    988     986
Women's Outdoor Track   990     988
Volleyball              990   *1000

Can anything happen right for Paul Hewitt? I don't know you feel sorry for him or what but it sure doesn't cool down his hot seat. It's been 5 years since the 2004 Final Four run in San Antonio. LSU's Jon Brady was dismissed 2 years after the Tiger's run. At what point do you say "Enough"?

Wednesday News Flash: Suck it Mutts!

• You can't beat us this year. Football, baseball, basketball. The sweet smell of victory! Softball is the only "major" sport you can talk about right now.
  

• Rumors are spreading that the AJC/Cox Media is cutting more writers/ columnists from their staff. That includes the likes of Terrence Moore, and the GT beat writers Larry Harstein and Ken Suguira. There is absolutely no love lost between me and Terrence Moore. He can fall off a cliff for all I care. As for Larry and Ken, they were decent enough and brought up discussion points, so good luck to them both.

• The AJC cutting writers is all the more reason to follow Coley Harvey at the Macon Telegraph. He goes above and beyond and is making the extra effort to draw readers and followers into his section of the newspaper. Follow Coley Harvey.

• A bash against Paul Hewitt?? It's not the first time people question him about player development. This is a report on Alade Aminu's performance at the Portsmouth Invitational. Specifically:

  Comparing the way Aminu played at Portsmouth with what we can now see from his film at Georgia Tech reveals a pretty stark contrast—it doesn’t seem like he was utilized very well at all in college from what we can tell. Aminu was an absolute devastating force as a pick and roll finisher for his Norfolk Naval Shipyard team—thanks to his tremendous combination of size, length, terrific hands and excellent mobility. At Georgia Tech he was barely used in this fashion at all—just 4.3% of his offensive possessions came on the pick and roll. They looked incredibly disorganized in the film we took in, with no point guard, no system, and very little ball-movement. It appeared that Aminu often was asked to play very far from the basket, and pretty much all of his shots were opportunities that he was forced to create on his own.

Call me the Hamburglar!

McDonald's All-American "Derrick Favors leads East to Victory" is the headline on SI.com's college bball site. Not bad pub for Hewitt's last shot at redemption. Yes, I said it. Favors is Hewitt's ultimate make-or-break point. And Favors, based on his Mickey D's performance, is gonna take GT to another level next year. He's a competitor, a winner, and a damn good baller.

Any thoughts on Hewiit/Favors/bball in general?

Busy Tuesdays

Just received text from Winfield/Dane: "At the beach, blog abandoned for week"

Silly Bird. Spring break is for kids.

So here are some quick hits from the news world. Ninth seeded Tech is headed to Iowa to play the Hawkeyes in the Women's NCAA Tournament. Congrats to Coach Joseph. Women's bball is becoming a legit ACC team. Mark Bradley pours some gas on the fire Hewitt fire. Softball is on a five game win streak headed into today's games against Western Carolina. And the Joltin' Jackets welcome inner-metro rival Kennesaw State to the Rusty C. for a home-home series starting today.

If there's one team I've been waiting to see this year, it's baseball. I wanna see the GT bats hittin' like they used to.

Also, here is an awesome website with 1990/2008 highlights on it. Shawn Jones is a bad mother.

Who cursed the basketball gods?

And why the hell did you do it?!

We lost again, this time we had 3-4 chances to make a last second shot and couldn't do it. Baseball can't get here soon enough.

Why Felton was fired and Hewitt will not be

Why Felton was fired:

1. Felton was fired because of an overall losing record at Georgia.
2. His team has done jack in the tournament.
3. His contract was only worth ~1.6 million - chump change to Georgia's AA.
4. Felton lost Favors, his last chance, to Tech.
5. Georgia is delusional.

Why Hewitt will not be fired:

1. 2004 Final Four still demands respect.
2. His team has had unexpected attrition particularly at guard.
3. He still has about ~2.5 million dollars to make from Tech.
4. Derrick Favors.
5. Tech is generally more patient and reserved when hiring/firing coaches.

I'm hoping for a turnaround still. Call me optimistic. Any thoughts on the Felton firing besides slight joy in Georgia's program falling into greater disarray?

Comparing Gottfried and Hewitt

Yesterday, Alabama Crimson Tide coach, Mark Gottfried resigned from his post in the middle of the season. Bama is currently 12-7 (note: winning record) and 2-3 SEC but also rank towards the bottom of the conference in key statistical categories Some interesting details on Gottfried's tenure include: Turning a program around in the beginning, 11 seasons in Tuscaloosa, 1st $1 million basketball contract in school history, and he has missed the NCAA Basketball Tournament the past 2 seasons. Gottfried was also criticized




In Atlanta, Paul Hewitt is 9-9 and winless in the ACC. He has proven that he has a knack for signing "1-and-done's" who will prove themselves in the NBA but not seem to contribute too much to the mold of our team. This is currently his 8th season at Georgia Tech and unless a miracle happens, the Jackets are on their way to missing the NCAA Tournament for a 2nd consecutive season. The last time GT won a game in the NCAAT? 2005.


So I ask you....what's the difference between the two men?

An interesting note....Bobby Cremins himself said that his greatest downfall was him not being prepared to replace Stephon Marbury when he left after 1 year. Lesson learned?

Derrick Favors COMMITS!

Derrick Favors: Know him well
ajc.com

Yesterday evening, right before the Duke tip-off, the gem of Paul Hewitt's recruiting history committed to play basketball at Georgia Tech. The addition of Derrick Favors to an already pretty solid recruiting class simply raises the potential of next year and increases the imagination of the Georgia Tech fan of the success we could have. Imagine the possibilities!

If potential were a penny, we'd be millionaires at Georgia Tech. Hopefully, this will restore faith back into Georgia Tech basketball and Paul Hewitt. God knows, Hewitt needs as much support as he can get. Favors will likely only be here for a year, but he has a chance to give a now mediocre program a glimpse of its past and what its future could be. Another positive that comes from this...the Favors committment can keep Iman Schumpert and Gani Lawal from getting frustrated and leaving early for the NBA. The combination of those 3 on the court can be mind-boggling. And those thoughts and hopes are worth enough for now.

Check out ACCSports, as they discuss the Favors commitment with a few other recruiting gurus and such.

AJC's viewpoint

Macon Telegraph's viewpoints

Here's a quick profile/interview with Derrick Favors along with some highlights:



And finally, I give you this video of some disgusting Derrick Favors highlights where he put up 42 points, 20 rebound, and 12 blocked shots. Enjoy!




Derrick Favors commitment to Tech numbed the bad taste of losing to Duke like we did last night. Some thoughts on that game later today. In the meantime, what do you think will happen to Georgia Tech basketball now with Favors coming? How does this affect your opinion on Paul Hewitt?

To Hell With Georgia - 67 to 62

Bird's Perspective:

I watched from SC on FSN. I found the first half to be disorganized and sloppy. I thought the second half was inspired and aggressive, which is why we won. We pressed the uga bastards when their lack of depth hurt 'em and it showed. Major props to Zach Peacock. Easily the player of the game. Play of the game was Lewis Clinch recovering the loose ball at the end. And I wish I could've listened to Wes Durham calling the game instead I got two FSN turds that kept talking about ugag's run to the SEC title in our house last year...BAH.

Winfield's Perspective:

I watched the game from the top of the AMC. The first half of the game sucked total balls. The total definition of a cripple fight. The 2nd half was our turning point (hopefully for the season as well). We came together as a team and worked the mutts into the pitifulness that they are. Bird is right when he says Peacock gets player of the game, but I will also send a shout out to Gani Lawal. Brought the pain in the 2nd half! And the best thing? Derrick Favors was in the building and was seen slapping hands with GT players at the end! To Hell with Georgia!

What are your thoughts on last night's game?

GT Basketball: WTF?

Well football season was quite a ride and as many of you can attest, quite a lot of our emphasis was on the sport. We are now full into basketball season (*cough 45 days until baseball season *cough).

So, where do we stand as a basketball team 13 games into the season? Not on very solid ground that's where. Actually, we're sinking fast. Honestly, the worse thing to happen to Paul Hewitt was Paul Johnson coming to the Flats and bringing respectability to the football program. The fanbase now takes its frustration towards mediocrity and focuses it on basketball. That's where we are. We are a mediocre basketball team. Nothing more.

In watching the Alabama thrashing yesterday, I saw sloppy play mixed with a dash of laziness. Bad decisions ran the game. Hewitt can clearly recruit, but the product on the court is getting to be sad, very sad indeed. We are not calling for Hewitt's head (yet). I fully expect him to have at least one more year here at Tech because of the potential of the incoming recruiting class. But can he take the potential we have at Tech and develop the championship caliber team that we expect, yes EXPECT, to play at Alexander Memorial Coliseum? Really only time can tell but the ice is getting thin for Paul Hewitt.

Now on Tuesday we play the University [sic] of Georgia. It will be a cripple fight for pride honestly as neither team has shown really any type of quality on the court. But it is a win against a rival, a rival that we desperately need to beat on our home court. Tomorrow, let's hit some free throws and turn this damn season around.

Paul Hewitt Nation New Year's Resolution

Paul, here's my GT Hoops New Year's Resolution. Let's beat uga mercilessly at home, go .500 in ACC play, land a middle seed in the ACCT, win 1-2 games in ACCT play, and take a spot in the NCAA's. I wouldn't mind a nice upset of University of No Chance. Paul, you've got their number. I don't know how but you do. Let's do this for the children. Let's do it for the GT children in 2009.

Do you still have faith in men's bball or have you bought women's season tickets and scalped the men's on ebay? Thoughts are welcome on the coming ACC season.

Escapin' Macon

Tech won in an OT thriller against the Mercer Bears and we (Winfield/Dane/myself) were there to observe one of the most frustrating regulation periods since the Zam Experience. I've seen a few OT's against Wake, ugag, etc. but this one was the weirdest. GT never led in regulation. In fact, at 12:01 to go in the second half, Tech trailed by 18.

A GT fan next to me said, "They just want to go back to ATL." I didn't necessarily believe in this Negative Nancy's comment but I figured we'd need a Hell of a turnaround to pull it out of our ass. Then, Hotel Hewitt ceased. The signature full court press was unleashed. GT crawled back into it. 33 seconds left and Zach Peacock ties us up with two free throws.

OT was over before it started. The once loud crowd of 3,300 orange and black was deflated. The Bears were flat and GT finished the game with a 42-18 run capped by 11 points in OT to the Bears 5.

Final analysis: I think we're gonna be leaning more on Iman and our front court then I had previously thought. We were out hustled by the Mercer guards and lucky Mercer's got no depth. However, a win's a win. I think Paul learned a lot about our team on Saturday and I see us only improving our early game scoring here on out.