Actually I read the entire thing because it was laced with facts. Although, we have many Tech fans who will make excuses for why they want to put up with this losing coach. Great guy, but where does that put us in the standings every year? The 2-win ACC Tournament Championship in 2021? The NIT run with CBG players in the first season?I'm sure it'd make a fine piece of toilet paper if I went through the hastle of printing it out.
Actually I read the entire thing because it was laced with facts. Although, we have many Tech fans who will make excuses for why they want to put up with this losing coach. Great guy, but where does that put us in the standings every year? The 2-win ACC Tournament Championship in 2021? The NIT run with CBG players in the first season
The irony of this post is amazing.
Yeah, we won an ACC championship. For the first time in 25 years. I wonder why some are so eager to try and down play that. Of course your last statement is just insane. Trying to give Gregory's recruiting the credit for the first year run is just bonkers and can only be justified with being dead set to push an agenda.
No wonder you enjoyed Bark's nonsense.
I appreciate that your responses seem to always be thoughtful and nuanced. When my own feelings are conflicted or ambivalent I find myself frustrated by all-or-nothing / zero sum arguments. Thank you.Multiple things can all be true
I’ve seen opinions I respect that argue for a new coach. Bradley’s isn’t one of them. I am struggling to think of someone at the AJC (or the local sports coverage market) who is not phoning it in, other than the investigative journalists covering the UGA car wreck.
- Our record after 7 seasons is underwhelming
- Our recruiting is weaker than we need it to be (I posted a chart a while back)
- Pastner has not accomplished what he should have, and his job should be in doubt
- Bradley’s article is a lazy take cobbled together in under an hour so that he can spend his time on things other than sports (it’s possible he spent 90 minutes on it)
What other P5 program that postures as serious is gonna have that overall record getting an 8th year?
Your optimism is refreshing. LOL. Why are you even a fan?In what way do we even posture at being serious? In our more cared about sport, we fired a coach and AD mid year because it was so bad just to promote from within (and not even the coach of the side of the ball that had improved) and the majority of our fanbase seems to think it was a great move. We've fully embraced not being serious.
Yes, if we were serious, we'd fire Pastner, and go make a big name hire. But we won't. We'll either stick with Pastner and hope he figures out the inconstancy issues, or fire him and likely land with an extraordinarily lack luster hire of a coach who will probably have accomplished less than what Pastner already has here.
In what way do we even posture at being serious? In our more cared about sport, we fired a coach and AD mid year because it was so bad just to promote from within (and not even the coach of the side of the ball that had improved) and the majority of our fanbase seems to think it was a great move. We've fully embraced not being serious.
Yes, if we were serious, we'd fire Pastner, and go make a big name hire. But we won't. We'll either stick with Pastner and hope he figures out the inconstancy issues, or fire him and likely land with an extraordinarily lack luster hire of a coach who will probably have accomplished less than what Pastner already has here.
I agree with this. Batt has signficantly increased revenue for football based on the number of new positions created. I think he will see how football plays out in 2023. If things get better in 2023 for football, I think Pastner has to perform next year or he is gone.I don't think Bradley's logic is wrong, but he is the5th tenor in the choir. Nothing there is new or thoughtful.
I believe Batt could hang with Josh unless the bottom falls out this weekend and Tuesday.
Given how down the conference is this year - it may get five teams out of 15 into the tournament - that's kind of a low bar. The question should be, why weren't we playing anything close to this for that month where we didn't win anything and were getting blown out on a routine basis?Agree we are playing our best basketball in 2 years the last few weeks.
Lets break this down a bit:I want to preface this with a couple statements:
1) I am not content with the W/L record under CJP
2) I am as frustrated as most with the head scratching loses which seem to happen every year under his watch
3) I strongly dislike the Princeton sets he has ran and FEEL like we have been driving square pegs into round holes too frequently and often
Now that said, I do think there have been a few major institutional challenges which he has had to fight against:
1) Recruiting is undeniably coin operated. His whole time here, preNIL and post has been hampered by that immutable fact.
Pre-NIL ADTS told him to steer OVERLY clear from anything that had a whiff of impropriety. I didn't take issue with this approach then, cheating is cheating even if everyone else is doing it. That's what made the Jose and Moses stories so compelling. That was pure heart and development and speaks VOLUMES in my opinion to his coaching ability. If you need further proof that CJP ran a remarkably clean program see the whole "not fired during the Ron Bell Deal" section of our history. If there was a bit of stepping beyond the line he'd have been gone.
Top recruits got bags of money and we DID NOT DROP THEM. Since Paul (of the NY not NC Variety) we have been clean as a commercial kitchen under CBG and CJP.
NIL Times We haven't been able to organize the funding to go get who and what we need in the portal or out of HS signings. That's a simple fact. Until we fund that at $500K or so we will be consistently be trying to develop diamonds in the rough and then trying to keep them
2) Staff Funding Levels haven't been appropriate for a program with ambition of being regular NCAA Tourney visitors.
This is maybe more of a 1B situation than a #2 but we just don't pay enough for staff or funding operations (recruiting/support staff/scouting/facilities). It's charming that we rock with the Gas Station Snacks thing, but clearly that's driven by creative use of limited funds.
This is also why I think we will be waiting on moving off of CJP this season. We have to get funding for NIL first and staff second before we are going to convince a big name brand recognizable coach to come here. We have to climb this mountain either way so it makes more sense to me that we take the incremental step of fixing staff/operations budgets before trying to also pay out a HC and Recruit Another
3) Options for Hiring
CJP seems to run a clean program, focuses on trying to develop high character guys and has the team playing together despite the dispiriting middle section to the season. He also has show an ability to coach and develop players. If we give the resources any good coach needs and he STILL can't get it done then IIWII and we have to move on. That said, I am not yet convinced he can't win with the right level of institutional investment any good coach would require.
Throw in the fact that there aren't an abundance of clear upgrades from a coaching perspective and I think we have one more year given he closes out moderately well in the ACCT.
I don’t disagree he made mistakes with Ron Bell. I’m not sure any sane person would.Lets break this down a bit:
1) Recruiting is undeniably coin operated. His whole time here, preNIL and post has been hampered by that immutable fact.
ADTS told him to steer OVERLY clear from anything that had a whiff of impropriety.
*** CJP failed on this requirement badly. Start with having an assistant coach get a show cause for lying to the NCAA about a recruting violation the assistant was a part of. The Head Coach is responsible for the WHOLE Basketball PROGRAM.
*** CJP failed again when 2 of his players accepted improper benefits flying to AX to Bell's place. Two fold fail here. First letting a scumbag like Bell get access to the players and second having players take such a trip without a worry.
2) Staff Funding Levels haven't been appropriate for a program with ambition of being regular NCAA Tourney visitors.
His first 3 assistants were all good and complemented each other. Then Hardy left, LeBarrie got a show cause and they were not replaced with equally talented coaches. Eventually Reveno left as well. Money may have been an issue, however, Bobenski played a big role in assembling his initial quality staff.
3) Options for Hiring
There are always good options for hiring. GT is NOT going to get a proven P6 coach There are plenty of good D1 coaches available every year. This is on the AD to know his business and be prepared.
Odds of next year being better with CJP and the projected roster is another botto 1/3rd season. CJP has not gotten great players from the portal. He has gotten good players, however, this roster needs a significant upgrade in several areas.
Just my opinion.
Our opinions are just that. I think 7 years is plenty. I expect next year to be more of what we have seen the past 2 years and don’t think we will be any better off behind the scene so we will have the same conversation next just like we had it last year.I don’t disagree he made mistakes with Ron Bell. I’m not sure any sane person would.
He was naive and got taken advantage of by a psychopathic degenerate. The harm done to him and his family though is more than I’d want even an enemy to have suffered. My point was there is a reason that he wasn’t summarily fired during that whole mess. It’s because he was operating in the confines of our program’s direction.
Also agree about his initial staff being the best he has had. I’m sure ADMBob did help greatly with those hires. We haven’t been passing the grade though with salaries.
Lastly there are always options, I’m not sure if I’d characterize many viable candidates for us as “good” before we fix the original systemic issues. Again just one man’s opinion and it’s got no more weight than your own.