Commitment to basketball success

[crut]

@CuseJacket - Thanks for making this separate thread.

@crut - Thanks for sharing your post from elsewhere.

@Novajacket - Thanks for your compliment.

@dtm1997 - Thanks for tagging everyone

 

[mstranahan]

Good thread. @dtm1997 made me stop and think. Sorta changed my opinion with logic

I was pissed that no one from Tech ever reaches out or replies to emails. When I think from their POV, I’m one of many clients and certainly not the most important. If I leave, the program will still be there. If I double my Tech Fund pledge, it doesn’t make a massive difference for them. I think I am treated fairly, no more and no less.

Tip of the cap to @dtm1997 for the calm, reasoned post. Much appreciated

 

[dtm1997]

Good thread. @dtm1997 made me stop and think. Sorta changed my opinion with logic

I was pissed that no one from Tech ever reaches out or replies to emails. When I think from their POV, I’m one of many clients and certainly not the most important. If I leave, the program will still be there. If I double my Tech Fund pledge, it doesn’t make a massive difference for them. I think I am treated fairly, no more and no less.

Tip of the cap to @dtm1997 for the calm, reasoned post. Much appreciated

That's my approach. I do what I can to provide the most I can, but I'm never going to be in position, at least while I'm alive, to do something truly sizeable.

Am I a consistent donor & customer? Yes.

Do I deserve the CEO as my customer service rep? No way.

Stansbury's time is best spent selling a long term vision to wider audiences, such as the event @crut posted about. Then, service reps can begin developing one on one relationships, such as the uptick in recently seen with my rep.

Something else to think about... I'm in my early 40s and I've got plenty of good years to continue donating. To be blunt, my half-life as a donor is diminishing rapidly and if anyone here is older than me, yours is even less.

As a result, where is time best spent? It's best spent on young donors in their 20s & 30s who are getting higher paying jobs or hitting it big at start-ups at a younger age, while at the same time their remaining lifetime donations likely have a higher net present value than us older folks.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Things are different than back in the Cremins hey day. AAU and the shoe companies have ruined CBB. Kids follow the money and the marquee programs, instead of taking a chance like Price and Salley. It’s going to take a special class to turn things around. Time and patience.

 

[orientalnc]

I wonder if all of us have set our expectations for GT athletic success at an unsustainable level. Maybe we can have consistent winning seasons in football, but do any of you think, realistically, that we can be Bama or Clemson or uga or Michigan. These large state universities have resources due to their large base of alumni and endowments that we simply cannot match. They also have academic environments structured around serving a broader population that the Georgia BOR refuses to allow at Tech. That does not mean Tech should not strive to be the best.

Thanks to @dtm1997 and @jacketup for the time you spent on this thread.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Recruiting is about building relationships. Cremins did it so well. Recent coaches at GT (in football and basketball) have done it so poorly.

Pastner seems to be able to build relationships, but his judgment hasn't been good about the level of that relationship. His relationship with Watson wasn't going to overcome the blood relative coach, and geography may be important to an 18 year old from the west coast-- more so than to a coach who played at Arizona.

That's the disappointment to me--Pastner didn't understand where he stood earlier so that he could move on. I guess he was confident, and it takes confidence to be a good recruiter, but his confidence may have trumped his judgment.

I haven't given up on him. He works hard and has improved the program. However, I also agree that recruiting needs to improve quickly or let's move on.

Is Tech sufficiently committed to athletics? Homer Rice convinced the Hill and boosters that athletics are good for the Institute when the situation was worse than it is now. The three knuckleheads who followed him didn't get it. The jury is still out on Stansbury, but all I see so far is rhetoric. He's kind of like Pastner--he's an improvement, but is he enough of an improvement? Either commit to competing at a high level or shut it down.

All you see so far from Todd Stansbury is rhetoric?

LOL

 

[RamblinRed]

FWIW, Salley and Price were not all that highly regarded as prospects.

Price was Tri-PoY in Oklahoma with Wayne Tisdale and Steve Hale but was considered the most marginal as a college prospect. They didn't have Top 100 lists or star ratings when he came out but he likely would have been ranked similar to Jose Alvarado. A high 3-star guy. Intriguing skills but maybe too small and too slow for college to be a star.

Salley was a complete project pick up. Came to GT as a 6'9, 180 run/jump guy. Over 4 yrs he grew to 7', 225 and added some skill level. Would love for Moses to follow a similar trajectory.

The first true blue chip type prospect Cremins recruited was Bruce Darlymple.

there was alot of good fortune in that Price/Salley class. No one expected Salley to amount to alot in college. Price was expected to follow Tisdale to OK but decided to take a chance on GT. After he completed his college career Dean Smith wrote Price a letter where he apologized for not recruiting him (he recruited Hale instead) and said it was the biggest recruiting mistake of his career.

 

[orientalnc]

That 1982-83 team that had Price and Salley as freshmen went 13-15 (9-15 against Div 1 teams) and 4-10 in the ACC. I saw every home game that year and there were times when it was not pretty. The next year we went 18-11 with the addition of Bruce Dalrymple and Craig Neal and Yvon Joseph becoming eligible. The next year Cremins sign Duane Ferrell and Tech won the ACC Tournament. The next year he added Tommy Hammonds. The next year it was Brian Oliver.

I am not sure at that point if any of those guys, with the possible exception of Ferrell, would have 5* recruits with a rating system like we have today. Maybe Hammonds, but he came from a part of Florida that got almost no media coverage. The next year Cremins signed Dennis Scott, a legit 5* and then, two years later, Kenny Anderson, the top PG in the country.

The point of all this is that Cremins did not bring in a wave of top recruits. But he knew how to evaluate talent and his charming personality was almost irresistible. He also did not have to deal with AAU runners and hangers on.

 

[awbuzz]

Great years to be on campus for sure -

That 1982-83 team that had Price and Salley as freshmen went 13-15 (9-15 against Div 1 teams) and 4-10 in the ACC. I saw every home game that year and there were times when it was not pretty. The next year we went 18-11 with the addition of Bruce Dalrymple and Craig Neal and Yvon Joseph becoming eligible. The next year Cremins sign Duane Ferrell and Tech won the ACC Tournament. The next year he added Tommy Hammonds. The next year it was Brian Oliver.

I am not sure at that point if any of those guys, with the possible exception of Ferrell, would have 5* recruits with a rating system like we have today. Maybe Hammonds, but he came from a part of Florida that got almost no media coverage. The next year Cremins signed Dennis Scott, a legit 5* and then, two years later, Kenny Anderson, the top PG in the country.

The point of all this is that Cremins did not bring in a wave of top recruits. But he knew how to evaluate talent and his charming personality was almost irresistible. He also did not have to deal with AAU runners and hangers on.

 

[Boaty1]

That 1982-83 team that had Price and Salley as freshmen went 13-15 (9-15 against Div 1 teams) and 4-10 in the ACC. I saw every home game that year and there were times when it was not pretty. The next year we went 18-11 with the addition of Bruce Dalrymple and Craig Neal and Yvon Joseph becoming eligible. The next year Cremins sign Duane Ferrell and Tech won the ACC Tournament. The next year he added Tommy Hammonds. The next year it was Brian Oliver.

I am not sure at that point if any of those guys, with the possible exception of Ferrell, would have 5* recruits with a rating system like we have today. Maybe Hammonds, but he came from a part of Florida that got almost no media coverage. The next year Cremins signed Dennis Scott, a legit 5* and then, two years later, Kenny Anderson, the top PG in the country.

The point of all this is that Cremins did not bring in a wave of top recruits. But he knew how to evaluate talent and his charming personality was almost irresistible. He also did not have to deal with AAU runners and hangers on.

Dalrymple, Ferrel and Hammonds were all MCDAA’s. From 83-97 Cremons signed 12 burger boys which put our program in the top 10 in that category. Most people don’t understand the recruiting juggernaut Cremons was.

 

[AE 87]

Dalrymple, Ferrel and Hammonds were all MCDAA’s. From 83-97 Cremons signed 12 burger boys which put our program in the top 10 in that category. Most people don’t understand the recruiting juggernaut Cremons was.

... before the shoe boys came in and we were with Russell (oslt)

 

[Boaty1]

... before the shoe boys came in and we were with Russell (oslt)

I don’t believe it’s that simple. Hewitt brought in a fair share as well and I think we were with Russell when he was here weren’t we? Everything changed with the hiring of Gregory and we haven’t been able to get it back on track since.

 

[CuseJacket]

I don’t believe it’s that simple. Hewitt brought in a fair share as well and I think we were with Russell when he was here weren’t we? Everything changed with the hiring of Gregory and we haven’t been able to get it back on track since.

Everything changed when DRad convinced Hewitt to not take the St. John's job that he had already verbally accepted, and then canned him the following offseason.

 

[684Bee]

I don’t believe it’s that simple. Hewitt brought in a fair share as well and I think we were with Russell when he was here weren’t we? Everything changed with the hiring of Gregory and we haven’t been able to get it back on track since.

Recruiting, like sales, is relationship building, which takes time. Sometimes years.

When you change coaches/ staffs, those relationships start over.

It’s why continuity is so important, and why you can enter a long spiral period like Tenn football was in for several years.

Now, sometimes you make a switch and inherit better relationships with the new coach/staff, but that’s not always the case.

 

[AE 87]

I don’t believe it’s that simple. Hewitt brought in a fair share as well and I think we were with Russell when he was here weren’t we? Everything changed with the hiring of Gregory and we haven’t been able to get it back on track since.

I was responding to a post about Bobby and what he says affected his ability to recruit in the latter part of his time at Tech.

 

[AE 87]

Everything changed when DRad convinced Hewitt to not take the St. John's job that he had already verbally accepted, and then canned him the following offseason.

Interesting. I was under the impression that his wife persuaded him to stay in Atl and that DRad had been pushing him to find another opportunity to avoid having to fire him.

 

[CuseJacket]

Interesting. I was under the impression that his wife persuaded him to stay in Atl and that DRad had been pushing him to find another opportunity to avoid having to fire him.

That was my impression too. Then Paul shared his version of the story with me.

 

[slugboy]

Interesting. I was under the impression that his wife persuaded him to stay in Atl and that DRad had been pushing him to find another opportunity to avoid having to fire him.

Me too. He could have saved a boatload by throwing in a one-time million dollars to go to St. Johns and ended the rest of the obligation.

 

[slugboy]

That was my impression too. Then Paul shared his version of the story with me.

 

[lauraee]

Everything changed when DRad convinced Hewitt to not take the St. John's job that he had already verbally accepted, and then canned him the following offseason.

Was it drad or was it just hewitt's decision?