New Old Guy
Jolly Good Fellow
- Messages
- 319
I have been reading these threads in recent weeks, and I think I understand a lot of the angst you are all expressing. I have been reluctant to post anything, and what I am about to type will probably not be very popular. But here goes.
Many have expressed that CBG is a "nice guy", and he is. But IMO the decision to stick with him goes way beyond that, and even supersedes the money issue. CBG inherited a mess -- a basketball mess for sure, but also an academic mess. In CPH's last years our APR was so bad that we lost scholarships. Under CBG's stewardship, our basketball APR has been perfect the last three years, and the multi-year APR as monitored by the NCAA is now one of the best among the P5 conferences. Scholarships have been restored. Not only that, our basketball players are excellent representatives of Georgia Tech, on and off the court. They play hard almost all the time. In spite of the heart breaking losses this season, they never gave up.
Yes, our offense is hard to watch sometimes, and we don't have that "go to guy" at crunch time. Yes, CBG's play selection and substitution patterns are hard to understand, at least for me. I get all that. It is frustrating - I am a season ticket holder so I experience the frustration up close and personal. But in this case I think the decision was about much more than wins and (close) losses. I think the President, the Athletic Director and the key alumni all give CBG a lot of credit for how he runs the basketball program, and they apparently felt that his overall progress warranted another year.
I certainly want us to win more games. I want to be clear about that. I want to be proud of our basketball performance again, like football this year. But I also value the kind of young men we have developed, and their performance in the classroom as well as on the court. There is absolutely no reason we cannot have it all -- good academic performance by our SA's, good results on the court, and high character young men. I believe that CBG and MBob know that bad basketball cannot be offset by good academics and high character. If results don't improve, I expect that we will have to make a change. But I am not that surprised that CBG is being given a little more time to try and get those better results.
Many have expressed that CBG is a "nice guy", and he is. But IMO the decision to stick with him goes way beyond that, and even supersedes the money issue. CBG inherited a mess -- a basketball mess for sure, but also an academic mess. In CPH's last years our APR was so bad that we lost scholarships. Under CBG's stewardship, our basketball APR has been perfect the last three years, and the multi-year APR as monitored by the NCAA is now one of the best among the P5 conferences. Scholarships have been restored. Not only that, our basketball players are excellent representatives of Georgia Tech, on and off the court. They play hard almost all the time. In spite of the heart breaking losses this season, they never gave up.
Yes, our offense is hard to watch sometimes, and we don't have that "go to guy" at crunch time. Yes, CBG's play selection and substitution patterns are hard to understand, at least for me. I get all that. It is frustrating - I am a season ticket holder so I experience the frustration up close and personal. But in this case I think the decision was about much more than wins and (close) losses. I think the President, the Athletic Director and the key alumni all give CBG a lot of credit for how he runs the basketball program, and they apparently felt that his overall progress warranted another year.
I certainly want us to win more games. I want to be clear about that. I want to be proud of our basketball performance again, like football this year. But I also value the kind of young men we have developed, and their performance in the classroom as well as on the court. There is absolutely no reason we cannot have it all -- good academic performance by our SA's, good results on the court, and high character young men. I believe that CBG and MBob know that bad basketball cannot be offset by good academics and high character. If results don't improve, I expect that we will have to make a change. But I am not that surprised that CBG is being given a little more time to try and get those better results.