Explain the Hewitt hate to me

[ramblinwreck1378]

Last time..

Ok bro, if you don't get it after 3 pages of people trying to explain to you, then clearly you never will.

 

[TechnicalPossum]

Last time..

Do you think that with the same players that Gregory had he would have gotten better results? Or is your assumption that he would have gotten better players?

 

[ATL1]

I understand the firing.
The product wasn't working, and he was getting diminishing returns.
The venom, tho.
"Ran the program into the ground" when in fact the year before he was fired your in the tourney.
Couldn't coach yet 5 tournament appearances and taking GT to the highest level it's been in its history. If it's the contract fine, but whenever I met the guy or spoke with him he came across gracious and down to earth. Certain media members he didn't have a good repore with and that didn't help, but otherwise he represented GT well. Don't think his former players don't recognize his treatment from the fan base.

http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/2016/04/04/five-years-later-reconsidering-paul-hewitts-tenure/

 

[ESPNjacket]

I understand the firing.
The product wasn't working, and he was getting diminishing returns.
The venom, tho.
"Ran the program into the ground" when in fact the year before he was fired your in the tourney.
Couldn't coach yet 5 tournament appearances and taking GT to the highest level it's been in its history. If it's the contract fine, but whenever I met the guy or spoke with him he came across gracious and down to earth. Certain media members he didn't have a good repore with and that didn't help, but otherwise he represented GT well. Don't think his former players don't recognize his treatment from the fan base.

http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/2016/04/04/five-years-later-reconsidering-paul-hewitts-tenure/

What part of my explanation do you not understand? It isn't about logic. I've met him many times and have no problem with him personally. That isn't where it comes from. It came from perceptions of blaming others, including some things (the GT job, the fan support) that are emotional triggers. Once someone doesn't like somebody they will come up with all kinds of justifications to support it.

 

[kg01]

Hewitt's initial success (taking the underachieving Cremins leftovers to the NCAAT then the great recruiting class leading to the very good 2004 and 2005 teams) was followed up by a distinct change in his attitude toward the press and the public.

He became intolerant of criticism and started making statements that seemed to blame the school for any problems with his teams. After his first five years he still would get some talented players but those teams all had glaring flaws (poor ball handling in particular) that led to disappointing outcomes. Meanwhile, he spoke out on behalf of the Black Coaches Association while his team wasn't playing well, which really stirred the pot of anger that had started to build. Many felt that he didn't accept the reality of a degrading program, while wasting time arguing with the local sportswriters and lashing back at criticism.

Once many got into their minds that he was a bad coach they started to re-write history in order to overstate their case, which many believe to be how to persuade people. The online GT basketball community turned into a war of who could explain Hewitt's suckiness was suckier than everyone else. The most effective method they employed was to claim he was a better recruiter than he actually was in order to prove that made him the worst coach ever. They even tried to claim he didn't really coach the 2004 final four team, it was a facade, those players coached themselves. They then started using NBA success of some of his players as proof that he was the worst ever. Any success was spinned into proof of being bad. Any failure was more proof. All things proved it.

Then the revelation of the never ending contract was published in the local paper.

It spiraled into what lingers as the Hewitt hate.

Thread should've ended with the post above.

 

[gtpi]

Last time..

i can google his name and find out where he is coaching now so you can go be a fan. maybe bill lewis is there also. that way.... you can be a fan of both coaches *sic*.

give it a rest. once he started blaming the fans the game was over.

 

[Peacone36]

yeah, but why do you guys dislike him?

 

[deeeznutz]

I understand the firing.
The product wasn't working, and he was getting diminishing returns.
The venom, tho.
"Ran the program into the ground" when in fact the year before he was fired your in the tourney.
Couldn't coach yet 5 tournament appearances and taking GT to the highest level it's been in its history. If it's the contract fine, but whenever I met the guy or spoke with him he came across gracious and down to earth. Certain media members he didn't have a good repore with and that didn't help, but otherwise he represented GT well. Don't think his former players don't recognize his treatment from the fan base.

http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/2016/04/04/five-years-later-reconsidering-paul-hewitts-tenure/

My biggest issue with Hewitt was he appeared to not recognize the obvious flaws that had developed on his teams by talking down any criticism. I believe a lot of GT fans would have been much more tolerant of our struggles if the coach gave any indication he saw the same problems and was working to fix them. This refusal to acknowledge problems coupled with the lifetime contract gave off a very negative vibe.

 

[mstranahan]

Hewitt recruited well. He couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag. One winning season in conference in his career. And that was 9-7.

If you give the teams he had to a coach like K or Roy, they win 10+ games in ACC most years. If you step down and use Tony Bennett, Gary Williams or Leonard Hamilton, they have winning seasons at least half the time.

 

[Buzz776g]

Last time..

I was at GT 2002-2007. 2004 was just The. Coolest. Thing. Ever.

I asked my boss at the time if I could have the afternoon off to attend the ceremony they had at AMC to honor the team. He said yes. I still remember that.

I don't know enough about bball to know, in an educated and experienced manner, what I'm looking at. People would say that CPH's post-2004 teams began to lose discipline, did not show good fundamentals, looked more like athletically gifted guys playing high-caliber, exuberant pickup than like a well-coached team.

When people have something really nice, and get behind something really special, and then it seems to come unglued, to dissolve away and run through your fingers, people get much more angry, disappointed, and resentful than they would if they'd never felt a part of something really special in the first place. They feel robbed, and look for the thief. Hence the sour, rancorous, venomous edge you're referring to. The contract didn't help. We felt like we'd been ripped off twice.

JMO. I know pathetically little about bball, but I was there then and remember what it was like.

 

[Home Park Jacket]

Last time..

OK I'll play.
1) He got lazy after "The Contract".
2) He got lazier every year and blamed me in the stands.
3) He got so lazy that I felt he was stealing from my Institute.
4) He could have easily worked it out with us like Josh Pastner did with Memphis but instead he wanted to stick it to us for 10 years.
5) He respected nothing that is Georgia Tech.

 

[MWBATL]

OK I'll play.
1) He got lazy after "The Contract".
2) He got lazier every year and blamed me in the stands.
3) He got so lazy that I felt he was stealing from my Institute.
4) He could have easily worked it out with us like Josh Pastner did with Memphis but instead he wanted to stick it to us for 10 years.
5) He respected nothing that is Georgia Tech.

This about sums it up for many of us.....I personally think he lost his good assistants, and then was more interested in making hires for personal (be a mentor to someone the way George Raveling was a mentor to him) or political reasons (Black Coaches Assoc) rather than the good of GT and he no longer had any incentive to do what would be best for GT (contract)....but as many have said, he was always a nice guy and a class act on a personal level.

 

[D-man44]

OK I'll play.
1) He got lazy after "The Contract".
2) He got lazier every year and blamed me in the stands.
3) He got so lazy that I felt he was stealing from my Institute.
4) He could have easily worked it out with us like Josh Pastner did with Memphis but instead he wanted to stick it to us for 10 years.
5) He respected nothing that is Georgia Tech.

Yeah St. John's offered him and he turned it down when he knew tech wanted to fire him to get the payout

 

[first&ten]

Hewitt usually lost to ugag even when he had better players. He had a chance to move to St. Johns and let Tech out of a terrible contract negotiated by Braine when he was brain dead. Hewitt's explanation of not taking the St. Johns job (even though he knew that everyone wanted him gone) his wife didn't want to move from Atlanta! The real reason? he wanted Tech to pay out the contract by firing him.

 

[first&ten]

He is not coaching anymore after being fired by George Mason. Believe he is a VP with a coaching association

And still being paid a salary by Tech!

 

[AE 87]

Hewitt usually lost to ugag even when he had better players. He had a chance to move to St. Johns and let Tech out of a terrible contract negotiated by Braine when he was brain dead. Hewitt's explanation of not taking the St. Johns job (even though he knew that everyone wanted him gone) his wife didn't want to move from Atlanta! The real reason? he wanted Tech to pay out the contract by firing him.

By the way, Pastner did it right. In the same situation as Hewitt, he pursued an opportunity to leave, even for less money per year.

 

[YlJacket]

By the way, Pastner did it right. In the same situation as Hewitt, he pursued an opportunity to leave, even for less money per year.

FWIW if you believe the reports at the time, Hewitt had an offer on the table from St Johns that would have matched his buyout from us. It wasn't that he left money on the table or anything like that.

Damn the more I think about this and remember it the more pissed off I get.

 

[Peacone36]

FWIW if you believe the reports at the time, Hewitt had an offer on the table from St Johns that would have matched his buyout from us. It wasn't that he left money on the table or anything like that.

Damn the more I think about this and remember it the more pissed off I get.

Me too. Pretty scumbaggish move

 

[TechTravis]

Put me in for the "attitude" issues. When the team started to go south, he got more and more standoffish, as though he were some kind of genius and we were fools for not seeing it. I personally didn't think his mantra of "individual instruction" over team cohesion made sense, given that winning college games was his job, not getting guys to "the league" or being some sort of pariah.

 

[Peacone36]

I kind of had a rift with "Coaching Changes" the other day on Twitter where at the end he proclaimed that our Hewitt hate was race related.