Ga Tech Basketball History

orientalnc

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As we approach the 2020-21 basketball season, Pastner's fifth at Tech, I thought it might serve us to think about the expectations our basketball past supports, or does not.

All time, Ga Tech has a 52.7% winning record over 101 seasons. A lot of those years in the early 20th century basketball was an afterthought in the South. Until Alexander Memorial Coliseum was built in the1950's, Tech played in an 1800 seat gym that would be an insult to a lot of high schools today. In case you are wondering, it sat just about where the eastern end of North Stands are located. Whack Hyder was the coach when Tech moved into the modern era, so let's begin there.

Hyder was the head coach at Tech for 22 years. He was famous as the coach of the tech team that ended Kentucky's 129 game winning streak. He had a couple of great players, Roger Kaiser and Rich Yunkus. While both were outstanding players, I wonder if either would start for this year's team. Hyder had eleven winning seasons at Tech.

When Hyder retired, Tech hired Dwayne Morrison. Morrison had been the interim coach at South Carolina until the Gamecocks hired Frank McGuire. He was 91-122 at Tech and left when Tech realized they needed a real coach if the Tech's life in ACC was not going to be a total embarrassment.

That real coach was Booby Cremins. Cremins first two seasons at Tech did not look very different than the Morrison years. But, he lured Mark Price and John Salley to Tech and began, in his fourth year, 14 consecutive winning seasons. While Tech had experienced short periods of basketball success, this was the first time any Tech team was a factor for more than a couple of years before returning to mediocrity. But, Cremins career at Tech ended in disappointment. His first three seasons and his last two were losing years.

Paul Hewitt's time at Tech is the subject of much debate, but we played for the National Championship under Hewiit and he is the only coach in what I call the modern era, other than Cremins, with more winning seasons than losing seasons at Tech.

I am going to skip Brian Gregory. I think all would agree, at least in part, that he was hired because the Hewitt contract left us with few alternatives. He was in over his head from the beginning.

So, here we at Pastner's fifth season and not much has changed. Except that we are no longer a factor in anyone's discussions about top teams in the ACC or nationally. Looking ahead to this season, the prospects for Tech basketball are brighter than at any time since Hewitt left. I am optimistic about the near future, but cannot forget that basketball success at Tech is the exception, not the rule.
 

slugboy

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Please don’t edit “Booby Cremins”. It’s glorious, even though he’s our greatest coach ever

Even with the excitement of the national championship season under Hewitt, the seasons under Cremins were fun and had sizzle. You always had a group of students dresses like Cremins with silver wigs on. His reputation among his peers and officials and journalists was first class.

Hewitt was a great recruiter and probably a decent coach. He did his best when he had really good assistants. After the national championship game, he both lost some of those coaches to head coaching jobs and other opportunities without adequate replacements, but he also took on side activities when he needed to focus more than ever on his team. The result was NBA frontcourts and backcourts that just couldn’t feed the ball in.
 
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orientalnc

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Please don’t edit “Booby Cremins”. It’s glorious, even though he’s our greatest coach ever

Even with the excitement of the national championship season under Hewitt, the seasons under Cremins were fun and had sizzle. You always had a group of students dresses like Cremins with silver wigs on. His reputation among his peers and officials and journalists was first class.

Hewitt was a great recruiter and probably a decent coach. He did his best when he had really good assistants. After the national championship game, he both lost some of those coaches to head coaching jobs and other opportunities without adequate replacements, but he also took on side activities when he needed to focus more than ever on his team. The result was NBA frontcourts and backcourts that just couldn’t feed the ball in.
I am leaving it, but don't get any ideas about my motives. It was an example of my poor editing that I did not catch/correct it already. I was/am a true fan of Bobby Cremins.
 

GT_EE78

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As we approach the 2020-21 basketball season, Pastner's fifth at Tech, I thought it might serve us to think about the expectations our basketball past supports, or does not.

All time, Ga Tech has a 52.7% winning record over 101 seasons. A lot of those years in the early 20th century basketball was an afterthought in the South. Until Alexander Memorial Coliseum was built in the1950's, Tech played in an 1800 seat gym that would be an insult to a lot of high schools today. In case you are wondering, it sat just about where the eastern end of North Stands are located. Whack Hyder was the coach when Tech moved into the modern era, so let's begin there.
is that the gym where the swimming pool was in the seventies? wonder if that drownproofing class is still required?
 

slugboy

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is that the gym where the swimming pool was in the seventies? wonder if that drownproofing class is still required?
I went through the last “required” drownproofing class ages ago, after it moved to the old SAC near the Woodruff dorms. It’s been off the required list since then
 

4shotB

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Man, the Bobby era. Two things that I recall fondly from those "golden" days is paying attention to the game at the national level. You knew we were going dancing, it was just a question of seeding and draw. Therefore, I might be tempted to watch a UConn - Georgetown game or Indiana - Michigan game as a way of "scouting" for the tournament in case we were in the same regional bracket. Nowadays, I never watch a game unless GT is playing and have gone a couple of seasons without even seeing one of those. This chat about being good this year is strirring up old feelings? Dare I love again or shall I remain on the sidelines for fear of anther broken heart??

The other thing I loved is the continuity of the ACC back then. I loved seeing guys like Hurley, Rodney Rogers, Corchiani, Rodney Monroe, etc. come in somewhat overwhelmed as freshmen and develop into all-ACC (and NBA) players. I knew the starting lineups of all the other teams. Right now, I can't name a single player on any other team and only one or two on our team. I am not sure if I could name a coach other than Pastner.

I was at Tech back when we were in the old Metro conference. Those were some fun and competitive teams when we had Tico and Sammy with Dwayne as coach and that league was tough. We didn't win a lot but we were competitive at home and the quality of play was good.
 

slugboy

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John Heisman coached for three years, best he got was 0.500. Bill Alexander was the coach from 1919-1924. Roy Mundorff coached from 25-43 with 1 SEC title, and Hyder is in his coaching tree.

Hyder was the first real “modern” coach we had, unless you consider that to be Cremins.
 

jayparr

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Man, the Bobby era. Two things that I recall fondly from those "golden" days is paying attention to the game at the national level. You knew we were going dancing, it was just a question of seeding and draw. Therefore, I might be tempted to watch a UConn - Georgetown game or Indiana - Michigan game as a way of "scouting" for the tournament in case we were in the same regional bracket. Nowadays, I never watch a game unless GT is playing and have gone a couple of seasons without even seeing one of those. This chat about being good this year is strirring up old feelings? Dare I love again or shall I remain on the sidelines for fear of anther broken heart??

The other thing I loved is the continuity of the ACC back then. I loved seeing guys like Hurley, Rodney Rogers, Corchiani, Rodney Monroe, etc. come in somewhat overwhelmed as freshmen and develop into all-ACC (and NBA) players. I knew the starting lineups of all the other teams. Right now, I can't name a single player on any other team and only one or two on our team. I am not sure if I could name a coach other than Pastner.

I was at Tech back when we were in the old Metro conference. Those were some fun and competitive teams when we had Tico and Sammy with Dwayne as coach and that league was tough. We didn't win a lot but we were competitive at home and the quality of play was good.
I'm with you on all except I know all names on our team this year and they will be good and fun to watch!!!
 
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