reckrider
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Ron Hunter’s team isn’t looking very good tonight.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Hot List
- Thread starter dtm1997
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Edwards went to UGA for money reasons, pure and simple. You can say AAR had a hand in that, but understand that it was well known in the GA basketball community that Edwards was well compensated to attend UGA for 6 months.
GT is not going to win games by recruiting the Anthony Edwards of the world. They will never be here long enough to make a difference. Edwards certainly didn't at UGA.
Whether he had any hand in recruiting Edwards to UGA matters alot less to me compared to what he has done at Kennesaw St.
I thing that I read recently that made alot of sense to me is don't focus on guys who win at places where winning is easy and most coaches win, focus on guys who have won where winning is hard.
takethepoints
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I'll go on record right now in saying that firing Pastner was a mistake. How big a mistake remains too be seen. The only reason he is on the pines now is that he had a few recruiting classes that didn't work out, joining a vast number of other college basketball coaches. He's a sound coach and knows how to develop players (see Wright and Jose). That's what Tech needs, not another coaching merry-go-round. We might also remember that the ACC is no longer destination numero uno for basketball coaches.
But it's water under the bridge. Let's hope that the kind of fumbling that led to hiring Key (who may turn out ok, of course) doesn't show up again.
But it's water under the bridge. Let's hope that the kind of fumbling that led to hiring Key (who may turn out ok, of course) doesn't show up again.
Hiring coaches like Josh, Brad Brownell, Kevin Keatts etc is why the ACC is no longer the destination. The SEC and Big XII have made significant investments into their CBB programs and that’s why they have surpassed the ACC.
Development of two players over seven seasons is not a good reason to keep a coach. How has Deebo developed?
49% winning percentage overall
39.8% conference winning percentage
23-58 road record
1 Tournament appearance
One season within the top 170 in offensive efficiency
He’s a good defensive coach, correct? 3 straight seasons of decline in defensive efficiency, 16-68-110-148
Going to speed it up, right? Two seasons within the top 175 in tempo
5 seasons ranking outside the top 200 in 3point shooting
3rd most home losses in the ACC since he took over
He’s a tremendous man and one of the nicest guys in the world. He improved the program during his time here but was still in over his head. Moving on was the correct decision.
lv20gt
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Whether firing Pastner is a mistake or not will be seen with who we hire. At the time firing Hewitt seemed like the long overdue obvious move. In hindsight we are probably worse off as a program for making it.
We may very well hire someone who takes the core that Pastner has put together, supplements with a couple key transfers, develops it, and has us back in the NCAAT 4 times in the next 5 years, and we're all looking back thanking the heavens we moved on
We may very well hire some unproven one year wonder as a head coach who is in over his head, loses key players to the portal, and has us floundering for the next 4 years while we wait to make another coaching change, looking back thinking maybe if we had kept Pastner he'd have been able to utilize the core he put together better and learned from the mistakes that led to the two year decline after the Jose and Moses teams.
Right now it's not an obvious mistake. I also don't think it's an obvious right call either.
We may very well hire someone who takes the core that Pastner has put together, supplements with a couple key transfers, develops it, and has us back in the NCAAT 4 times in the next 5 years, and we're all looking back thanking the heavens we moved on
We may very well hire some unproven one year wonder as a head coach who is in over his head, loses key players to the portal, and has us floundering for the next 4 years while we wait to make another coaching change, looking back thinking maybe if we had kept Pastner he'd have been able to utilize the core he put together better and learned from the mistakes that led to the two year decline after the Jose and Moses teams.
Right now it's not an obvious mistake. I also don't think it's an obvious right call either.
To me, the hiring and the firing are separate. Even if we whiff on the hire, doesn't mean it wasn't time to move on. We gotta try.
He was a great dude but after those 7 years, if you think it was working, you weren't paying attention. It's a bit of an insulting take.
He was a great dude but after those 7 years, if you think it was working, you weren't paying attention. It's a bit of an insulting take.
Root4GT
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The stats you listed say it was time to make a change. There was no indication things were actually getting better as a program. One good recruiting year and still this year’s team was a bad team.
How many teams did they beat in the ACC with winning records? How close were they against the ACC Champion team.
We were on an we are bad treadmill.
Will the new guy be better? Don’t know but it can’t be a lot worse. 5-15 then 6-14. That’s really bad. This was not a young team either.
Something came up on that Dauster podcast @dtm1997 posted that I wanted to highlight as we ponder how GT makes it back. Even above who the actual coach ends up being.
The guys mentioned that at this point, if a school hasn't figured out how to navigate NIL, they are so far behind the curve it's ridiculous.
The Bacot kid at UNC came back because he makes more at UNC than anywhere he'd be playing professionally (since he's not likely an NBA player).
But they also highlighted UNC as an example of why you have to be wary of hiring inexperienced guys. Basically said Davis has a top-5 (in the country) roster but are basically an NIT team and that's unacceptable. He's shown himself to not be 'the guy'.
The guys mentioned that at this point, if a school hasn't figured out how to navigate NIL, they are so far behind the curve it's ridiculous.
The Bacot kid at UNC came back because he makes more at UNC than anywhere he'd be playing professionally (since he's not likely an NBA player).
But they also highlighted UNC as an example of why you have to be wary of hiring inexperienced guys. Basically said Davis has a top-5 (in the country) roster but are basically an NIT team and that's unacceptable. He's shown himself to not be 'the guy'.
Techwood Relict
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I agree wholeheartedly. It was time. CJP will land on his feet, as will we.
Of all the people to listen to….******* Rob Dauster. What a *****
Chalk it up to a content desert. And name one of these talking heads that's not a jackhole to somebody.
To your point though, I did get d*ck-ish impressions as I was listening.
Evan was the best IMHO. I’d recommend SGP. Dauster is a just an ***
Techwood Relict
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If only we had people on the board connected to the program that could feed 'true' rumors to the team .....
I think it’s going to fail unless we get a big name who draws enough attention from the casual basketball fans with money (Pitino, “Deion Sanders”, etc). I haven’t seen any proof the NIL is there to attract and retain the type of players you need to make the Tournament consistently. And I’m not sure Batt/Cabrera are ready to throw Pitino money at a coach - no past ADs or Presidents have been.
bobongo
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Forget Pitino. Tech might be able to afford his pay, but not his buyout, which is reportedly $5 million:
Iona Basketball Coach Rick Pitino Contract, Salary, and Net Worth
Iona Basketball Coach Rick Pitino Contract, Salary, Buyout, and Net Worth
www.basketballinsiders.com
"The specifics of Pitino’s deal says he has a contract buyout of $5 million..."
leatherneckjacket
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Let's be clear here, we are not going to get a top line coach like Pitino with the current state of the NIL. If I were J Batt, I would try to find the right combination of a young but up and coming coach with positive personality who can not only improve the quality of play, but also be comfortable talking to boosters to get them to make investments in NIL. To be honest, a young Bobby Cremins would have been a perfect fit hire for today's game, because everyone loved him and he was a great coach and recruiter. I do not think we are going to find a Bobby Cremins, but a coach like Richey who is not not only very good, but also quite likeable, would be a great hire in my opinion. I would stay away from "weird" guys like Kelsey. Yes, he can coach, but will he connect with our rich donors in a way that makes them want to invest heavily into the program? I am not so sure.
Even Pastner, who everyone recognized as a nice guy and was generally well liked, was not good at convincing boosters to buy into the program, either because he was too weird or because they did not see him as a potentially successful coach. We need to hire someone who everyone can support and believe that he can win.
Even Pastner, who everyone recognized as a nice guy and was generally well liked, was not good at convincing boosters to buy into the program, either because he was too weird or because they did not see him as a potentially successful coach. We need to hire someone who everyone can support and believe that he can win.
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Forget Pitino. Tech might be able to afford his pay, but not his buyout, which is reportedly $5 million:
Iona Basketball Coach Rick Pitino Contract, Salary, and Net Worth
Iona Basketball Coach Rick Pitino Contract, Salary, Buyout, and Net Worth
"The specifics of Pitino’s deal says he has a contract buyout of $5 million..."
I’m sure there are people in the Atlanta area who don’t even root for Tech that would help fund a Pitino buyout, just to see him locally.
Pitino has his own fans. There are people who would back him here just to see him coach in the ACC again. Likewise, there are people who would fund him at a Big East school.
There are reportedly schools like Texas Tech (and now Texas) interested in him, plus St. John’s and Georgetown.
If there was mutual interest, there would be people to make it happen. I think the question is, where does he want to coach?
I’m not sure why I’m linking this, because overall it’s a weak article, but here’s The Athletic (paywall) on the coaching search. One interesting factoid that aligns with other comments is “(Batt’s) decision to move now suggests that he already has someone in mind for the job”.
Georgia Tech fires basketball coach Josh Pastner
The Yellow Jackets lost to Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC tournament Wednesday.
theathletic.com
The other good quote is “Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt was instrumental in the hiring of Nate Oats at Alabama and considers himself a strong basketball guy.”
Yes, I’m a stats nerd, but I don’t think stats tell the entire story. However, we’ve been between #115 in NET to as low as #226 one week this year. Our winning streak at the end of the season only brought us up to #177. That’s not just bottom of the ACC—that’s irrelevant. Between the attendance, the vibe, overall program perception, and a host of other factors, Batt was probably evaluating the situation in November and working on finding a coach months ago. The decision was probably made as soon as the candidates were aligned.
I’m floored that the search so quiet.
If Pitino is a candidate (or is the hire), then the conversations happened back in January or February. It’s very hard to believe that we could keep that quiet—it seems like someone involved would spout off.
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Is Pat Kelsey the PJ Fleck of CBB?
Not my favorite personality style, but if he's our guy and he wins, I'm all in rowing the boat.
Not my favorite personality style, but if he's our guy and he wins, I'm all in rowing the boat.
leatherneckjacket
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Personality matters in today's game with NIL.
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Fleck's got back-to-back 9 win seasons at Minnesota, so I guess it works so far?
I'm not saying my personal opinion of personalities is the best proxy. I loved Boeheim and Pastner.