GT Hoops General Topics

[TechPhi97]

Brief history of Georgia Tech basketball coaching hires since March, 1993.

In March of 1993, Bobby Cremins took the job at South Carolina. He changed his mind, Homer Rice let him come back, a decision that Rice later called one of the two worst decisions he made as AD.

Cremins’ teams only went to one NCAA tournament in the following 7 years until he “retired.”

A coaching search began with the incompetent Braine in charge. I have it on good authority that word came down from the Hill to hire someone black and cheap. Hewitt is hired, and in the beginning, he was cheap. Braine screwed that up, of course.

But, Hewitt did get GT to the NCAA’s in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 (and the NIT in 2003). He was let go in 2011 after a 13-18 season.

Because of the Hewitt contract, cheap is the only option, and Gregory is hired from a Dayton program that is not that happy with him. Gregory has only had one winning season at GT, making Hewitt look like John Wooden.

And here we are. The program is in a mess, paying two coaches and getting zero results.

Maybe the right solution is to forego cheap and have limited buyout? Over pay salary without hamstringing future moves.

 

[dtm1997]

Brief history of Georgia Tech basketball coaching hires since March, 1993.

In March of 1993, Bobby Cremins took the job at South Carolina. He changed his mind, Homer Rice let him come back, a decision that Rice later called one of the two worst decisions he made as AD.

Cremins’ teams only went to one NCAA tournament in the following 7 years until he “retired.”

A coaching search began with the incompetent Braine in charge. I have it on good authority that word came down from the Hill to hire someone black and cheap. Hewitt is hired, and in the beginning, he was cheap. Braine screwed that up, of course.

But, Hewitt did get GT to the NCAA’s in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 (and the NIT in 2003). He was let go in 2011 after a 13-18 season.

Because of the Hewitt contract, cheap is the only option, and Gregory is hired from a Dayton program that is not that happy with him. Gregory has only had one winning season at GT, making Hewitt look like John Wooden.

And here we are. The program is in a mess, paying two coaches and getting zero results.

Ironic that we're now getting what we paid for, but didn't get what we paid for post-Hewitt contract.

Quick addendum - to Hewitt's credit, he had a 5th NCAA appearance in 2005 with the hobbled Championship team. Everyone was hurt by the time the tourney got started. Jack, Ish, Elder, Jeremis Smith had that terrible knee injury that was one of the most brutal things I've ever seen live.

 

[awbuzz]

Maybe the right solution is to forego cheap and have limited buyout? Over pay salary without hamstringing future moves.

Have to have enough money to be able to get to that point. Right now we are strung out in the cash department.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Have to have enough money to be able to get to that point. Right now we are strung out in the cash department.

GT has plenty of $ but very, very often "out thinks" itself and refuses to see / do what is best for the ENTIRE Institute in the long run.

Cut off our nose to spite our face, or lacking in common sense & comprehension. Whatever it is, we will often find a way to hurt ourselves.

 

[dtm1997]

 

[Stinger90]

GT has plenty of $ but very, very often "out thinks" itself and refuses to see / do what is best for the ENTIRE Institute in the long run.

Cut off our nose to spite our face, or lacking in common sense & comprehension. Whatever it is, we will often find a way to hurt ourselves.

For a school of smarts, we sure do some stupid things.

As one of professor's used to say, K.I.S.S.

 

[kg01]

Probably doesn't deserve it's own thread, but here's a nice little story about former GT commit Bobby Parks.

http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/jazznotes/2627375-155/philippines-guard-bobby-parks-put-family

Kinda confirms what we already knew. His father's diagnosis was the main reason he never became a Jacket. Hope he ends up making it into the league this time.

 

[Techster]

Bobby Parks...wow, there's a name from the memory banks along with Austin Jackson, Al Harrington...

 

[Peacone36]

This kid was always a mystery to me, I could not find much on him when he was committed here but everyone seemed to hold a very high opinion of his ability.

We get bit like this a lot it seems (not that i blame this kid at all.) Austin Jackson, Bobby Parks, Re'Sean Dickey (different sitaution but it still sucked) Al Harrington back in the day. Im sure there are others I cant think of.

 

[Techster]

This kid was always a mystery to me, I could not find much on him when he was committed here but everyone seemed to hold a very high opinion of his ability.

We get bit like this a lot it seems (not that i blame this kid at all.) Austin Jackson, Bobby Parks, Re'Sean Dickey (different sitaution but it still sucked) Al Harrington back in the day. Im sure there are others I cant think of.

Choosing some other kid over Emeka Okafor (or so that's the word).

 

[kg01]

This kid was always a mystery to me, I could not find much on him when he was committed here but everyone seemed to hold a very high opinion of his ability.

We get bit like this a lot it seems (not that i blame this kid at all.) Austin Jackson, Bobby Parks, Re'Sean Dickey (different sitaution but it still sucked) Al Harrington back in the day. Im sure there are others I cant think of.

I don't even want to go down the road of what ifs. Too painful. Especially when you consider we were supposedly in the final 2/3 for both Baron Davis and Tony Parker (San Antonio version).

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-29/sports/sp-53547_1_davis-ucla-commits

As of last week, however, Davis said he was leaning toward signing with Kansas. He had also considered Georgia Tech.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--s...--but-his-resume-tops-them-all-193518653.html

When it came time to decide the next step of his burgeoning basketball career, the San Antonio Spurs' guard was "very close" to going to UCLA or Georgia Tech before opting to begin his pro career in France.

IIRC, there are other articles where Parker states that it was basically GT or pro at the end.

 

[Techster]

I don't even want to go down the road of what ifs. Too painful. Especially when you consider we were supposedly in the final 2/3 for both Baron Davis and Tony Parker (San Antonio version).

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-04-29/sports/sp-53547_1_davis-ucla-commits


http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--s...--but-his-resume-tops-them-all-193518653.html


IIRC, there are other articles where Parker states that it was basically GT or pro at the end.

EVERY school has those "what ifs"...GT isn't the only school.

I think what sucks about the guys being named is they were set to come here if it had not been for professional league money. Austin Jackson....Yankees. Al Harrington...NBA draft. Omeka Okafor...staff stupidity. Baron Davis I thought was more Kansas/UCLA lean but I do remember GT being mentioned.

Did not know about Tony Parker. Wow...thanks for that little info. He would have been our PG around the 2000/01 season...who was our PG at that time? I know Jack came in during the 2002/3 season.

 

[kg01]

EVERY school has those "what ifs"...GT isn't the only school.

I think what sucks about the guys being named is they were set to come here if it had not been for professional league money. Austin Jackson....Yankees. Al Harrington...NBA draft. Omeka Okafor...staff stupidity. Baron Davis I thought was more Kansas/UCLA lean but I do remember GT being mentioned.

Did not know about Tony Parker. Wow...thanks for that little info. He would have been our PG around the 2000/01 season...who was our PG at that time? I know Jack came in during the 2002/3 season.

Tony Akins who I have a pretty funny story about, once the NCAA statue of limitations runs out. Who am I kidding, the statute of limitations never runs out on GT.

 

[forensicbuzz]

EVERY school has those "what ifs"...GT isn't the only school.

I think what sucks about the guys being named is they were set to come here if it had not been for professional league money. Austin Jackson....Yankees. Al Harrington...NBA draft. Omeka Okafor...staff stupidity. Baron Davis I thought was more Kansas/UCLA lean but I do remember GT being mentioned.

Did not know about Tony Parker. Wow...thanks for that little info. He would have been our PG around the 2000/01 season...who was our PG at that time? I know Jack came in during the 2002/3 season.

Michael Southall was 6'10" all-everything. Problem was, he couldn't walk the straight line. I think he was originally going to Kentucky and was arrested on drug charges. GT (Hewitt) gave him a 2nd change. He got arrested for drinking a wine cooler at 19, and then ran when the cops arrived. If I remember correctly, he ended up at Louisianna Monroe or Louisianna Lafayette, and then dropped out. He's the reason we missed on Okafor.

 

[Peacone36]

I didnt know about Tony Parker either.

And yeah im sure every school has a ton of those stories as well but i only follow GT recruiting for the most part. VCU the last few years.

Was Southall who we took instead of Okafor? Who then became Schensher?

 

[Peacone36]

Michael Southall was 6'10" all-everything. Problem was, he couldn't walk the straight line. I think he was originally going to Kentucky and was arrested on drug charges. GT (Hewitt) gave him a 2nd change. He got arrested for drinking a wine cooler at 19, and then ran when the cops arrived. If I remember correctly, he ended up at Louisianna Monroe or Louisianna Lafayette, and then dropped out. He's the reason we missed on Okafor.

It was ULL and he was beastly for a year, I think he was suspended for a while but by late in his career at ULL I almost wanna think they made the tourney once with him.

 

[forensicbuzz]

yeah, he went to oo-la-la, rajun' cajuns. I think he got arrested while he was there, spent some time behind bars, maybe.

 

[Techster]

This doesn't deserve its own thread, but entertaining/deflating at the same time. In a scouting report of Jahlil Okafor:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/r...tial-real-scouts-on-towns-russell-and-okafor/

My point about Okafor is that all that **** you can get away with at Duke, playing Georgia Tech who ****ing blows, and BC — they stink — you can get away with it. When it’s nut-cracking time he revs it up, and I get all of that. There are very few nights off in our league. Sacramento blows, but if you don’t show up to play them, [DeMarcus] Cousins and Rudy Gay will ****ing beat your ***.

[email protected] totally went there...

 

[dtm1997]

BG breaks down some of the new rules coming on line this year. For all the concerns about recruiting at this level & in-game tactics, he certainly can analyze the game.

http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/061915aab.html

 

[RamblinRed]

Okafor was during the 5-8 rule timeframe.
GT had more than 5 scholarships available but could only use 5.
Okafor (who GT had gotten involved with early -similar to what they would do with Bosh), they really liked, but made it known he wouldn't sign in the fall. Hewitt felt like he couldn't afford not to sign any bigs in the fall (if you saw the bigs at the time you would understand why) and decided to give Southall a chance. Mike never made it to campus. Hewitt actually tried to get him on campus early knowing his off court issues - he went home to WI instead and got in trouble and GT released him. By then it was too late for Okafor - he had made other plans. That summer they ended up taking the flyer on Schenscher.

RamblinRed