GT sports malaise

[LibertyTurns]

There I said it. GT sports is afflicted with malaise.

I like our coaches & players and our school but leadership at all levels needs to eradicate the malaise infecting our sports programs. There is no excitement, no hope only despair in all of the major sports, fear of what’s going to cause the next loss or poor season instead of figuring out how we’re going to win.

I think it starts at the top, at the levels where strategies are formulated. The fish rots from the head. Does anyone really think we can bring some hotshot superstar in here to sprinkle their magic pixie dust all over us & lead us to the promise land ? If it was that easy all the big money programs would already have done it & there wouldn’t be any hotshots left. Maybe that’s what is already happening?

 

[heyhellowhatsup]

Yup. Hard to say PJ is the only problem when nobody else is having success either besides golf.

Football, Baseball, Basketball, and WBB are all not performing at a good level.

Coincidence, maybe. Or maybe there’s something else going on.

 

[kg01]

Is it anything like teenage angst?

 

[1939hotmagic]

Thank goodness for women's volleyball and tennis.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Thank goodness for women's volleyball and tennis.

and Golf

 

[Coloradojacket]

Yup. Hard to say PJ is the only problem when nobody else is having success either besides golf.

Football, Baseball, Basketball, and WBB are all not performing at a good level.

Coincidence, maybe. Or maybe there’s something else going on.

No coincidence. The realities of Tech and the requirements to get in and pass is the issue. Do we really think that Kenny Anderson could have lasted all 4 years at Tech and graduated.
It is not about schemes and offenses, in this day of hyper athletics it is about the fallacy that every kid who thinks they are great think it is about becoming a Pro player.
Basketball, yea let's go get the 1 and dones....not going to happen.

I read on one of these threads that we can't get big offensive lineman because of the Offense.......we rarely have been able to.

In my 49 years of following Tech we have shinning moments. Final 4 in 1990. Final four in 2003. The Cremins years were special. Bobby Ross had one good year. CPJ has had 2 good years. Baseball we used to be an ACC contender.

During the broadcast of the game yesterday the announcers were talking about the calculus requirement. They both laughed saying they could have never gone to Tech. Even back in the day the story of Dodd going to a recruits house and seeing the Calculus book on the dinner table and then saying, "I see Georgie has been here."

Many on here will slough this off and say that this is not the case. The reason CPJ has been successful is he realizes you need an edge to win at Tech. That is why coming from a service academy made him successful. Maybe what hurts our team some is lack of discipline that service academy guys have. 9 fumbles is not CPJ.

OK so queue up the academics is not the issue.......

 

[lv20gt]

I disagree there is no hope and only despair when it comes to basketball. And Basketball is a good example of how context matters.

In 15-16 we went 21-15, 8-10 in conference and made the NIT. We fired our coach and people were ecstatic we did so.
In 16-17 we went 21-16, 8-10 in conference and made the NIT. Our coach won ACC CoY and fans were ecstatic for that season.

So why did two seasons so similar produce almost completely opposite effects? Because one was the culmination of a coach who had failed so miserably that his, by far, best season, gave no hope of the program going in the right direction. In contrast the other was a new coach who did the same with less and provided reasons to look forward to the future. And even though the following year was bad, in no small part due to a ton of injuries and one of the weirdest off the court stories I can remember, there is still far more hope than we had with gregory after the 15-16 season. Now that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of work to do with the program, there is, but as long as there is a good reason to hope then the situation changes.

Also basketball shows the importance of the head coach when it comes to recruiting. For all his other faults Hewitt was able to attract talent here. It wasn't the best put together teams, often times with messed up PG situations, but at least they had talent. When gregory came in it became very apparent very fast that he couldn't recruit. Once we bring in Pastner we are back into the conversation for a lot more highly rated recruits. We need to start landing them, but the impact of a different coach should be obvious.

So no, maybe there isn't a superstar hotshot that will come here and sprinkle his magic and make us amazing instantly. But you don't need that to re-energize a base. Pastner was in all sorts of trouble at memphis and his hire was a gamble. But it has payed off and even if in year 4 or 5 it becomes clear that he isn't working out that doesn't mean we should have stuck with gregory. If there is no reasonable hope of things getting better, you don't just stick with what isn't working. You change things up.

 

[Lavoisier]

Baseball almost always recruits at a high level. The issues there aren't recruiting or academics, it's coaching.

MBB is both recruiting and coaching. We brought in a guy who's big upside was recruiting and he hasn't produced with a good class yet. He also gets beaten at home by Grambling State, which 100% is poor coaching.

 

[LibertyTurns]

@lv20gt I agree we need to do something & I’m not saying we should hang onto coaches forever when a program becomes mired in the muck. What I was trying to say is a head coaching change is not the panacea some make it out to be. It could very well be what the doc has ordered for short term purposes. Long term a much different approach is needed.

We need a strategy, with buy in from the top. Once in my career I took a new job because leadership was extremely disatisifed with the results & direction of the division. They supposedly liked my ideas, seemed like a great fit, etc until about a month after I took over and they told me in not so many words that what they really wanted was a guy that didn’t rock the boat and would just go with the flow like my predecessor did but would do a much better job at it so they could get the results they demanded without me needing any support. It’s not like there were no changes that could get implemented that would boost performance, it’s just there’s a limit to what was possible pushing the rock up the same hill a different route.

I believe this is how I’d feel if I were a coach at GT. I’m not one so I don’t know what they think. Just my armchair fan perspective of our overall problem.

 

[okiemon]

Yup. Hard to say PJ is the only problem when nobody else is having success either besides golf.

Football, Baseball, Basketball, and WBB are all not performing at a good level.

Coincidence, maybe. Or maybe there’s something else going on.

WBB seems to be recruiting well, despite the so-called malaise. Last time I looked, the #10 ranked class in the country. Maybe CMJ has figured it out.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I disagree there is no hope and only despair when it comes to basketball. And Basketball is a good example of how context matters.

In 15-16 we went 21-15, 8-10 in conference and made the NIT. We fired our coach and people were ecstatic we did so.
In 16-17 we went 21-16, 8-10 in conference and made the NIT. Our coach won ACC CoY and fans were ecstatic for that season.

So why did two seasons so similar produce almost completely opposite effects? Because one was the culmination of a coach who had failed so miserably that his, by far, best season, gave no hope of the program going in the right direction. In contrast the other was a new coach who did the same with less and provided reasons to look forward to the future. And even though the following year was bad, in no small part due to a ton of injuries and one of the weirdest off the court stories I can remember, there is still far more hope than we had with gregory after the 15-16 season. Now that doesn't mean there isn't a lot of work to do with the program, there is, but as long as there is a good reason to hope then the situation changes.

Also basketball shows the importance of the head coach when it comes to recruiting. For all his other faults Hewitt was able to attract talent here. It wasn't the best put together teams, often times with messed up PG situations, but at least they had talent. When gregory came in it became very apparent very fast that he couldn't recruit. Once we bring in Pastner we are back into the conversation for a lot more highly rated recruits. We need to start landing them, but the impact of a different coach should be obvious.

So no, maybe there isn't a superstar hotshot that will come here and sprinkle his magic and make us amazing instantly. But you don't need that to re-energize a base. Pastner was in all sorts of trouble at memphis and his hire was a gamble. But it has payed off and even if in year 4 or 5 it becomes clear that he isn't working out that doesn't mean we should have stuck with gregory. If there is no reasonable hope of things getting better, you don't just stick with what isn't working. You change things up.

Baseball almost always recruits at a high level. The issues there aren't recruiting or academics, it's coaching.

MBB is both recruiting and coaching. We brought in a guy who's big upside was recruiting and he hasn't produced with a good class yet. He also gets beaten at home by Grambling State, which 100% is poor coaching.

Agree that basketball does not have malaise. I don't like basketball since I'm singularly inept at it, but I love Pastner.

In baseball we have the talent to make some noise this year. Maybe we will. Just listen to the games and Wiley will make you believe if there is reason to believe.

In football, we are stuck in a do-loop. No reason to go into the reasons, it is as it is.

Life is too short to pin your hopes on GT athletics. Just enjoy what is good and let the rest go.

 

[laoh]

Volleyball is really fun. I recommend you guys all go. Typically it's 7pm on Fridays and 1pm on Sundays. It's only $4 for a ticket. The UGA game was a sellout and a 5-set thriller. And there's just this energy at O'Keefe that's not present in other college volleyball matches. And with the band, it's LOUUUUDDDD!!!!!

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Agree that basketball does not have malaise. I don't like basketball since I'm singularly inept at it, but I love Pastner.

In baseball we have the talent to make some noise this year. Maybe we will. Just listen to the games and Wiley will make you believe if there is reason to believe.

In football, we are stuck in a do-loop. No reason to go into the reasons, it is as it is.

Life is too short to pin your hopes on GT athletics. Just enjoy what is good and let the rest go.

It seems to me that we always have enough talent in baseball to make some noise. Maybe not enough to go all the way, but certainly enough to be doing more than we have done the last 10 years.