IF Pastner is fired, who would be a good hire to replace him?

[slugboy]

@AUFC , I'm also wary of making a move due to the questionable prospects of actually finding a marked improvement out there.

But I tend to think next year will be it's own animal and not a progression from what we're currently seeing. Franklin has been a huge part of what we're seeing as has Terry. No guarantee we'll find day-1 contributors like that. And no guarantee we won't waste another 2/3 or 4/5 of a season tryna force a square offensive peg into a round hole.

So I guess I'm more 'hopeful' than optimistic.
Not arguing, just sharing thoughts.

If I do a “put myself in the shoes of the AD” thought experiment:

• First, Batt has to count noses. Where do the big donors lean, and do you have enough leaning in any particular direction to make a decision?
• If there’s big demand for a big change and big funding, you have a public search. Since we haven’t seen anything in ESPN or the AJC, I’m guessing this isn’t the case. Batt can stay quiet, but boosters would not.
• Otherwise, If there’s willingness to change for the right coach, you look quietly. If a lottery ticket comes in, you act. We could be in this category.
• After the last two years, I don’t think boosters believe Pastner is the chosen one. If they did, wallets would be open, and we’d attract more boosters. That leaves Batt with “can I improve my hand without discarding my HC card?” The options here are staff changes or additions. Either a recruiter or an offensive guru are obvious additions. Or both.
• If you can’t get the support for any of those options, you either stand pat or shift funding to other sports.

 

[orientalnc]

If I do a “put myself in the shoes of the AD” thought experiment:

• First, Batt has to count noses. Where do the big donors lean, and do you have enough leaning in any particular direction to make a decision?
• If there’s big demand for a big change and big funding, you have a public search. Since we haven’t seen anything in ESPN or the AJC, I’m guessing this isn’t the case. Batt can stay quiet, but boosters would not.
• Otherwise, If there’s willingness to change for the right coach, you look quietly. If a lottery ticket comes in, you act. We could be in this category.
• After the last two years, I don’t think boosters believe Pastner is the chosen one. If they did, wallets would be open, and we’d attract more boosters. That leaves Batt with “can I improve my hand without discarding my HC card?” The options here are staff changes or additions. Either a recruiter or an offensive guru are obvious additions. Or both.
• If you can’t get the support for any of those options, you either stand pat or shift funding to other sports.

Your point #5 is the one place I don't think we are headed. There's clearly a desire among donors to have a winning basketball team or McCamish would never have been built. I believe boosters like Pastner personally and wish he could be the right choice. They also doubt he will be successful. He has definitely made some offensive changes and the team is playing their hearts out right. The games are fun again. (I wish the Duke and Louisville debacles had not happened).

 

[kg01]

This. For me, my frustrations evolve strongly from a seeming lack of adjustment to our current roster.

I failed at this with my last team. Our previous iterations ran a set offense and played grinder ball. When I got better athletes, I wasted some time trying to fit them into the old paradigm. By the time we converted to an up tempo pressure defense team and found a rhythm, half our season was in the bucket. My fault.

I see CJP insisting on running our grinder offense and it makes me nash my teeth. We could be and should be better on offense. Give Deivon the rock and run, instead of running sets.....

I'm glad you put it thus way because mine isn't necessarily a criticism of Pastner specifically. It's more a criticism of the 'coaching' mindset overall.

Most think, "Bwah, thas what we worked on in practice so thas all we can do." I understand that, to a point, but it doesn't forbid you to try something. Maybe, as you put it, your personnel would be better suited to run only a percentage of your illustrious playbook. Maybe you should work on other things in practice to expand your horizons.

It plagues all coaches to a degree, jmho. My criticism, as it relates to our guy, is we shouldn't have had to waste as much time as we did. And it's quite likely we start the whole process over next year. We're too far down the road, in his tenure, to be doing that.

 

[Root4GT]

At this point I'm not in favor of canning Pastner after this season. The very high chance we are unable to replace him with anyone better while eating the bill, plus I want to keep that Soph core together. I think if we can get another mid-major F/C like Franklin (big ask), we are a bubble team next year. This team trajectory follows the 2019-20 season very closely - they've finally found an offensive flow/chemistry/BBIQ that gets them open looks and let's them score like we know they can. Now that that's in place, we just need to do it for the full 30+ games rather than the final 10 games.

Of course then we maybe just end up with a Jeff Capel situation where we need to extend/fire Pastner after next season's NCAAT berth and go for round 3 of this cycle. The other possibility is we fire Pastner and fill the entire '23-'24 team with transfers and roll the dice there. It's not as bad of a strategy as it sounds.

Until we get a true lead guard that can shoot and penetrate we will have an offense that struggles against good defensive teams. We don't get enough open 3 point shots to shoot at a high percent nor do we get easy baskets at the rim while picking up fouls. Of course we are a terrible free throw shooting team less Terry and Kelly. The team needs a major infusion of talent to get out of the ACC cellar race. We have 1 good win this year against a quality team (Miami) in 27 games. Thinking the core group will be an NCAAT team year is 100% over the top optimistic.

 

[MWBATL]

Until we get a true lead guard that can shoot and penetrate

Are there many unicorns out there??

 

[Root4GT]

Are there many unicorns out there??

Actually 8-10 ACC teams have such a player. They are not uncommon. We had one 2 years ago.

 

[iopjacket]

I think Pastner gets another year, just because football currently has all the interest. IMHO, there is talent on the team. God, I hope, CJP makes great use of his borrowed time.

 

[Peacone36]

In some states, a DV call requires an arrest of somebody by the responding officers. Not saying that's what happened here. I believe it was stated somewhere he admitted being hands on with the Ms. So, I'd say he's a no around our parts.

We'll find the right guy.

Given our recent history of both coaches and AD's what in the world makes you think that??

 

[Peacone36]

I think Pastner gets another year, just because football currently has all the interest. IMHO, there is talent on the team. God, I hope, CJP makes great use of his borrowed time.

Of course he does. We aren't interested in being successful

 

[orientalnc]

Of course he does. We aren't interested in being successful

This is not even decent sarcasm. You should be above this.

 

[Peacone36]

This is not even decent sarcasm. You should be above this.

Who said I was being sarcastic?

 

[GTThor]

The basketball program is in shambles. I don’t know what the answer is. I like Pastner. Is he the problem? Has collegiate athletics just passed us by? Can we not recruit anymore because of the changing landscape? Is it academics? Is there just no interest in Tech among athletes right now?

What’s wrong?

 

[RonJohn]

The basketball program is in shambles. I don’t know what the answer is. I like Pastner. Is he the problem? Has collegiate athletics just passed us by? Can we not recruit anymore because of the changing landscape? Is it academics? Is there just no interest in Tech among athletes right now?

What’s wrong?

I think the biggest issue is NIL, and the total lack of an NIL program at GT.

GT has some good players, but not at every position. I think GT has been able to scrounge and get good players to come, even with the NIL disadvantage. However, the team is very weak at the moment because of the big man position. Not trying to speak poorly of the big guys, but the only "big" guy on the team that is a threat to score and pass the ball out is 6'7". I read somewhere that there are two players making waves in the ACC this year that wanted to come to GT, but didn't specifically because they got money at the other schools, while GT (or GT affiliated NIL boosters) couldn't or wouldn't offer them anything.

I am not saying that GT would be winning the ACC every year if things were different. What I am saying is that GT is far behind the rest of the conference on this issue. If we want the team to be successful, we have to hope that something like the The Tech Way is able to attract and retain talent.

 

[mstranahan]

If NIL is the problem, what explains the last 15 years of mediocre / poor talent (leaving out Jose and Moses)

 

[Techwood Relict]

Given our recent history of both coaches and AD's what in the world makes you think that??

Earnestly, because I prefer to be an optimist. I've worked for 20+ years arresting and/or prosecuting society's less than finest. I get more than my fill of negative daily dosage.
Sports is a nice distraction for me and I like rooting for my less than highly successful alma mater. That means I hope ADJB identifies an improved coach for our circumstances. CJP is a nice enough fella, but I think we've seen his ceiling. I'd like to take a swing with a different coach and ADJB is the man making the decision, so he has my optimistic support.

James 1:12 Happy are those who remain faithful under trials

 

[RonJohn]

If NIL is the problem, what explains the last 15 years of mediocre / poor talent (leaving out Jose and Moses)

(and leaving out: Lawal, Favors, Shumpert, Rice, Georges-Hunt, Okogie, Lammers, .....)

The Hewitt contract pushed us into getting a bridge coach who wasn't going to lead the team anywhere. Pastner started out strong (relatively), and then the Ron Bell disaster happened. Then NIL happened and left GT very far behind. My biggest concern is that we might be too impatient and try to get a new coach before a good structure is in place. I think that will present a high chance of getting a bridge coach again, which will push any real progress out for four or five years.

Pastner may or may not be able to succeed with a good structure, but I think we are better off with him trying than starting from scratch with a bridge coach. Wait a year to get the structure in place and then make a decision out of strength instead of making a decision right now out of desperation.

 

[orientalnc]

Who said I was being sarcastic?

I hoped that was the case, otherwise you are simply wrong about GTAA not being interested in winning. This team has issues with its roster makeup and three players we thought would be contributing this year are not currently playing. But the team is competing and playing decent basketball.

You were once a respected contributor on the Swarm, but the constant negativity has gotten old.

 

[Root4GT]

(and leaving out: Lawal, Favors, Shumpert, Rice, Georges-Hunt, Okogie, Lammers, .....)

The Hewitt contract pushed us into getting a bridge coach who wasn't going to lead the team anywhere. Pastner started out strong (relatively), and then the Ron Bell disaster happened. Then NIL happened and left GT very far behind. My biggest concern is that we might be too impatient and try to get a new coach before a good structure is in place. I think that will present a high chance of getting a bridge coach again, which will push any real progress out for four or five years.

Pastner may or may not be able to succeed with a good structure, but I think we are better off with him trying than starting from scratch with a bridge coach. Wait a year to get the structure in place and then make a decision out of strength instead of making a decision right now out of desperation.

Good to know winning 10 at most out of 40 Conference games is better than the alternative. Unless we get several high level transfers in we will be luck to win 5 conference games next year. Might get 1000 GT fans at home games. But lets let it ride for a while longer.

 

[dtm1997]

If NIL is the problem, what explains the last 15 years of mediocre / poor talent (leaving out Jose and Moses)

We didn't illegally drop bags like dook.

 

[RonJohn]

But lets let it ride for a while longer.

Or, let's make an immediate change with no preparation, and continue like this for five more years.

Pastner may not be the answer, and might not be at GT for long. Even so, the program is not in a good position as compared to the rest of the ACC. Changing the HC will not change that. I don't think there is ANY coach who will get GT into a good position unless the structure is fixed. I don't think there is any outstanding coach who will accept the position at GT unless the structure is fixed first.

It is like wanting to change the wallpaper and furniture at your house while the foundation and structure of the house is rotting away. If the structure of the program isn't fixed, GT will never be relevant again. I am not saying to "let it ride for a while longer". I am saying fix the d*** structure first, then decide what the next steps are. Trying to change the HC before fixing the other things is like the attitude of a three year old throwing a tantrum.