Is GT Basketball a Good Job?

[GTL]

Wasn't Hewitt not amongst our top 5 choices? Anyone know the story behind that, and why we couldn't get a top choice coach then?

I am ignoring the coaching hire where we got CBG (who clearly also wasn't a top choice) because we were heavily constrained by Hewitt's contract.

I don't know if Hewitt was a top 5 choice or not, but Braine was determined to hire a black coach. With that as the #1 criteria, it somewhat limited our choices. There was a contingent pushing for Buzz Peterson from App State and it was rumored MP was given a perfunctory interview. Rumor had it Braine burned some bridges among some supporters during the search. He looked like a genius for a while, but all too soon it turned to crap.

 

[GTrob21]

Back to the OP question... The answer right now is NO. We have had some really tough years, and we definitely don't have momentum. However GT has tons of potential.

There is no reason why we should be top 25 most years and in the NCAA, with the talent in our backyard, and history, I really believe GT could be a basketball sleeping giant.

We have dug ourselves in a pretty deep hole financially here. I still think MBOB fires gregory come monday or tuesday. We will see how this plays out

 

[tymks0555]

If we don't have the money, why dig a deeper hole. If CBG gets canned, we will be paying 2 coaches that are no longer at Tech while trying to come up with the money to pay a 3rd. God help us if that 3rd coach does turn the program around and win. He'll be gone to a higher paying college while we hunt for another coach this time next year. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying CBG is the man that will definitely turn Tech around but he Damn sure isn't the man that's going to run the program further in the ground. Thus the reason we hired CBG when we did. I don't even believe his first year should have counted. Again, I am not happy with the current situation the men's BB program is in. I just think we should wait until we can at least give a competitive contract to the next coach just in case the next coach is able to make Tech competitive on the court again.

 

[RamblinRed]

GT is absolutely a good job - Top 30 nationally good. The only reason it isn't seen that way is because the AA doesn't currently have the money to make it feel that way - or want to spend money to make it that way.

All these articles recently about how its not that great a job, how GT may have to hire an asst - come down to one thing - money for coaches. We are currently one of the 2 worst paying jobs in the ACC -as long as that is what we are going to do, that is what we are going to get. it feels like there is a campaign underway to keep Gregory based on the articles that have come out the last week or so.

GT plays in the ACC - the most prestigious basketball conference in the country. The conference that the highest percentage of top HS players want to play in and eventually sign with (go look at recruiting rankings to see how many Top 100 and Top 150 talents sign with the ACC - it is far above the 2nd best conference).

GT sits in metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia. One of the Top 10 recruiting areas for college basketball in the country.

GT has some of the best facilities of any college basketball program in the country. I've had multiple friends from other schools come up and tell me how impressed they are with McCamish as a facility.

The only thing holding this program back is a desire by the AA and the donors to want to have a good program. The going rate for a middle 1/3 ACC coach is currently around $2M. We are paying just over $1. Until we get our financial house in order and make it a priority to have a winning program we simply will not have one.

I've followed GT basketball for 33 years and I don't think i've ever been as depressed about the program as i am right now. It's not because of the coaching, it's because of the administration. The last 3 AD's have made horrendous decisions that have negatively impacted the program. The most recent appears to be that MBob reset the buyout when he did the extension. Why he would do that beats me - but that is the only way the current buyout could be $2.4M. When Gregory was hired, the AJC had a PDF of his contract (from an open records request), that appears to no longer be on their website. I misquoted the buyout for now based on the fact I forgot the original contract was 6 yrs not 5. So rather than the 650K I had been saying - it should have been about $1.4M. But that still beats $2.4M by a longshot. That is on MBob.

At some point the AA and the big donors have to make a decision. Do they want GT to be relevant again in basketball, or are we simply going to have a shiny building and be the punching bag for the rest of the league.

 

[kg01]

GT is absolutely a good job - Top 30 nationally good. The only reason it isn't seen that way is because the AA doesn't currently have the money to make it feel that way - or want to spend money to make it that way.

All these articles recently about how its not that great a job, how GT may have to hire an asst - come down to one thing - money for coaches. We are currently one of the 2 worst paying jobs in the ACC -as long as that is what we are going to do, that is what we are going to get. it feels like there is a campaign underway to keep Gregory based on the articles that have come out the last week or so.

GT plays in the ACC - the most prestigious basketball conference in the country. The conference that the highest percentage of top HS players want to play in and eventually sign with (go look at recruiting rankings to see how many Top 100 and Top 150 talents sign with the ACC - it is far above the 2nd best conference).

GT sits in metro Atlanta and the state of Georgia. One of the Top 10 recruiting areas for college basketball in the country.

GT has some of the best facilities of any college basketball program in the country. I've had multiple friends from other schools come up and tell me how impressed they are with McCamish as a facility.

The only thing holding this program back is a desire by the AA and the donors to want to have a good program. The going rate for a middle 1/3 ACC coach is currently around $2M. We are paying just over $1. Until we get our financial house in order and make it a priority to have a winning program we simply will not have one.

I've followed GT basketball for 33 years and I don't think i've ever been as depressed about the program as i am right now. It's not because of the coaching, it's because of the administration. The last 3 AD's have made horrendous decisions that have negatively impacted the program. The most recent appears to be that MBob reset the buyout when he did the extension. Why he would do that beats me - but that is the only way the current buyout could be $2.4M. When Gregory was hired, the AJC had a PDF of his contract (from an open records request), that appears to no longer be on their website. I misquoted the buyout for now based on the fact I forgot the original contract was 6 yrs not 5. So rather than the 650K I had been saying - it should have been about $1.4M. But that still beats $2.4M by a longshot. That is on MBob.

At some point the AA and the big donors have to make a decision. Do they want GT to be relevant again in basketball, or are we simply going to have a shiny building and be the punching bag for the rest of the league.

Thanks for chiming in. Good stuff, as always. I'm willing to give you a mulligan on the buyout number.

At some point we have to put our foot in the sand and change the current state of things. It won't be comfortable money-wise but it's for the best in the long run. If we keep nibbling, via hiring low-money coaches, and trying to crawl our way back the program will quickly approach mid-major in the ACC status.

 

[AE 87]

We played the ACC champ to 5pts in two regulation games combined. Is that because insufficient talent was coached up or sufficient talent was poorly coached?

 

[slugboy]

... The last 3 AD's have made horrendous decisions that have negatively impacted the program. The most recent appears to be that MBob reset the buyout when he did the extension. Why he would do that beats me - but that is the only way the current buyout could be $2.4M. When Gregory was hired, the AJC had a PDF of his contract (from an open records request), that appears to no longer be on their website. I misquoted the buyout for now based on the fact I forgot the original contract was 6 yrs not 5. So rather than the 650K I had been saying - it should have been about $1.4M. But that still beats $2.4M by a longshot. That is on MBob.

Almost everywhere I know of, multi-million dollar contracts get reviewed by multiple people--finance, legal, etc. As an extension (renewal), maybe it didn't get the same review. I don't know what happened here, but if 3 AD's in a row are making contract mistakes, maybe something else needs fixing.

 

[Ggee87]

We played the ACC champ to 5pts in two regulation games combined. Is that because insufficient talent was coached up or sufficient talent was poorly coached?

Its a style of basketball that doesn't allow the other team to score in the half court. The downside to that is... we can't score in transition. With our O being ranked in the 200+ range, that just doesn't work out well in the end. It's JUST enough to lose by a handful but never really have an opportunity to put the game away.