Techster
Helluva Engineer
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I wrote this in another thread, and it's pretty much the gist of that article:
Maybe Pastner is what GT needs right now. A coach that's a bit broken in some respects, but still has a high ceiling. Afterall, isn't that how you would describe GT basketball right now? Had this hire happened just 3 years ago, Pastner would have been a coup and GT would have exulted Bobinski. But the reality is, GT was always going to get the imperfect coach regardless of if it was Capel (Oklahoma questions), Drew (inexperience in this region), Kelsey (too green and not enough success at a lower level), Laranaga (no college experience). Drew was the "cleanest" hire of the bunch, even then we were split on his fit for GT.
It's a situation where both coach and school need each other. In Pastner, we get a guy with a tremendous upside, but has issues that he needs to work through. Remember, Pastner is still considered a young coach. He's accomplished things in his career most coaches will never accomplish. The belief is a change of scenery and learning from his mistakes at Memphis will help him move forward into an even better coach at GT.
One of the things that I keep hearing is that Pastner at GT is a MUCH better fit that Pastner at Memphis because of CJP's values and GT's academics. We all know GT can be a very good job, but it's not right now. It's a broken job, and not many coaches are willing to risk their careers to come here and fix it. We just found that out the hard way...and it was certainly humbling. Enter Pastner. A guy who has a high upside because of his recruiting prowess which is ideal given the enormous talent that pours out of Atlanta every year. GT doesn't get the CJP's unless there are imperfections, and the last two seasons at Memphis has made the college basketball world think differently of Pastner from when he was once considered one of the top young coaches in all of basketball.
GT can help Pastner as much as Pastner can help GT. Hopefully it plays out the way we all hope...that CJP ends up our Norman Dale.
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