Will we can Brian Gregory

[Techster]

In hindsight, how bad does the decision look to give Gregory a contract extension without ever making a postseason, all the while hemming and hawing on CPJ's contract extension even during the phenomenal 2014 season?

Welcome to big time college athletics, Bobinski.

 

[RamblinRed]

I had no issue with waiting until after the season to give CPJ an extension, he needed to prove himself with his players. After the season he clearly deserved the extension.

i didn't mind the extension for Gregory - as long as there was no change to the initial buyout. But it appears there was and that is basically why he is still here. Why can't we have any AD's who can make good decisions about basketball.

At this point though, we need to keep Gregory - no matter how bad it is, until we are willing to pay for the basketball program - and by that i mean, get rid of all buyouts and spend legit money on a new coach.

After drowning my stupor today I am going to have to change focus to spring recruiting and next year's team (which frankly could be an NCAA team with a good coach, but not likely Gregory) in order not to completely lose my mind.

 

[Techster]

I had no issue with waiting until after the season to give CPJ an extension, he needed to prove himself with his players. After the season he clearly deserved the extension.

i didn't mind the extension for Gregory - as long as there was no change to the initial buyout. But it appears there was and that is basically why he is still here. Why can't we have any AD's who can make good decisions about basketball.

At this point though, we need to keep Gregory - no matter how bad it is, until we are willing to pay for the basketball program - and by that i mean, get rid of all buyouts and spend legit money on a new coach.

After drowning my stupor today I am going to have to change focus to spring recruiting and next year's team (which frankly could be an NCAA team with a good coach, but not likely Gregory) in order not to completely lose my mind.

I just think it looks bad when you give a guy who's never even gotten to .500 in the conference or been to any postseason an extension BEFORE the season, then pretty much telling the fanbase coaches don't need to be extended for recruiting purposes when discussing the CPJ contract situation before the 2014 season...even CPJ has made every postseason and has an ACC title in his GT career. You're sending mixed signals to both coaches and the fanbase. Why couldn't he have had the same approach to Gregory that he did with CPJ? We wouldn't be in the predicament we're in now if he was consistent with the message he was relaying to the press and the public.

The fact that his buyout was reset and we now owe him $2.4m instead of $650K makes it beyond laughable at this point.

 

[CuseJacket]

@ChasonBaller is famous!

"I’ll let this guy sum of Georgia Tech fan’s reaction to the news…"

http://accbasketball.com/brian-gregory-expected-to-return-to-ga-tech/

 

[CuseJacket]

 

[kg01]

LOLOL @ChasonBaller should have to give an acceptance speech. Can I have an autograph?

On another note, has Bobinski ever answered the question as to why BG got extended before (relatively speaking) CPJ? If he indeed wanted to see CPJ "prove" it with his guys then WTF did he need to see from BG?

I was on board with the extension (for recruiting purposes) but didn't know anything about the buyout details. I was dead wrong. Bobinski's job performance is becoming more and more questionable, all things considered. Dragging his feet (perception-wise) on CPJ's extension, extending BG at all, weirdly being absent/silent (before starting his radio gig) and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting.

 

[cyptomcat]

Didn't Bobinski add only a single year to Gregory contract, which is reported by AJC to be $500k in terms of buyout?

So all he did is to change the buyout from $1.9 million to $2.4 million.

Brain and DRad are the main ones responsible for this. Former's Hewitt contract, and latter's hiring of Gregory. Bobinski's hands are tied...

P.S. I wouldn't trust any figures we see on message boards and AJC comments.

 

[Ggee87]

I surely hope these sources are incorrect. I can't watch another season of CBG basketball. I get more excitement from watching a middle school team play than GT under CBG. Honestly... if he stays... We might as well start following a new team. This team has last place in ACC written all over it for years to come. If the comment from an AJC poster is true.. Get on it. Get Mbob out and bring in someone a little more competent with contract negotiations.

 

[cyptomcat]

On another note, has Bobinski ever answered the question as to why BG got extended before (relatively speaking) CPJ? If he indeed wanted to see CPJ "prove" it with his guys then WTF did he need to see from BG?

My guess is he added a year to BG, because he knew we wouldn't have the finances to fire him at the end of last year or this year. On CPJ, he was looking for favorable terms, and he got a hell of favorable terms.

 

[GTrob21]

Wow...Just Wow.... This truly is the "dark ages" for Gt basketball. I fully expect McCamish to be a ghost town next year if true...

 

[Techster]

I surely hope these sources are incorrect. I can't watch another season of CBG basketball. I get more excitement from watching a middle school team play than GT under CBG. Honestly... if he stays... We might as well start following a new team. This team has last place in ACC written all over it for years to come. If the comment from an AJC poster is true.. Get on it. Get Mbob out and bring in someone a little more competent with contract negotiations.

I had to quit watching halfway through the conference slate...and it hurt because GT basketball is one of the big reasons I became a GT fan. CBG's teams tease you just enough to think they can win, only to rip our heart out in the last 2 minutes. My heart could only take so much.

Anyhow, the thing about whether the buyout number is correct or incorrect comes down to this: If it was a lower figure, do you think GT would have this difficult of a time to get rid of him?

Of course, saying all this now, watch CBG make the NCAAs next year.

 

[GTRX7]

The reports may be right, but let's all keep in mind that every single one has been based solely on Jeff Goodman's tweet. I will wait for an official announcement or comment from Tech before I give up hope.

 

[GTJackets]

I guess we should have seen this coming. It completely parallels this past season, right? We kept getting more and more excited. I think we can pull it out this time. Then in the last minute, something completely bizarre happens to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. You name it, we saw it happen this season to cost us a win.

For the last few weeks everyone has been getting their hopes up about the possibility of a new coach and now this. In the last minute everyone gets up thinking today's the day we finally get over the hump.

I would be hard-pressed to come up with a season of any college sport that has been as deflating for a fan base and program from start to beyond finish as this one has been to the GT fans and program.

 

[GT_Inta-neer]

It all comes down to the $$$. With the performance of the program so far under his control in mind, CBG should be fired if, and only if the money is there. With his contract extended in 2013, CBG's contract now runs through the 2017-2018 seasons. That is 3 more years. This is NOT the last year on his contract. The buyout on his contract only got as low as 50% of the base compensation, if that stayed true for the extension as well that would mean that his buyout is currently over $1.5 million. Where is this $650,000 buyout number coming from, because I don't see it being accurate for a coach with 3 more years on his contract. And I am not sure of the rumors that Hewitt's contract is paid off either, I haven't seen a concrete source for that. I don't think that CBG has gotten a team with "all his own guys" on it yet. This team is a bunch of transfers and underclassmen who need to come together. This team almost reset to zero this season. Has it worked out? No. Does a change need to be made? Probably. But only if the money is right, because another season of CBG would not be the end of the world for this team. I think the team will be better next season regardless of the coach. If we can afford a better coach let's do it, if not we will be better anyway.

I wrote this back on the first of March and I think it is still true. Look GT is not, nor will it ever be, Kentucky in men's basketball. GT doesn't bring in a whole herd of the best one and done players in the country every year and we don't want GT to do that. Part of what we are proud of about our school is the school part, the academics. One and done players don't want to hear about the academics, they don't care. So, without those players we need to build a TEAM and that means time together. How many of the players on this years team had played at least one full season of games together actually on the court? Only about 4 of the top 10 in the rotation, MGH, Bolden, Heyward, and Q, two of which normally come off the bench. I expect with a year of actually playing together now the chemistry will be better and we will see a better team next year regardless of who the coach is.

 

[Peacone36]

I wrote this back on the first of March and I think it is still true. Look GT is not, nor will it ever be, Kentucky in men's basketball. GT doesn't bring in a whole herd of the best one and done players in the country every year and we don't want GT to do that. Part of what we are proud of about our school is the school part, the academics. One and done players don't want to hear about the academics, they don't care. So, without those players we need to build a TEAM and that means time together. How many of the players on this years team had played at least one full season of games together actually on the court? Only about 4 of the top 10 in the rotation, MGH, Bolden, Heyward, and Q, two of which normally come off the bench. I expect with a year of actually playing together now the chemistry will be better and we will see a better team next year regardless of who the coach is.

Its not next years record that matters really at all. We might go 4-14 in the ACC. FSU gets WAY BETTER. VT and Wake get better, NC State loses Turner but Barber is a budding star. Pitt will be at least respectable and then the 4 big boys.

Jaylen Brown isnt walking through that door.

The biggest concern is RECRUITING. CBG cant effing do it! He needs Kentucky-esque recruits with ability to make up for his total cluelessness during in game situations. We have possibly 5 scholarships open for next year and a coach in place who has not signed a true impact player in the last 3 classes. I am a Tadric fan no doubt, but all he has shown me so far is he is a really athletic bulk shooter.

 

[kg01]

What we seem to be missing is that we are indeed recruiting 1-and-done's. Just not the kind that actually do anything positive for you before they're gone.

The whole 'wait until everybody's a senior so we can be good' thing is for the birds. There is a happy medium between what UK does and what crap programs do. Unfortunately we're trending more to one side of that discussion than we should be/need to be.

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

I wrote this back on the first of March and I think it is still true. Look GT is not, nor will it ever be, Kentucky in men's basketball. GT doesn't bring in a whole herd of the best one and done players in the country every year and we don't want GT to do that. Part of what we are proud of about our school is the school part, the academics. One and done players don't want to hear about the academics, they don't care. So, without those players we need to build a TEAM and that means time together. How many of the players on this years team had played at least one full season of games together actually on the court? Only about 4 of the top 10 in the rotation, MGH, Bolden, Heyward, and Q, two of which normally come off the bench. I expect with a year of actually playing together now the chemistry will be better and we will see a better team next year regardless of who the coach is.

I'm pretty sure everyone was saying the same thing (that's bolded) a year ago this time. We got worse...

 

[ATL1]

Awful Just Awful...

 

[Andewa]

Please ease up on MBob. He was given a BBall program with shackles on its arms and legs. As much as we all want CBG gone, we can't get a top coach until we get the shackles off. Braine put us in this situation, not MBob.

 

[dtm1997]

Please ease up on MBob. He was given a BBall program with shackles on its arms and legs. As much as we all want CBG gone, we can't get a top coach until we get the shackles off. Braine put us in this situation, not MBob.

Braine absolutely put us in the majority of our current position, but MBob put himself a meaningful extra $1MM in the hole. Had he avoided that misstep, the donors aren't scoffing at the notion of him compounding the existing mistake and have probably funded the buyout by now.