I’m a fan of Georgia Tech sports. That’s why it pains me so much to see the state of the Yellow Jacket basketball team. When I was a student there in 90s, we’d wait for hours to get tickets to a basketball game. We knew at the end of the year it wasn’t if we’d make the NCAAs, it was what seed.
Nine games into the season, and a mediocre 5-4 record, and it’s time to face the facts. This team will need a miracle to make the NCAA’s, and the fans have bolted. Did you see 2/3 full Jacket Home crowd game against the Georgia Bulldogs last Tuesday? Looks like they didn’t miss anything. The Jackets blew a 5 point in the waning minutes to lose 73-72.
Saturday was shaky 69-59 win over a previously 1-9 Savannah St. This game was in single digits with under a minute to play. Earlier in the year there was 20 point loss at Northwestern and a humiliating 80-63 defeat at Kennesaw St.
There are several issues at play here. Georgia Tech has no experience in the front court. Daniel Miller has shown enough to me, that I believe he’ll be a quality big man eventually. He’s a nice player, but can’t carry the Jacket’s inside right now. Savannah St outrebounded Georgia Tech 43-34. The backcourt has had it’s moments, but is far to poor a ball handling and perimeter shooting unit. Don’t even get me started on coach Paul Hewitt.
I really have hard time finding anything any positive to say about his coaching effort this year, or a good portion of last year, or the year before that, or the year before that… Well you get the picture. It’s a shame – Georgia Tech should never be outside the top 6 in ACC basketball. Atlanta is a fertile recruiting base. Georgia Tech has reputation for putting guys into the NBA, but Hewitt fails more times than he succeeds.
