I was browsing on all the blogs I have listed on the main page of the website and I was checking out this one blog and noticed an article on Paul Hewitt who some people have suggested would be an upgrade over Norm...Please read this and then tell me if you feel the same way or if something sounds familar....
http://suckatsports.blogspot.com/2008/01/paul-hewitt-under-radar-terrible.html
In my two and a half years in Atlanta, I have had the luxury of being entertained several times by Georgia Tech's basketball team and their head coach, Paul Hewitt. I say entertained because I certainly get a laugh from every game. As I've stated in previous articles, I think Paul Hewitt does not get enough attention for being an overrated coach. How can someone out of the spotlight be overrated you might ask? Easy, just cruise through year after year regarded as a solid but not spectacular coach while secretly being very mediocre.
I will give Hewitt credit for two things: recruiting and defense. Hewitt has an uncanny ability to continue to pull in high profile recruits from the local Atlanta area as well as the rest of Georgia and South Carolina. Not a huge talent pool but good for 1 McDonald's All-American a year and a few top 50 players. That's very big for a mid-tier basketball program. The players he recruits are often super athletic and play with fierce emotion which is obvious when you see them. When I credit Georgia Tech's defense, I credit the players' effort and hustle and not so much any knowledge of defense whatsoever. So in reality, Georgia Tech's defense is a byproduct of good recruiting and not at all due to defensive principles. I guess you could call Georgia Tech's defense a pressure based man-to-man and successful in getting the occasional turnover, but these plays are usually based on athleticism and pure luck. The defensive rotations of the teams are always good but Georgia Tech also relies on an odd collapse of the opposing player and basically mauling while hoping for no foul call. Not a good strategy when you've already got good position, so I'm not sure what Hewitt is exactly telling these kids. Somehow the ACC refs always let them get away with murder down low.
And now, brass tacks. Hewitt's players are all very athletic and can certainly out-jump almost any team, but are TERRIBLE at rebounding. I don't know if anyone has told Hewitt, but teaching your kids how to box out is very important. The players certainly have the talent and desire to get the rebound but they rarely have the right position. It is not uncommon to see an opposing player easily sneak into the lane for an offensive rebound with absolutely NO contest from a GT player. Tom Izzo would have a heart attack with these teams. Even though this is a glaring problem with all GT teams, I have never seen a game where the players consistently box out their man. You'd think that Hewitt would address this (and this would not be difficult), but I've never seen improvement in this regard.
Game management is also a big problem for Hewitt. I've seen more than a few games now where Hewitt leaves himself with little to no timeouts left for crucial moments of a tight game. I know that the Jackets are inexperienced and need to be calmed down but his timeout management is atrocious and leaves GT with even more confusion for the final minutes. In addition, Hewitt has very odd substitution patterns in which he regularly removes players who are obviously doing extremely well at the moment. I'm not sure if he just assumes they need to rest (which they probably don't since they are super athletic) or if he just has no idea what to do because he seems to be intentionally sabotaging himself by interrupting the flow of offense. Seeing 4 players substituted at the same time for no reason is not uncommon and certainly confusing to any fan.
Finally (and most importantly), Hewitt enjoys running what I call the "Take the ball and do something with it" offense. This usually consists of a PG dribbling the ball back and forth looking for non-existent openings while the forwards and big men pretend to fight for position and feign movement off the ball. Trust me, nothing is happening. There are very few set plays run by Georgia Tech and I see very few screens set for the shooters. Even the screens that are set are very weak and ineffective. Perhaps this is a motion offense that Hewitt is trying to run, except for the fact that there is never any motion. Most of the time the supposed GT half-court offense breaks down into 3 plays:
1. PG dribbles into the lane and jacks up a floater while being swarmed by 3 much taller defenders
2. PG gets trapped 40 feet from the basket, picks up his dribble, and gives it up as the shot clock winds down, resulting in a PF or C jacking up a three
3. Big man gets it down low and drives to the middle of the lane and gets swarmed, forcing a shot over 3 defenders, hoping to out-jump everyone and miracle shot it in. They then act surprised when it gets blocked or doesn't fall.
I don't think in the history of watching GT basketball I have seen an offensive play run where someone gets a legitimate open shot by design. The occasional open 3 is only created by confusion on the defense from a dribble drive. But even the village idiot could teach that. Paul Hewitt doesn't believe in Xs and Os, apparently he's hands off. Very hands off.
So how does Georgia Tech score? Well, Sonny Perdue must be praying on the steps of Washington again or something because every bounce seems to go Georgia Tech's way, resulting in easy offensive putbacks. Many times a contested shot bounces off the rim and just falls into a GT player's lap. Either that or GT players merely hack on offensive boards and get easy layups. I am always amazed at how many times I put my hands up and say, "wow that was really lucky" in regards to a GT basket. Oh and who can forget the brilliantly designed, "jack up a 3 with 30 seconds left on the shot clock and hope it goes in" play? The worst part about this is that Hewitt seems to not mind this strategy whereas any decent coach would go mad. Does Hewitt seriously just tell his kids, "hey, try to dribble it inside and hope something good happens, maybe you can out-jump everyone"? Or "hey jacking up 3s is cool because the defense isn't set". In late game situations, instead of running multiple screens and cuts to get an open shot, Hewitt winds up designing a play with maybe ONE cross-screen which doesn't fool the defense and results in a difficult contested long jumper. Seriously, I run those plays with my intramural team and it doesn't even work there.
Teams that feed off high emotion like Georgia Tech make many runs in games, but they don't consistently perform. Do you know who does consistently win? Ice cold hearted teams with well designed plays and solid principles that don't get fazed by crowds and emotion like the San Antonio Spurs.
The fact that Paul Hewitt has remained off the hot seat is miraculous to me. He is not getting enough attention for sucking. After the close loss to UNC, I heard a bitter fan yell, "I'm sick of these #$%^ing refs, man!" Trust me, the refs had nothing to do with it. Until Hewitt learns how to design an offense, teach rebounding, and manage the game better, be prepared for many years of Georgia Tech basketball coming just short. At least it's exciting.