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Saturday, January 13, 2007
Jackets absorb Morrow’s message
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
In case you haven’t been paying attention, there are many reasons why Georgia Tech is drifting closer to dribbling in early April from this side of North Avenue to the Final Four at the Georgia Dome. Here’s the latest: The previously taciturn Anthony Morrow speaks, and everybody within his Yellow Jacket world listens.
Eighty-one seconds.
That’s the amount of time it took after the opening tipoff on Saturday night against Florida State for Tech coach Paul Hewitt to realize his team was blowing it. Just like that, Achilles’ Heel No. 1 for the Jackets jumped from the shadows of Alexander Memorial Coliseum. We’re talking about turnovers. There was one, and then there was another. Then Florida State was quieting the noisy packed house with what Hewitt was suggesting with a lickety-split timeout was the largest 4-0 deficit in the history of college basketball.
During the subsequent huddle, the coach who can yell with the best of them said … nothing.
“Let me put it this way: I didn’t have to say anything, because I could hear Morrow’s voice really getting on the guys,” Hewitt said of the 6-foot-5 junior who mostly keeps his high-scoring ways on the bench these days. You can blame Morrow’s lacking a start this season on the combination of a creaky back that only now is nearly fully recovered and a slew of gifted teammates who make him only a valuable reserve. Still, the guy who rarely spoke last season while leading the Jackets in scoring and the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage wouldn’t shut up in the huddle after that opening timeout, with Tech showing signs of Duke-itis.
What did you say, Anthony, and were you surprised it helped spur Tech to its seventh victory in eight games?
“I said a lot of stuff today,” Morrow said, laughing, referring to his endless chatter along the way to the Jackets’ 88-80 triumph. “That time, I just told the guys that we need to be patient on offense and we’ll be OK. I told everybody that we really have to lock down on defense. Do better in transition, and really, really do the little things to get us back in the game.”
Little things such as Javaris Crittenton continuing his maturation as a super freshman with steady play on both ends of the court. Little things such as Thaddeus Young continuing his maturation as a super freshman by adding at least decent defense to his already explosive offensive game. Little things such as Mario West continuing as the ultimate defensive terror and glue guy. Little things such as Zach Peacock showing the versatility of Tech’s roster by sinking the easiest of 3-point shots, and he is a backup center.
There also was something else to help the Jackets slay the Seminoles: Talent. Lots of it throughout Tech’s roster. Enough to help the Jackets recover from those early blahs that came in the aftermath of Wednesday’s upset of 11th-ranked Duke.
It’s one thing for the Jackets to do what had been the impossible for them by conquering Duke at home for the first time in 11 years. It’s another to have the Jackets show that the Duke thing wasn’t a fluke by spending another game turning potential into reality. Which brings us to Achilles’ Heel No. 2, or shall we say what used to be as much for the Jackets: Defense. They actually have one after their horrors earlier in the season. What followed for Tech players was a grueling stay at Camp Hewitt during the subsequent Christmas break, and you know the rest.
So do the Jackets’ last eight opponents, all smothered by an improving Tech defense, with Morrow among its leaders. “Just like in this game, it really wasn’t about making shots to me,” Morrow said. “I wanted to get out there and be in better position as a defender, and I know I have a long ways to go. I really want to get better at it.”
He has. We’re referring to his defense and to the use of his tongue.
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Petrino better think about defense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Football coaches are a gypsy lot. Bags packed, will travel. Take the itinerary of Dennis Erickson, who has been in and out, up and down, here and there more than any coach who comes to mind. Idaho, Wyoming, Washington State, Miami, (Seattle Seahawks), Oregon State, (San Francisco 49ers), back to Idaho, and now Arizona State, a team which can be described as a “bowl team” by its press genius. Won seven games, then became Hawaii’s sacrificial victim.
What’s Dennis Erickson got to do with anything? Nothing. It’s just that he has had nine head coaching jobs and he’s still looking for Camelot.
I don’t bring this up to indicate that Bobby Petrino - wonder if he would consider shortening it to Bob, to indicate maturity? - is one of those moving company’s poster boy. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and Bobby Petrino is hot. It was just a matter of time. When the president of a university with a major football background makes a flight to a secret meeting place in a Big Ten state to woo him, and it leaks out, and it gets said president fired, as well as his athletics director - who was an unwilling passenger - that means you are indeed hot.
Dealing with the pros, such subterfuge is not required. Anything goes. While Arthur Blank and Rich McKay were doing whirlwind time making duty interview calls in Chicago and San Diego, Bobby Petrino was already in pocket. I’m a little late getting to the party, but that has no bearing on the case. One severe critic has already turned tail. Two others have worn their palms thin with applause.
Me, I haven’t the foggiest notion what to expect. Based on backstage conversation, I’d say it might be a good idea that Petrino tighten his seat belt and get ready to play some defense. That has not been one of his strong suits. Offense is his game, and he takes no chances there. We’ll see how that goes when he does his own play-calling with the Falcons.
One former associate said, “He has a great grasp on offense, but he never seemed to get it right on defense. He needs a good defensive mind in his corner.”
That’s what assistants are for, and Petrino doesn’t have to be taken to school on that score. He can surely benefit by studying the blunders of his predecessor. Jim Mora had never been head coach of anything. In England he would have been operating with an “L” on his bumper. He came equipped with a ready smile, a biting sense of humor, but unseasoned as a commander-in-chief. One month he is celebrated as a “Hometown Hero,” a few months later he’s out of work.
If any of us had any doubt that he was gone after that delirious radio interview on a Seattle station, we were blind and dumb to reason. There was no way back. Up to the week when Arthur Blank fired him he was still trying to brush it off as a clumsy attempt at humor with coddling interviewers. Even if there had been an ounce of truth in it, no coach with his head on straight would have played that card.
We’ve all been witness to a battery of Falcons firings, and in only one case was the coach gored. Leeman Bennett was sabotaged in the strike season of 1982, when Steve Bartkowski was seated in the playoff game at Minnesota in favor of Mike Moroski, and Rankin Smith Jr. blew a gasket and lost his head at the same time. Mora claimed to have the only winning record, but Bennett had three winning regular seasons and put the best Falcons teams on the field until Dan Reeves came along.
But, I drag my feet through the mire of some ugly history, and we leave it that. The Bobby Petrino Era is here. See what kind of hand he deals you.
(PS: “L” in England stands for “learner.”)
Permalink | Comments (61) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Furman Bisher
