AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2006 > February > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHewitt still seeks pace maker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Seems a little strange to blog about a team I have not yet seen play in person before it gets ready to play tonight at FSU, but here goes …
It’s no secret the Yellow Jackets sorely lack a true point guard, and that they have issues starting plays from the backcourt. From what I gather, though, that’s far from the only issue when it comes to ball movement.
In moving West, Clinch and Tarver into the lineup and taking out Fredrick, Bell and Smith, Paul Hewitt’s looking for more ball movement outside and inside. Apparently, when the ball’s gone inside lately to Dickey or Smith, it has rarely come out.
That’s fine if they score, but apparently opponents have sagged even more recently to make that more difficult. Worse yet, rather than take a quick shot or kick it out quickly to the open man, Dickey and Smith (and others) have forced shots, lost the ball, or had it stolen far too frequently.
I still think Smith is going to get 28-plus minutes.
In general, Hewitt’s looking not only for more ball movement, but for more pace - quicker decisions - shoot, pass or dribble right now; don’t hold the ball.
Oh, and another thing: get some pressure in the backcourt while on defense, and break the press now and then.
Catch you tomorrow — Matt
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Basketball
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By Hairy Dawg
February 9, 2006 04:17 PM | Link to this
Matt, I’ll give you twenty bucks if you’ll switch with Carter Strickland.
By Ga_Tech_92
February 9, 2006 04:46 PM | Link to this
Matt - I think you’ve got it down. The PG is hurting us on many levels. I’m not sure if we will have a solution tonight, but I look at it as a MUST WIN game. Imagine loosing tonight with only harder games remaining…the streak could become EPIC.
We must win tonight.
I hope the guys realize the historical importance.
Again, welcome Matt
By houser1
February 9, 2006 05:10 PM | Link to this
Welcome Matt, It’s great to have a buckeye reporting for ole MaTech. I actually had an old lady that would bring me buckeyes to my college job as a Valet at a cancer center. Is it really chocolate candy or was she just poisoning me slowly? Hopefully, you won’t have the same effect.j/k Actually, I’m glad to have you because most of the other writers at the AJC have been kicking us while we’ve been down. I understand we’ve had a lot of bad issues which result in bad press, but sometimes the timing of articles is questionable. How infused is the AJC with UGA joornalism students? Houser1 p.s. Glad to have you. Stick around and we’re going to have a fun ride.
By SugarDawg
February 9, 2006 07:52 PM | Link to this
Hairy Dawg, I’ll match your twenty and throw in another twenty. Matt, I’m sure we can get more Dawgs to anti up!! Come over to a real blog where the usual bloggers number in the hundreds, not the single digits. Great work on the Falcons, and GO DAWGS!!
By old Tech fan (in NC)
February 10, 2006 09:10 AM | Link to this
Last night, too many turnovers and too much trouble even getting the ball inbounds and across the time line. My Jr High bball coach taught me many years ago to pass the ball with gusto…not the floaters I saw last night. ALSO, the officials in the Duke/FSU game made a mistake with Johnson and the ACC responded. Last night, Johnson should have been involved in a charge/taunting call and was not and the ACC should again respond!
Anybody else agree with that?
By Ga_Tech_92
February 10, 2006 09:32 AM | Link to this
old Tech fan -
I agree about Johnson. I said that as soon as they showed the replay. I was like “OMG and that’s a foul on us? It should be charging and taunting on the other guy.” Alas… I don’t want to get into the refs though, it always sounds like sour grapes and the bottom line is…to hell with them…just win baby! If we hit our threes and get every rebound and don’t turn the ball over, we can’t even loose to the refs. Who cares, but I do tend to agree with you quietly. I don’t think the refs cost us the game though.
I viewed last night as a must win. The guys played like it was most of the game too. Same old problems though…we need a PG to pressure the ball…to get us into easy shots (the guys can shoot and the inside guys are awesome too)…and to CONTROL THE BALL. Take away at least 10 turnovers with a great point guard. Add 2 steals with a great point guard. Add 5 assists with a decent point guard.
You add those three things and we win half the games we lost easily.
The good news is…tomorrow is another day. The guys can learn from what has happened and try to improve. I agree completely that the passes are very soft and appear pretty easy to steal. A great point guard helps this as he makes most of the passes. I’m sorry but every problem I see is greatly diminished with a quality TRUE point guard.
I hope the recruits watching can see how great our shooters are and how dominating our inside guys are. We are ONE piece away from being SO much better.
I hope and pray the guys can win against NC State. They aren’t unbeatable. It is at our house. It’s the 500th win in the house. It ends the horrid streak before we have to face UNC, UM, Duke…easily 3 more potential losses which would push the streak to epic proportions.
The guys are talented. The guys are very good. They lack a playmaker and a defensive stopper AT THE POINT. I hope they don’t hang their heads too much. Look at how diminished Wake is after loosing their PG. It makes a world of difference. Going forward I hope we will ALWAYS have two quality point guards so we can avoid this in the future. We must have two at least because: guys can get hurt, guys can transfer, guys can graduate, guys can go to the NBA, PG can play the 2…but…as we have seen…we CAN NOT have a good season without one. We need 2-3 at all times to insure we never have this problem again.
The good news is, last time I checked we were known as Point Guard U…….let’s rekindle that tradition and keep the shelf full of quality playmakers…if our assist to turnover ratio were improved as much as a good PG can we are a completely different team.
The good news is, our guys are getting a taste of having to handle the ball more, so when we get a quality PG next year…our off the ball guys will be better at handling the ball when they need to…which will be much less than this year fortunately.
By jim
February 10, 2006 09:57 AM | Link to this
I don’t see how one point guard helps the turnover situation. Look at the box score - everybody is turning it over at least 3 times. Morrow had 8 freaking turnovers himself! The whole team needs a lesson in passing the basketball.
By Ga_Tech_92
February 10, 2006 10:08 AM | Link to this
The reason a good point guard helps so much with the turnovers is this:
A good point guard will have the ball in his hands the majority of the time and will give it to guys WHEN THEY ARE IN A GOOD POSITION TO SCORE. This means the other guys will make a lot less passes and have to create a lot less times over the course of the game. That means they have less chances per game to turn the ball over, because a good point guard doesn’t give them the ball in a bad situation in the first place.
What we have right now is a bunch of non-PGs trying to play PG. These guys shouldn’t have to dribble as much as they do nor should they have to make as many passes. I agree they are not nice looking passes and that should be correctable. My point/theory is that when we have a good point guard, all these other guys will be relieved of trying to dribble/create/pass as much as they do now. When they are not trying to do so many things, they will make less mistakes.
I do agree completely though that many of our passes are soft and need to be more controlled. Even with a good point guard running the show, the other guys will still make SOME passes and those passes need to be executed well also to minimize turnovers. A great PG can’t make every pass, but he will make a lot more good ones than what we have been seeing.
Also a little bit of the problem is that the other teams smell blood. It’s a classic problem. If you recognize a team hasn’t got a good PG, you put mad pressure on the ball. This causes many turnovers, it’s no secret. However, if you have a strong PG and the other team knows it….they will tend to play back a little so the PG doesn’t blow by them and create a wide open shot. Right now, the other teams see no reason to play off our guys….so they are up on us like white on rice and it’s no surprise we are turning the ball over because of it (and because of the slack passing…and because of not kicking the ball out of double teams as much as we could…though they were better handling double teams last night).
They are young…this is a painful learning process with no play maker…next year let’s pray our PG play will be what we have come to expect at GT (not counting this year).
Just my two cents
By wes
February 10, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this
Point guard position is EVERYTHING in basketball, on the high school, college, and even the NBA level.
Just look at Wake Forest. They’ve only won 1 ACC game since Chris Paul left. Like Tech, they have no point guard and no chance of postseason play.
Coach Hewitt keeps screaming “it’s my fault”. Then I guess it has to be all Skip Prosser’s fault too, right?
Coach Hewitt is doing the right thing by taking the fall for something that is out of his control…just like the Deacs, the Yellow Jackets lost their point guard early to the NBA draft. That’s something both the Ramblin’ Wreck and Demon Deacon fans can live and indeed suffer through. It’s all been worth it.
By Ga_Tech_92
February 10, 2006 11:03 AM | Link to this
Does anyone know how Javaris Crittenton is doing this year playing the point? It’s my understanding that this is the first year he is playing point. Is his team in the playoffs this year? Does he appear to be a true point guard, or just an off-guard trying to fill in at the point?
-thanks
By wes
February 10, 2006 11:16 AM | Link to this
I don’t know but Javaris is ranked as the #3 rated point guard in the nation next year.