AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 01 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.US‘Youth’ is no excuse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I read on a previous blog that nobody should be surprised Tech is struggling because while the freshmen are gifted, they’re just freshman. That’s hooey.
The ACC is littered with freshmen making major impacts, and in some cases being heavily depended upon.
Thaddeus Young was the preseason pick as ACC rookie of the year. If voting were today, UNC’s Wright (who trailed Young among Tennessee prep players), perhaps Lawson, Duke’s Scheyer, and N.C. State’s Brandon Costner (a medical redshirt last season) likely would finish higher in voting. There may be others I can’t think of.
There are nine regular-season games left, though, plus the ACC Tourney to change perceptions and reality.
Tech doesn’t need to worry only about getting Young un-tracked. The Jackets need freshman PG Javaris Crittenton to straighten up. The offense starts there, and he more than any player on the team is by virtue of position and personality stationed to affect a makeover. He’s very gifted, but not playing with confidence, or well. That’s as much a surprise to me as Tech struggling the way it is.
He came in head-strong yet very, very receptive to coaching. But this four-game stretch has sunk him. He’s forcing his shots and his passes (five straight failed alley-oop attempts by my unofficial count), and worse, it appears to be bothering him to the point where it’s affecting the way he plays.
Freshmen can get it done, period. Again, if voting were today, the national player of the year would probably be Kevin Durant, of Texas. He killed Texas Tech last night (37 points, 23 rebounds), and this time a year ago, he and Young were ranked neck-and-neck nationally by many. And he’s been doing this all season, not quite to the extent of last night, mind you.
Young, by his nature, is not aggressive. He needs to be moreso, and Hewitt and the staff were on him about that from before Tech’s very first game. He went through a stretch in December where he played with more purpose, and he was the only Tech player who pushed that way at North Carolina, albeit late in the game. Ditto at Maryland. And he was ill at the time, and coming off a root canal against Maryland.
Then he vanished against Virginia Tech while still sick, but feeling better he said. And after his very nice start at Wake Forest, he and Javaris faded into the woodwork.
I know Hewitt has said all along that for this team to do anything significant, it couldn’t depend on its freshman past a point, that upperclassmen would have more say in it. Nobody can disagree that the upperclassmen have to get busier than they have been.
But there is three year’s worth of evidence to suggest that Tech’s upperclassmen cannot be prudently counted upon to perform past a point. It’s a bonus when they do.
It’s too early, isn’t it, for Young and Crittenton to be programmed that way?
Because of their positions, especially Crittenton’s, and their talent, they have the ability far more than any other two players to change this team’s lot. Maybe it’s time to turn them loose, although I admit I don’t know exactly what
Comments
By GT
February 1, 2007 05:18 PM | Link to this
Great input. I think we are back to this leadership thing. Carolina is a freshman team but their best player is a sophomore and maybe the best player in college basketball. I listened to talk radio the other day talk about who was the best player in the NBA. The host was saying now if we talking about the best team player we talking about Nash but if we are talking the best talent we talking Bryant. Why should there be a difference, you should be talking about the player you would pick first in a pickup game if you had a million dollars bet on the game to win. Sports is not a side show like wrestling, there is one purpose and that is to win. I think the pros have forgotten that sometimes as they try to fill the place up. College basketball at its purest form is art. The sad thing is the freak show at the next level is tainting every level below it. Why learn a system you are only going to be in briefly. There will be a day when the goose stops laying the golden egg. People will and are becoming sick of pro sports and of college sports for what the pros has done to it. There will be no sport’s page or any interest in it and on and on. All these great strides of minorities and mediocrity will go to waste when the public just doesn’t care, because the product is no longer worth watching.
By GLB
February 1, 2007 05:35 PM | Link to this
This has been one hell of a disappointing season. We have trouble making 2 passes before some one panics and almost turns it over. I’m so tired of this stupid road losing streak, it is pathetic.
By Jackets = Hawks
February 1, 2007 05:45 PM | Link to this
Sorry to say but the Jackets mirror “your” Atlanta Hawks. Both teams have talented young players that put it together one game and then take 4 games off. Both teams play with no energy most of the time. Both teams have coaches that have no answers. Suffice to say that basketball inside 285 flat out stinks!
By Ramble ON!
February 1, 2007 06:05 PM | Link to this
Hewitt said last year was his worst year of coaching…I guess, he wants to say it again.
By Dairyland GT
February 1, 2007 06:25 PM | Link to this
Even though I live way up north, it’s plain to see that Hewitt is “losing” the team. They are playing worse as the year goes on and either come out flat or wear down during each game. This tells me one thing , the players have no confidence in their coaches or themselves. Hewitt appears to be a coach that needs overwhelming talent to overcome his inability to coach. Notice how , year after year, players come to the good (UNC, Duke, etc) programs and get *fundamentally * better. They work on their weaknesses - which all players have - and polish their better skills . This is coaching and we haven’t really had it at GT since Whack Hyder IMO. We’ve had good recruiters, but not teachers….
By WillGT
February 1, 2007 07:15 PM | Link to this
This sounds like a lot of ruminating to me Matt.
By Matt Winkeljohn
February 1, 2007 08:27 PM | Link to this
This is ruminating, AND pontificating. Bonus day here at the AJC.
Matt
By MS
February 1, 2007 09:12 PM | Link to this
This has become a soft team that plays without instinct or intensity. They bring the ball in from out of bounds, and ingnore the unguarded teammate standing right in front of the inbounder in order to continue running “the inbound play”. That speaks volumns about how this team is coached, why they are so predictable to defend, and why the turnover rate is so high each game.
By KL
February 1, 2007 10:50 PM | Link to this
Well, the men’s team sucks but at least the women can beat a ranked team. Go Lady Jackets.
By Techster
February 2, 2007 08:45 AM | Link to this
I got indoctrinated to Tech and ACC hoops back in the 80’s watching Mark Price and John Salley and Bruce Dalrymple, et al playing games at the thrillerdome. Saw a lot of awesome games there, triple overtime against Virginia, that Tech team in a great game against vs. Maryland/Len Bias, who almost single handedly won the game for MD (that guy was incredible!!), the great Clemson team that won the conference championship that one year. Yeah, a lot of great games!! But sad to say, I don’t even have a schedule around anymore, don’t even know when or where they are playing, and don’t really feel like I’m missing anything. Most of Bobby Cremins teams, who almost NEVER played more than 6 deep, would probably kill this years current disappointment of a team. I was skeptical of giving Hewitt a big contract after his veteran team won a bunch of close games down the stretch in March one year, but I was hopeful and willing to give him a chance. Well he’s had a chance, and while Carolina and Duke reload year after year and stay at or near the top of the ACC and the national rankings, we play each year near the cellar and read about how young we are and how great we’re going to be next year. I don’t blame the AD for giving Hewitt a chance, but if this team can’t win a couple more games this year with some of the top recruited talent in the United States, and if Hewitt can’t coach a team to a .500 record in the ACC year after year, then it is time to cut him loose. It used to drive me totally nuts that Cremins would almost never play more than 6 or at most 7 players, but I’m actually starting to miss those days, because at least those players on the court busted their a@$$es and won a lot of games. This team has lots of talent, but no heart and no leadership, with the obvious exception of Mario West.
By chuck e
February 2, 2007 09:27 AM | Link to this
Looks like Tech fans are finally waking up to the fact that Paul Hewitt has risen to his level of incompetence. He’s record at Tech is barely above .500 and if you throw out the early season cupcakes, he is way below .500. Look at his ACC record and worse, look at his road record. He’s had and has good talent but has not been able to effectively coach them up. Kinda sad from a Tech fan’s perspective. It’s a good thing for him that he’s such a likeable guy otherwise fans would be calling for his firing, kind of like they do for Chan (who by the way has a better winning percentage).
By Ramble ON!
February 2, 2007 09:56 AM | Link to this
Techster speaks the truth!!! check e we are calling for his firing. This is the 2nd season in a row, the Basket Ball team has shown no heart, with the exception of Mario.
Matt, could you ask Hewitt if he’s beginning to feel any heat, because he should be?
By GT Fan Jeff
February 2, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
I can not speak for the NBA because I am not a fan and do not watch many NBA games, but consistent success in college basketball is a function of your POINT GUARD. You can go back over the Cremins era at GT and now Hewitt’s time at GT, and almost every time GT had “better than average or good” POINT GUARD play, GT went to the NCAA tournament. POINT GUARD was a disaster in the 2005-06 season for GT and is barely mediocre this season, and the results have been somewhat predictable. The two things that are most troubling to me right now are the POOR DEFENSIVE play of late, and the team getting WORSE since December instead of improving. Both of these items have to fall squarely on Hewitt’s shoulders, young team or not.
By T-Bone
February 2, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
People, people, ease up on Coach Hewitt just a bit. Dairyland GT said that Hewitt’s players don’t improve, but I have to respectfully disagree. I have two main examples: Luke Schenscher and Jarrett Jack. Schenscher came to Tech as a very weak, tall glass of nothing. By his junior year, he was making a HUGE difference for that 28-10 team. He is now in the NBDL and has played for the Bulls in the NBA. Jack, on the other hand, was a mess as a freshman. He couldn’t shoot worth a lick and turned the ball over a ton. You guys know the rest of the story for him. I don’t think the problem is Coach Hewitt’s basketball knowledge or ability to improve individual skills so much as his inability to fire a team up. He’s not a motivator like Roy Williams or Coach K. After Tech beat UNC in the 2005 ACC Tournament, Williams took the rims off the baskets for their next practice. What do you think they did the entire time? He probably ran them until they puked. After Tech beat Duke this season, Duke reeled off five straight wins. THAT is motivation, my friends. I think Hewitt’s biggest weakness is his “niceness.”
By Jack
February 2, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
It has become obvious that Hewett is not the coach that he is touted to be. One good season since he started coaching at Tech.——Time to move on or just settle for a loser
By antonio
February 2, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this
now jack that stat is wrong. he had a good season his first time out, taking tony atkins to the ncaa tournment, which was his only trip in four years. what i do see is a window of opp for those that loved b cremins to get him back from the c of c. what i see wrong with this team is the class that was recruited that brought morrow dickey and smith to tech, the were not suppose to be tier 1 players, just pieces to fill a puzzle for the championship run, after lossing mchenry and marvin lewis. your 2 and 3 positions have to be able to take someone of the dribble and bring the ball up when teams key on your point. morrow can’t create his own shoots so he becomes burden in crucial points of the game. without clinch to take up this void the acc is to talented for tech to recover. no one can relieve crittenton of the pressure teams put on him so this team won’t win many more games this year. it would have been nice to see hewitt and cremins on the same bench.
By AMG
February 2, 2007 03:18 PM | Link to this
Not raedy to give Hewitt the boot just yet. Comparing him to Roy Williams and Coach K is certainly over the top. But since someone did it, Coach Hewitt has a FAR better record than Coach K did in his first 5 years as an ACC coach. Both Roy Williams and Coach K ARE SHOE INS for the hall of fame. They could quit today and they will be in. Roy Williams is possible the best of the best as far as coaching goes these days. He is getting it done when people do not think he has enough (National Championship 2 years ago) and this year he is stacked to the gills with talent and that team is starting to play that way. What coach K is doing is winning with next to no talent. This team does not have half the talent Tech does. Coaching does matter, but you learn more from failure than you do from success. Coach K will tell you that, now it is time to find out about coach Hewitt and his character. This team did not do well, second year in a row Tech has been a disappointment. Thye talent level next year will be every bit as good as UNC this year…. Hopefully Coach Hewitt will give every thing he has to turn the rest of this season and all of next season into winning seasons. This is HIS team, not his assistants team, he needs to put his mark on it. Teach these boys to care, teach them to win, and teach them there is only one time to be nice, after the game is over. If he can take the heat this season and hold on to the agony, just maybe Tech might have a great coach. But if he just wants to be a nice guy that people really like, high school has a lot of openings …..