AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 18 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWhy no TV for Tech-Wake?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tech’s 7:30 p.m. game in Winston-Salem isn’t on TV. (Though it is available online for $5.95 on ACC Select).
I leave it to you to decide whether that’s a good thing.
Of the ACC’s 96 conference games, 92 will be televised. Two of the four left out involve Tech: tonight at Wake Forest and the March 4 home game against Miami.
Mike Finn of the ACC office told me it’s not a reflection of how teams are doing. The basketball schedule is set by mid-August, and the ACC’s various TV partners pick the games they want to air.
“It’s totally the decision of our TV partners,” Finn said. “They pick the games that they want and the games that fit their schedules.”
It’s all done before the season starts. Unlike football, there’s no week-to-week flexibility with gametimes or networks. Finn pointed out that this helps ticket-holders, because they know when the games are going to be.
Finn said it’s pretty much standard nationwide — there’s flexibility for football, but not for basketball.
As you all know, Wake Forest is the only ACC team Tech has beaten. I asked Demon Deacons coach Dino Gaudio if revenge will be a factor tonight for his 8th-ranked team.
“I don’t know about that, but I do know this: in the two years we’ve been here, since I became head coach, we’ve never beaten Georgia Tech,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate with some of the other ACC teams, but against those guys we’re 0-3. So just like that game [76-74 Tech win on Jan. 31] and all the others, we’ve just got to find a way where our defense is able to lock them down a little bit and try to guard them. They were a little more physical than we were in that first game.
“Our kids know their kids,” he added. “Gani [Lawal] drove Al-Farouq [Aminu] to school [at Norcross High]. Our guys went to Atlanta and hung out with those guys. I’ve seen Alade [Aminu] up here playing. They know each other very well, They know what they can do individually. If we can guard them, we have a chance to win. If we don’t, then we dont.”
Here’s what coach Paul Hewitt had to say about Tech’s recent success against Wake:
“In the games last year Anthony Morrow shot the ball very well. This year, we kept our turnovers down and down the stretch Iman Shumpert made big plays offensively and Nick Foreman made big plays defensively.”
Hewitt said Wake guard Jeff Teague could be the league’s MVP, Al-Farouq Aminu has made a huge impact and that the Demon Deacons have tremendous inside presence defensively.
“The first game was intense and I think this one will be more intense,” he said. “They’ve got a little revenge factor going and obviously, we’re trying to break out of a tough stretch.”
Permalink | Comments (43) | Post your comment | Categories: Basketball
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By GT E
February 18, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
Good….this should ease some of the frustration that GT fans have experienced this season watching this team play.
By Old Tech fan in NC
February 18, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this
State/Carolina is on local TV in NC….how many ACC fans would watch other games?
By Rob
February 18, 2009 8:44 AM | Link to this
Thank God it isn’t on TV so this PH coached monstrosity won’t be seen outside of the arena. I expect Wake to win big.
By Dadgum
February 18, 2009 9:03 AM | Link to this
Hewitt is a good coach and recruiter!!! We will be a pre-season Top 20 team next year and near the top in the ACC as long as Lawal doesn’t jump to the NBA. Oh yeah, and we make free throws, turn it over less than 20 a game, make layups, and shoot better than 20% from 3-point land. Those little things.
Rock on…sign Hewitt to an extension!!
By Pensacola Dog
February 18, 2009 9:29 AM | Link to this
No TV simple..Tech is not worth watching!
By Observer
February 18, 2009 9:32 AM | Link to this
Why does the game need to be televised? We all know what is going to happen.
GROUNDHOG DAY.
By UGA is so last year
February 18, 2009 9:45 AM | Link to this
Why would anyone in their right mond want to watch this game? We stink!!!! I would only tune in if we had an interim coach - meaning Hewitt had been fired.
By DASTECH
February 18, 2009 10:19 AM | Link to this
No TV is a good thing, who in Jacket Nation would put themselves through such an agonizing experience? I think I would rather hit myself over the head with a hammer than watch the Jackets play BB right now!!!
By Too Easy
February 18, 2009 11:20 AM | Link to this
Got your hammer right here.
By BravesFan79
February 18, 2009 11:43 AM | Link to this
Next year networks will be fighting each other to air GT games. Lets get some more qualified assistant coaches in here and reach our top 10 potential next year!!
By ggodsey
February 18, 2009 12:31 PM | Link to this
UGA is so last year is right, for all intensive purposes who in there right mond would cheer for Hewitt.
By BuzzIdol
February 18, 2009 12:37 PM | Link to this
That’s OK. I would rather watch American Idol.
I wonder what Simon would say about the Jackets’ basketball team…..
By ga_tech_92
February 18, 2009 12:51 PM | Link to this
I hear about “Hewitt supporters”, but day after day on the blogs, there are none. The only positive comments made about him are sarcasm or clearly uga fans showing ‘support’ for our coach.
SO…if there is no support…why is he still here?
Groundhog Day
By DeaconPeach
February 18, 2009 12:57 PM | Link to this
I emailed the ACC prior to Wake’s last non-televised game vs. NC State. Here was the nice canned response I received (which is identical to one posted on an NC State message board as being received by a State fan who also wrote in):
“Thank you for your feedback. I have shared it with the appropriate staff members.
Television selections are set when the schedule is announced in August/September. Only a very small number of conference games are not being televised this year. For those non-televised games, every effort has been made to make them available on ACC Select.
Thank you for your support of the Atlantic Coast Conference and its 12 member institutions.
Heather
Heather C. Hirschman Website Coordinator Atlantic Coast Conference”
What is comes down to is that John Swofford & his minions at the ACC really don’t care about its member institutions except catering to UNC & Duke during basketball season. FIRE SWOFFORD!!!
By TechBuzzz
February 18, 2009 12:58 PM | Link to this
He is still here because we do not have any money to fire him and continue to pay him, while hiring a better coach and paying him too. Times are tough for 98% of the athletic dept’s out there
By T-Heel
February 18, 2009 1:03 PM | Link to this
Tech doesn’t deserve to be on TV against Wake. The Deacons will win by 20. Besides UNC moves the meter when it comes to ACC hoops. Like it or hate, learn to love it because it’s the best thing going today TAR …… HEELS
By ga_tech_92
February 18, 2009 1:12 PM | Link to this
Here’s an idea. Fire Hewitt, let Mark Price take over for ‘free’, until we’ve recovered from firing Hewitt. I bet Price would love to help restore the program. He is already a multimillionaire anyway.
Not firing someone because of ‘money’ is a good way to destroy a program. It will cost as much to fire him today as any other day/year/decade…so…get it over with…cut the cancer out of the program and get on with the healing process.
By DeaconPeach
February 18, 2009 1:13 PM | Link to this
Hey T-Heel: I hope State beats your whiny, flopping, baby blue arses tonight!
By BLAZER
February 18, 2009 1:55 PM | Link to this
i still like to watch them on tv regardless how
frustrating it is this year!! we still gotta be
jacket fans.
By ga_tech_92
February 18, 2009 2:06 PM | Link to this
btw - GO JACKETS TECH ROCKS!!!
(I’m just not a CPH fan.)
Mark Price, come give us a bail out! :)
By GT Fan forever
February 18, 2009 2:37 PM | Link to this
PH may be a good recruiter but a terrible coach. 20+ turnovers per game and free throw shooting. This is bad coaching. We need a change and with the incoming class PH is secure. How long before the administration makes a change. Cannot watch anymore as it drives my blood pressure off the scale.
By fred
February 18, 2009 3:00 PM | Link to this
Comments from a softdrink company:
“times are tough. We don’t have the funds to hire a first-rate sales manager. So, we will sit on our hands and lose mega million $$$ until such time as we are in worse shape.”
The status of GT basketball.
By The Voice
February 18, 2009 3:47 PM | Link to this
Didn’t yall just love the Hewitt guy just a few years ago?
By Born2Buzz
February 18, 2009 4:02 PM | Link to this
gatech92 and all you others that are calling for Mark Price to come in and save us, do you realize that Mark Price has almost ZERO experience coaching (he coached 5 games in an Australian league). Just because he was a past great doesn’t make him qualified to coach at the top level of college basketball. Come on, Tech people are supposed to be smarter than that. But I guess being a GT grad doesn’t mean you have to have common sense or know anything about basketball.
Let’s all be realistic. Paul H is going to be our coach the rest of this year and next year. If we stink it up next year DRAD will have no option but to remove Paul and take the financial hit. But with the contract buy out and the recruiting class we have coming in it just isn’t practical to fire him now. Of course if we finish out the season with all the games resembling last Saturdays DRAD may just feel he can’t justify keeping Paul any longer.
I will continue to support the team and go to the remaining home games I have tickets for. I am not buy ACC tourney tix. I will watch on TV when possible and until I can’t stomach the poor play anymore.
By jay
February 18, 2009 4:47 PM | Link to this
Once the Argentina-like hyperinflation hits the US as a result of Obama’s dead-beat bail-out bill in 2011, it won’t hurt nearly so much to pay off CPH in what will essentially be Confederate dollrs
By GT
February 18, 2009 4:47 PM | Link to this
Could you imagine blacking a game coached by Cremins out. I haven’t looked but I would bet C of C has been on television more this year than Tech. What some coaches don’t do very well is promote the game, Gailey was the poster child for this dull approach. Hewitt is not much better. Both hired by the same athletic director. You can kind of see the risk adverse policy in hiring back then. One of the things Tech has done solely by location and timing is become a good recruiting school. A black man feels much more at home in Atlanta than Athens, and basketball games during the week are attended because the population lives here, if you give them a show. Now if we could just find the crank that starts this baby back up we will be fine, but every year we wait we are losing ground.
By ga_tech_92
February 18, 2009 4:53 PM | Link to this
Born,
Ultimately, you are correct. The down side you mentioned with Mark Price, is the yin to the yan of my suggesting he ‘bail us out’ (coach for very little dollars). I mostly said it in jest.
By UGA is so last year
February 18, 2009 6:21 PM | Link to this
Did you see ramblinwreck.com? The ‘official’ gt.edu Athletic site? The headline reads ‘Jackets going for sweep of Wake Forest’! I nearly fell on the floor in utter hysterics! Yeah right! Our win vs Wake was the biggest fluke in the world. The audacity to think we could sweep. We lost at home by 21 to NC ST!!!
And to Blazer - we’re ALL Jacket fans. That is why we come in here and vent. That doesn’t mean Hewitt shouldn’t be fired!
By typical game score
February 18, 2009 9:45 PM | Link to this
almost 20
By Fire Hewitt
February 18, 2009 9:50 PM | Link to this
Why show a game we got SMOKED in…this team has quit on Hewitt…an embaressment for the Institue PERIOD…FIRE HEWITT’S A$$
By Hal
February 19, 2009 8:09 AM | Link to this
They say there are no dumb questions ….. now I’m not so sure.
By DeaconPeach
February 19, 2009 8:40 AM | Link to this
an embaressment for the Institue PERIOD
No, Fire Hewitt, I’d say your spelling is an embarrassment to the Institute.
By UGA is so last year
February 19, 2009 9:33 AM | Link to this
DeaconPeach - don’t mess with us - we’ll get you back!!! We all know you did a spell check first. Get back to your job of pumping our gas!!!!
By George P. Burdell
February 19, 2009 9:41 AM | Link to this
As the Good Book says, The Lord will have mercy upon whom he he will have mercy.
By MichaelJackson
February 19, 2009 9:43 AM | Link to this
I really enjoy reading the Tech blogs. We seem to share a lot of the same ideas.
By GT66
February 19, 2009 10:30 AM | Link to this
Hewitt is the worst of the worst. He is a terrible coach. I just pray that the AD comes to his senses and find the buyout money somewhere. The lost revenue via fewer season ticket sales and game day sales over the next few years would probably cost Tech about as much as the buyout. A great new coach would put more fans in the seats so it would probably be a push financially and we would have the spirit back and better teams.
By Jeff
February 19, 2009 12:55 PM | Link to this
Who would have tuned in? This Tech fan doesn’t have time to waste.
By Dadgum
February 19, 2009 1:28 PM | Link to this
Hewitt is a great coach and recruiter! Sign him to an extension.
Rock On….
By yurtle_the_turtle
February 19, 2009 3:29 PM | Link to this
It seems Coach Hewitt is blogging with us these days as “Dadgum”. Only Hewitt or an idiot would recommend him to be hired on anywhere, let alone an extension. Perhaps we can let UGA hire him.
By doubled's
February 20, 2009 8:22 AM | Link to this
hey BorntoBuzz, MARK PRICE
By doubled's
February 20, 2009 8:25 AM | Link to this
hey BorntoBuzz, Mark Price grew up in a coaching family..his father was his high school coach…cannot think of anyone more perfect than the one who put GT on the ACC map and first one to beat the Tarheels, love Mark Price…
GT cannot afford to fire Hewitt well they cannot afford to not fire him either…
By Zach
February 20, 2009 8:53 AM | Link to this
I agree with Jay. We just need to wait till Hyperinflation from Obama’s bailout provides Georgia Tech with our “Bailout”. When a million dollars buys you a loaf of bread we’ll be able to buy him out for only 7 loaves of bread, and then hire Mark Price for 50 billion dollars and an AK-47.
By double d's
February 20, 2009 1:48 PM | Link to this
just give Hewitt an IOU, its the American way