Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory is not worried about his job security.
It’s not because he is positive he will return for a fifth season. Rather, he recognizes that worrying about the future won’t help his situation. Further, he stands behind his work.
“You can’t live a double-minded life,” he said. “You’ve got to stay true to who you are and what you do, and you’ve got to give your guys the very best. That’s what we try to do.”
However long the Yellow Jackets stay at the ACC tournament, beginning with their first-round matchup Tuesday with Boston College (1 p.m., WATL in Atlanta) in Greensboro, N.C., the overriding reality is that Gregory’s term as Tech’s 13th head coach may end in the days after.
Athletic director Mike Bobinski has supported Gregory during the Jackets’ calamitous 18-game run through the ACC, but has not offered an assurance that he will return. In an interview Monday, Bobinski said that he had not made a decision about the team’s future but would do so only after meeting with Gregory following the season.
“I made a commitment on that front, and I’m going to live up to it,” Bobinski said.
It has been a bumpy ride. The Jackets will play as the No. 13 seed with a league record of 3-15, the poorest under Gregory. By winning percentage, Tech has had only one league record worse than that since the Jackets’ first two seasons in the ACC, which prompted the hiring of Bobby Cremins.
Two subsets of the 15 losses were troubling. Tech lost twice by 29 points, to Virginia and North Carolina, and then by 32 on senior night to the Tar Heels again. By margin of defeat, they were three of the four worst defeats in Gregory’s tenure.
Tech also was 0-10 in ACC games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, a stunning confluence of poor late-game play, overbearing pressure and hard-luck bounces. With a minimal improvement in execution, the Jackets could easily be 17-13 overall with four wins over NCAA tournament-bound teams and carry the aroma of progress.
It is hard to deny the considerable overhaul that Gregory has made to the program he inherited following the March 2011 dismissal of coach Paul Hewitt, excluding the (not insignificant) category of wins. Prior to his hire, Tech was twice penalized with scholarship reductions by the NCAA for its low academic progress rate scores. Its four-year APR average through 2009-10 was last in the ACC.
Under Gregory, the team recorded an all-time high APR score this past spring. Every four-year senior under Gregory has graduated. Six different players have earned ACC all-academic team, including freshman guard Tadric Jackson this season.
Tech’s players have shown character in continuing to fight throughout the season despite the disheartening string of losses.
“No one’s more disappointed in the results than I am,” Gregory said. “At the same time, I believe we’re making the steps to put ourselves in position. Now, there comes a time where you have to not just put yourself in position. I like our guys. I like the progress that some of our guys have made, and you’ve just got to keep plugging forward on that.”
While the Jackets hit considerable heights under Cremins and Hewitt – two Final Fours, 15 NCAA appearances between 1985 and 2010 and at least one All-ACC player every season between 1982 and 2005 – the pace slowed considerably prior to Gregory’s hire. Since the 1996 season, when the Jackets won the ACC regular-season championship, they’ve had just one winning season in ACC play (2004, the Final Four season). Cremins and Hewitt’s combined ACC winning percentage 1997-2011 was .383.
Gregory has performed under that average – his ACC winning percentage is .271 – but he is also competing at a time when heavyweights Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh have joined the league and picking up the pieces of the end of the Hewitt era.
Gregory was also stung by one of the epidemics of the era – player transfer – when his best player, forward Robert Carter, left following last season. (That said, the Jackets have also received considerable depth through the transfer market.)
When Gregory and Bobinski meet, the most critical matter will be if and how Tech can proceed under Gregory’s leadership. Bobinski wants to hear Gregory’s plan to win close games.
“That’s what we’re trying to get our arms around, why that is and how we might flip the switch on that, because that’s not an acceptable long-term condition,” he said. “To be close but not good enough is not the place you want to be.”
Gregory said he has ideas, beyond players gaining experience and improving, including bringing in speakers or programs to address players’ mindset.
“Here’s the one thing you don’t want to do,” Gregory said. “You don’t want to just say, ‘O.K., because we’re this close, just keep doing the same stuff.’ Now, your core doesn’t change, but you do have to find some other things to tweak it.”
Whether a minor tweak or a major one, Tech is facing changes.
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