With his job and the team’s direction hanging in the balance, Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory met with athletic director Mike Bobinski on Friday to discuss the future of the program. As planned, no decisions were reached in the meeting. Following the Yellow Jackets’ 12-19 season, Bobinski is determining whether to retain Gregory after four seasons and a particularly trying ACC season that ended with a 3-15 record and a subsequent first-round loss in the ACC tournament.
Among several topics of conversation was the team’s inability to win close games. The Jackets were 0-11 in ACC games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, including the 66-65 loss to Boston College on Tuesday in the ACC tournament.
Bobinski declined to provide specifics of the conversation, but said the two had a healthy exchange over a three-hour meeting. Bobinski said a decision likely would be made early next week.
The methodical approach befits someone who was the chair of the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee in 2012-13, before his arrival at Tech. Bobinski is navigating a matrix that incorporates, among other things, Gregory’s four-year resume, the financial impacts of keeping Gregory and of letting him go, Gregory’s work in creating a solid foundation in non-basketball elements of the program and how close or far a turnaround may be, to say nothing of the decision’s impact on the direction of the team and coaches, staff and their families.
Gregory, who has a four-year record of 55-71, has three years remaining on his contract paying him $1.075 million annually. Were he released, Gregory would be owed $2.4 million over the life of the contract. Tech also owes former coach Paul Hewitt $900,000 annually into 2019.
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