The Georgia Tech men’s basketball team has a new coach, an inexperienced roster, no permanent home arena and little in the way of expectations.
The Yellow Jackets were 13-18 overall last season and 5-11 in the ACC. Tech fired coach Paul Hewitt and replaced him with Brian Gregory, who was the coach at Dayton after serving as an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State.
Gregory met with reporters in advance of the first day of practice, which is Friday.
Q: How difficult will it be not having a true home arena [Tech will play at Gwinnett Arena and Philips Arena]?
A: It’d be easier if we had one. I think it will be difficult, but I think it is a challenge our guys have been prepared to meet. Especially early in the year with the games at Gwinnett ... our game plan is to go out there in the afternoon. We will have to stay in a hotel in the afternoon [and have the] team meal, team meeting before the game. My hope is that even for a home game, we start building some of that chemistry that can only be developed in hotel rooms and on bus trips and in locker rooms. ... That’s something that you need to embrace that challenge as a team and I think our guys will do that. We’ve talked about it and hopefully we will be able to use it as a positive.
Q: Do you have to do the hotel thing to beat traffic out there?
A: That’s it. You want us to show up at games. It would be embarrassing to get caught in traffic and everybody’s there and there is no ‘white and gold.’
Q: You’ve talked about trying to reestablish ‘Georgia Tech basketball.’ What does that mean to you?
A: I think that there is a national brand out there when you see GT, everybody across the country knows what that is. When it comes to Georgia Tech basketball, there was an excitement that always accompanied Georgia Tech basketball, be it the dynamic art play of Mark Price or Kenny Anderson to the long-range shooting of Dennis Scott to the athletic ability of a John Salley to Thaddeus Young to Chris Bosh. When you thought Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket basketball, there was an excitement. You thought of a passion because that’s the way Coach [Bobby] Cremins coached the game. You know, he was into it. You could tell he loved this place and loved his players. You can’t hide that stuff, and that’s something I think I would like. When people walked out of the building [back then], they were worn out because they saw a team that gave it everything they had. They didn’t win every game, didn’t win every ACC championship, but they were proud to call them their own. And that’s our hope.
Q: When you took over your team at Dayton, they were experienced, while here you start with a young team. Does that change the process?
A: It is a big change. That first team I had, man, we were loaded with seniors, and they were great and they knew how to play and they were very good teammates. Then you had to build it back up. It took a couple years and then all of a sudden we have the culture, our culture in there. I was smart enough that first year at Dayton to implement some of our stuff, but not too dramatic of a change because those guys deserved to end it the way they had started it, and they did that. At the same time, it is a process here. These eight guys, nine guys now have done a good job of buying in, but it still takes time. You just have to rely on the fact that they trust us and they are high-character kids to keep pushing us along.
Q: Do you do anything differently given the numbers [11 scholarship players, including two former walk-on players] to get guys ready to play more minutes than maybe they would be comfortable with or are used to? Do you have to do a little bit more in strength and conditioning?
A: You know, I think our conditioning program is so good and it’s advanced so much with Coach Mike Bewley. Our guys run if they lose in practice, they run when they miss free throws, but we don’t do a lot of just running. The pace we play creates the basketball shape that we want our guys in. I think the one thing that we’ll have to do — you know, when you are playing 11 guys or 12 guys, you can practice for four hours, great competition. You’re not going to be able to do that.
Q: When you think of Tom Izzo, you think of rugged defense, toughness, rebounding. How much of that would you like to see with this team?
A: You would hope that would be the same description. What we have done over the last three or four years because of our personnel, we have extended our defense much more than [Izzo] has. I think Coach did it one year when he had ... a dynamic backcourt, deep, and they picked up full court. We’ve done that the last four years and been very successful at it. But the core of that is the ball never gets into the lane. That’s the scoring area, and you are protecting that and recovering and using your length and athletic ability to force low-percentage shots and disrupt the other team’s offensive rhythm. And then you better dominate the glass because there is nothing worse than having a great defensive possession and then giving up an offensive rebound.
Q: Do you know what your message will be for the team before the first practice?
A: The most important thing for us is we are streamlining the message for us. Number one is valuing our work ethic more than talent ... and taking great pride in how hard we are working. Because those are things, that if you do every day, then you are going to play well regardless of who you are playing, what the venue is and so forth. I think the message that we have sent since Day 1 is that on offense, we are going to play at a nice, very good pace and with freedom to make plays. With that comes a responsibility of we have to get better defensively, and we have to get better on the glass. Those two are key points for us.
Q: The external expectations are low for the team. Do you use that as a challenge?
A: I think we are at a point right now where if our guys can get comfortable with who they are and what they need to do and if they can not worry about any outside distractions or what other people’s expectations are, and we have a single mind and a single goal, that every day we are going to work our tail off and get a little bit better and a little bit closer as a team, then that’s what they need to focus on. If they live up to my expectations in those two areas, those are the only expectations they need to worry about right now. I’m just a firm believer that if you take care of the process, then the performance takes care of itself. I’ve seen it all the way to a national championship, I’ve seen it to the success we had in the [Atlantic 10], I’ve seen it in other programs across the country. We just need to buy in to that.
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