Georgia Tech fans say as much as they would like for their basketball team to win national championships, they would be satisfied now with just winning.
Paul Hewitt was fired Saturday as the team's coach after 11 seasons that included just one winning season in the past four, and one winning ACC record overall. Though the team did play for the national championship in 2004, it never finished first in the conference during the regular season nor did it win the ACC tournament.
Fans said they hope the next coach will improve upon the lack of wins by recruiting players who will stay in school. Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich echoed some of their thoughts when discussing what he wants in the next coach, whom he hopes to hire by the Final Four begins April 2.
"Looking for someone to help re-energize the fan base and to continue to recruit quality student-athletes in the most prestigious basketball conference in the country in the ACC," he said. "As an institution and a city we have a great opportunity for someone to be successful at Georgia Tech. It's our charge to find the right person."
First, and most important, fans want that person to win consistently.
Pete Ankner's view was similar to that of many other fans who e-mailed answering the question: What do you expect from the next coach? Ankner, a 2000 graduate, said it is reasonable to expect Tech to compete for the ACC title every three to four years, and it should never finish below seventh. The Jackets' best finish since the national runner-up season was a tie for fourth. They have finished 11th (2006), 12th (2009) and 11th (2011) since that high-water mark.
With victories will come NCAA tournament appearances. Avi Viswanathan, a 2004 alum living in St. Paul, Minn., said he thinks absences from the event should be rare. Tech has appeared in the tournament only six times since a nine-year string was snapped in 1994.
Other fans connect winning and NCAA appearances to recruiting a different type of student-athlete. Numerous players have left Tech for the NBA before finishing their eligibility. Having NBA-caliber players is appreciated, but fan Lee Smith said "by recruiting players that stay for three-plus years -- not the one-and-done players is the main thing -- everything else falls into place."
In the Bobby Cremins' years, point guard Kenny Anderson left early and was replaced by Travis Best, another NBA-caliber player. Hewitt had similar success early, but things changed in the middle of his Tech career.
For example, Anderson-to-Best covered six seasons and sustained Cremins' momentum. Gani Lawal-to-Derrick Favors didn't happen for Hewitt because both left in 2010, when Lawal was a junior and Favors a freshman. Their decisions left a void in Tech's frontcourt. Hewitt's program was particularly hurt when Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young unexpectedly left for the NBA after their freshmen seasons in 2007.
Perhaps this e-mail summed up the fans' expectations best:
"The number one thing I want from my coach is not to have that feeling at the end of every season that with our talent, we really could have done more," Thomas Boyd said.
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