Trailing by two points inside the final 30 seconds, Virginia Tech needed a play. It got a gift. Jalen Hudson dribbled across midcourt and losing Georgia Tech’s Chris Bolden with a crossover, ducked toward the lane. The Yellow Jackets’ Charles Mitchell slid into Hudson’s path. Hudson passed to Malik Muller in the right corner. Muller made what would be the game-winning trey.
How did Muller get open? Did the Hokies run him off staggered screens the way the Hawks do with Kyle Korver? Nope. Muller merely backtracked into the corner and stood there — and was left unguarded. Watch the tape. (I’ve viewed it a dozen times.) Georgia Tech’s Josh Heath started to follow Muller and stopped, opting to blunt Hudson’s penetration even as Mitchell was tending to that.
I’m reasonably certain that Brian Gregory, who coaches the Jackets, didn’t tell Heath, “We want you to leave the guy who has made half of their 3-pointers tonight.” No coach in the world would say that. (Heath, who’s a coach’s son, did try to challenge Muller, but too late.)
If you’re wondering why Gregory’s team keeps losing close games, this was another powerful indicator. After 3 3/4 years on the job, he remains unable to get his players to do what he needs them to do.
Nine days earlier, the Jackets lost to North Carolina State on a 3-pointer by the guy State wanted to take the final shot. Watch the tape. (I have, more than a dozen times.) Trevor Lacey called for the ball, received it in backcourt and took two quick-but-not-rushed dribbles without being challenged. When finally Heath and Travis Jorgenson forced Lacey to pull up, he was within 25 feet and had a clean look.
Hired in March 2011 to replace Paul Hewitt, Gregory came advertised as a solid basketball man who would, at worst, restore a baseline of fundamentals to an undercoached program. I can’t say I expected Gregory to do as Bobby Cremins did and reach nine consecutive NCAA tournaments or to take the Jackets as far as Hewitt took them when Tech played for the national championship in 2004. I did expect more than this.
Gregory’s Jackets, as noted, are terrible on offense — 14th among 15 ACC teams in field-goal percentage, last in 3-point percentage, 13th in assist/turnover ratio. This, though, is the unsettling part: They’re nothing special on defense, either. They’re 11th in field-goal percentage defense, next-to-last in turnover margin.
They’re great at rebounding, not that it has much mattered. They outrebounded N.C. State by 18 and lost. They outrebounded Virginia Tech by 12 and lost to a team that entered 1-9 in league play. In Year 4 under Gregory, the Jackets are 1-3 against Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College — fellow bottom-feeders in Year 1 under their respective coaches.
After the N.C. State game, this correspondent asked Gregory how confident he was that his program was on track to reach the NCAA tournament in the near future. “Very confident,” he said, saying that, “In the big picture, progress has been really good.”
Reality check: In Year 4, Gregory’s Jackets are 54-65 overall, 18-46 in regular-season league play. In Hewitt’s final four seasons, Tech was 62-65 and 24-43. In sum, they won at a higher rate under the man Dan Radakovich paid $7 million to go away.
Last March, Gregory pointed to this season and said: “With our first recruiting class becoming upperclassmen, our chance to solidify the way we do things and to carry over the success we’ve had underground will become a little more visible.”
Hasn’t happened. Robert Carter Jr., Gregory’s best signee, left after his sophomore season and is sitting out the season at Maryland. Four transfers — and it says something that Tech has become reliant on transfers — have joined with Gregory’s unassuming recruits to produce a team that’s 2-10 in the ACC. Any progress has been so incremental as to be measured in Angstrom units.
With half its remaining regular-season games against North Carolina and Louisville, Tech must upset someone to have a prayer of reaching even the second-rate NIT. Before the Virginia Tech game, the belief here was that the Jackets’ best course would be to err on the side of continuity and stick with Gregory for another season. A loss like that atop all the other losses makes me wonder if Year 5 would be any different.
This hasn’t worked. At this late date, I’m not sure it will.
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