Ron Hunter has accomplished things in his first season at Georgia State that have never done before.
Not by Lefty Driesell, who guided the Panthers to their second conference championship, the second round of the NCAA tournament and whose name adorns the GSU Sports Arena’s court. And not by Bob Reinhart, who led the Panthers to their first conference tournament championship.
One of those accomplishments is the all-important victory total. Hunter will lead the Panthers against Delaware at 2 p.m. Saturday as they go for their 18th victory, a total that neither Reinhart (10) nor Driesell (16) reached in his first season. The 17 wins are tied for the fourth-most overall in the short story that is the program’s list of achievements.
History will be important Saturday because Georgia State is welcoming former basketball letter-winners, few of whom won as often as this season’s team.
“What it does, it means the program is heading in the right direction,” Hunter said. “It’s easy to talk about changing a culture. To get a lot of these things done means we are moving in the right direction. “
The Panthers lost at Delaware (12-12, 8-6) earlier this season, but are on a three-game win streak. With at least six games remaining in the season, the team has a chance to reach 20 victories, a feat accomplished three times previously, most recently by Michael Perry in 2003-04.
Though not one to be impressed by stats, Hunter said reaching 20 wins would be something he would remember.
“That’s always that magical number in college basketball,” he said. “It hasn’t been done here in a while. These players, I didn’t recruit them, they didn’t come here for me. To win 20 games in your first year at Georgia State, a place where it hasn’t happened that much, that would be impressive.”
What matters to most is NCAA tournament appearances. If the Panthers can win the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, they would earn a berth to the NCAA tournament. Reinhart didn’t accomplish that feat until his sixth season, surprising many after a 7-7 conference record the previous season. Driesell tied for the regular-season title of the Trans America Athletic Conference in his third season, and won it outright the next year, in which he also won the conference tournament.
Being selected for one of the postseason tournaments is one of the team’s goals. Driesell was the last coach to lead the team to a postseason tournament, the NIT in 2002.
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