Georgia Tech’s final game was a 40-minute synopsis of the entire season.
In their first-round ACC matchup with Boston College on Tuesday, the Yellow Jackets decisively controlled the glass. They took possession of 43 of the 69 available rebounds, including three offensive rebounds off missed free throws, a demonstration of their effort. They received strong play from their interior players, Demarco Cox, Charles Mitchell and Robert Sampson. They were well off the mark from 3-point range, with 3-for-15 shooting.
And, when the game was decided in the final two minutes, Tech could not hold up. Trying to protect a 63-59 lead with 90 seconds to play, the Jackets turned the ball over in their next two possessions to hand the game to the Eagles by a 66-65 score.
“It’s hard to believe,” Mitchell said. “We felt like we had the game the whole game.”
Sifting through the rubble of Tech’s 12-19 season, there is achievement to be found. Forward Marcus Georges-Hunt emerged as one of the better all-around players in the ACC. As of Wednesday, the Jackets ranked in the top 40 in defensive efficiency on the Pomeroy ratings and ninth in the country in rebounding percentage, according to teamrankings.com.
Mitchell proved himself one of the better offensive rebounders in the country. Freshman guard Tadric Jackson showed development over the course of the season and may have played his best game of the season in the first-round defeat.
“He’s got a lot of steps still to take, but you can see he can be a special player in this league,” coach Brian Gregory said of Jackson.
But the bright spots are obscured by the staggering 0-11 record in ACC games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime and the team’s substandard offensive play. The Jackets shot 26.7 percent from 3-point range (343rd of 345 Division I teams as of Wednesday) and 64.8 percent from the free-throw line (307th), killing numbers for a team that lost six ACC games by one or two points (including Tuesday’s loss), on top of two seven-point defeats in overtime.
That underperformance has put Gregory in position to potentially lose his job after four seasons.
In the end, Tech’s 12-19 overall record and its 3-15 mark in conference play will be the final statement on the team. In Gregory’s four seasons, his 19-51 record in ACC play is tied for second worst in the league over that span, ahead of only Virginia Tech (12-58). In coach Paul Hewitt’s last four seasons at Tech, the Jackets had a conference winning percentage of .328, better than Gregory’s .271.
“As I told the team, you don’t make it through tough times,” Gregory said. “You’re made through tough times. We’ve sure had our share of them. You hope that you develop a toughness and a protective shield to understand this is what we need to do to compete.”
A difficult decision looms for athletic director Mike Bobinski, who said Monday that he wouldn’t make a decision on Gregory’s future until he met with him after both returned from the ACC tournament in Greensboro.
If Gregory is fired, he will be owed 100 percent of his $1.075 million annual salary next year, 75 percent for the 2016-17 ($806,250) season and 50 percent for the 2017-18 season ($537,500), payable over the life of the contract. That’s a total of $2.4 million over the next three years. The 2015-16 salary would be offset by 50 percent by any compensation he receives at a new job.
Tech continues to pay off former Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who was owed $7.2 million when he was fired in March 2011 because his contract had an automatic rollover provision. Tech negotiated an extended buyout schedule with Hewitt that pays him $900,000 annually into 2019.
It doesn’t leave much room in the budget for a new coach. If Gregory were to be dismissed and he didn’t take a new job in the coming season, Tech could pay nearly $2 million next year to its two former coaches unless Gregory’s buyout is also spread out. A $1 million annual salary for a new coach would be at or near the bottom of the ACC. The department will also have to fit in the raise for football coach Paul Johnson, who signed an extension averaging $3.02 million annually through 2020.
It’s not an insignificant amount for an athletic department that strives to break even annually. The flipside, though, is that Tech risks a drop-off in ticket sales should Gregory stay. Tech projected $1.3 million in season-ticket sales for basketball for this season, 1.7 percent of the projected $75.1 million in revenues. Sales fell short by $300,000.
“That’s not an irrelevant factor for sure because it’s a reality,” Bobinski said Monday. “We’ve got to live in reality here, you can’t live in fantasy land, and that’s something, if we get into a position like that, we’ll have to figure out what’s feasible and what’s not feasible, what’s the best thing for Georgia Tech at this point.”
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