With 20 wins in his first season as Georgia Tech’s head basketball coach, Josh Pastner has surpassed all his predecessors in their first season with the Jackets.
Of the 13 coaches before him, only two won 15 or more games in their first year.
Pastner’s Jackets face CSU Bakersfield in the NIT semifinals Tuesday, March 28, 2017, in New York.
Here's a look at the Jackets' long coaching history:
John Heisman
John Heisman coached the Jackets in football, baseball and basketball. In the team's earliest seasons on the court, Tech went 1-6 as an independent team in 1908. The Jackets wouldn't join a conference until the 1920 season, when they would be on their fourth head basketball coach.
William Alexander
Famed Tech football coach William Alexander coached the basketball team for four seasons. He led the Jackets to a 7-10 record his first season in 1919. Joe Bean, who also coached the Jackets baseball team took over as basketball coach for one season, going 4-10 in 1920. Alexander returned to coach basketball three more seasons finishing with a 36-38 record.
Harold Hansen
Harold Hansen was Georgia Tech's head coach for two seasons, going 10-23. The Jackets went 4-12 in his first year in 1924.
Roy Mundorff
Roy Mundorff, a mathematics professor, coached the Yellow Jackets for 17 seasons, winning the SEC regular season and conference championship in 1938. In his first season in Atlanta, he went 17-10 and 8-2 in conference.
Dwight Keith
Dwight Keith coached just three seasons at Georgia Tech. His Jackets went 14-4 in 1943.
Roy McArthur
Roy McArthur never won more than 14 games in his five seasons as Georgia Tech's head coach. In 1946, he went 12-11 and 6-6 in SEC play.
Whack Hyder
Credit: Bill Mahan
Credit: Bill Mahan
Whack Hyder coached Georgia Tech for 22 seasons. He went on to become the program's second winningest coach with 292 wins and led the Yellow Jackets to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1960, advancing to the Elite Eight. In his first year in 1951, however, Hyder coached Tech to a 7-15 record (four of those wins coming off SEC conference opponents).
Dwane Morrison
Dwane Morrison took over the Jackets in the 1973 season, winning just five games. He coached the Jackets as they transitioned from an independent team to members of the Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference and the ACC over eight seasons. In his final year at Tech the team lost all 15 games with conference teams by an average of 25 points a game.
Bobby Cremins
Bobby Cremins, Georgia Tech's winningest coach, won just 10 games in his first season with the Jackets during the 1981-82 season. The Jackets (10-16) scored just three conference wins over Duke and Maryland (twice). In 1986, Cremins led the Jackets to their first No. 1 ranking, and a Final Four appearance in 1990.
Paul Hewitt
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Paul Hewitt replaced Bobby Cremins in 2000 and earned an NCAA Tournament bid by going 17-13 (8-8 in ACC). The Jackets had two wins over top 10 teams: Virginia (10, 6) and Wake Forest (6). He led the Jackets to their second Final Four appearance in 2004.
Brian Gregory
Brian Gregory was hired from Dayton before the 2011 seasons, and won 11 games his first year with the Jackets. Georgia Tech went 4-12 in the ACC and scored, arguably, their biggest win of the season against in-state rival Georgia in Athens.
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