Nobody expected anything close to what the Yellow Jackets have accomplished no one except Paul Hewitt that is. Georgia Tech's hobbled program was supposed to take a hit last year after losing 2003 ACC Rookie of the Year Chris Bosh to the NBA and 2002 Alantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year Ed Nelson to UConn transfer.
Hewitt arrived on campus in the spring of 2000 after a successful three-year run at Siena. He was charged with rebuilding a program that had slipped badly in the final years of Bobby Cremins' tenure. There was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Cremins had the Yellow Jackets among the nation's elite teams. However, his ill-fated flirtation with South Carolina in 1993-he actually took the job and then changed his mind-stalled Georgia Tech's momentum and Hewitt inherited a program that had managed just one NCAA Tournament bid in the previous seven years.
Hewitt won ACC Coach-of-the-Year honors in his initial campaign, earning an NCAA trip with basically the same team that had gone 13-17 the year before his arrival. Then he began to build his own program, landing a class that included Nelson up front, gifted guards B.J. Elder and Isma'il Muhammad and a tall, slender Australian named Luke Schenscher.
That group struggled as freshmen and the record wasn't a lot better the next year, despite the addition of the talented and point guard Jarrett Jack. Still, it was obvious to anybody watching that Hewitt was on the right track. His 2003-04 squad would have been rated as a possible breakthrough team, except for the untimely defections of Bosh and Nelson.
Even Hewitt admits that he viewed Bosh's departure as a major setback for his program.
But Hewitt was surprised when he greeted his returning players back on campus in August and saw how they were reacting to Bosh's absence. He also saw the growing maturity of Jack, a talented playmaker who was sometimes overwhelmed by his responsibilities as a freshman, and the physical development of Schenscher, who was finally learning to handle the 35 pounds he'd added to his lanky frame since arriving in Atlanta.
Hewitt warned the ACC media at the league's preseason press conference that Georgia Tech might be better than most expected, but it wasn't until the Yellow Jackets stunned the basketball world by beating No. 1 Connecticut and Texas Tech to win the Preseason NIT in New York's Madison Square Garden that outsiders began to understand that Hewitt's team had arrived.
Georgia Tech vaulted from unranked before the season to as high as No. 3 in the national polls by the end of December. But there were still some bumps ahead for the Jackets in ACC play.
The Yellow Jackets proved that with a postseason run that carried Hewitt's team to the national title game. Obviously, an NCAA Championship would have been welcome in Atlanta, but it still was just the second Final Four appearance in school history, coming 14 years after Cremins' Lethal Weapon Three team lost to UNLV in the 1990 semifinal game.
Hewitt's goal is to make sure Georgia Tech doesn't have to wait another 14 years for another Final Four run. With four returning starters, four veteran subs and four promising recruits on hand, it appears that the Jackets have even more depth and talent than last year's team. The only question is whether this team can match the chemistry and unselfishness that made the 2003-04 Jackets so special.
|
Yellow Jackets Tickets