Since becoming the head coach at Georgia Tech in 2000 after a three year stint at Siena, a Paul Hewitt coached team has never finished better than 9-7 in ACC play. Granted, the one time his squad did achieve an in-conference record above .500 they ended up playing Connecticut in the NCAA Finals; but they haven't even gotten back to the Sweet 16 since. Three of the past fours years they've missed the tourney all together and now Hewitt is coming off his worst coaching performance in his nine years as a Yellow Jacket (2-14 in conference).
Even after such poor performance last year, there is reason for optimism. Hewitt has lured yet another top freshman to come play for him (along with another top recruiting class as a whole). Derrick Favors, an unanimous top 10 incoming freshman, will form a potentially lethal inside combination with Gani Lawal; a preseason All-ACC choice by the College Basketball Blue Ribbon report (fun wiki fact: it takes his girlfriend Leslie forever to get dressed). Having two stud big men is rarely seen these days and could give any team a tough time. If the old adage "games are won in the paint" is correct, then Georgia Tech will be winning a lot of games this year.
Besides Lawal, the Yellow Jackets return three other starters from last year's team.
Starting at PG will be the sophomore Iman Shumpert. The former McDonald's All-American had his ups and downs last season, but is expected to be much improved heading into the 09-10 campaign.
After working with him at the LeBron James Skills Academy, Jay Bilas had this to say about him: "A terrific kid, Shumpert has size, handling and passing ability, plus some real shake to his game. He gets by people and makes plays, and he has a great hesitation move. Although his name is pronounced 'E-mahn Shum-purt,' we started to call him 'Eye-mun Sher-bet.' I told him I would use the latter pronunciation on the air."
Look for Bilas to be saying "Eye-mun Sher-bet" a lot this year.
The shooting guard void by Lewis Clinch, the leading scorer on last year's team. While it may seem hard to replace his 15.5 ppg, his 37% shooting percentage won't be missed. Clinch's departure looks to be the classic case of addition by subtraction.
Taking his spot will be D'Andre Bell, a smart player who picks his spots, plays strong defense, and will help lead this young team. Bell was hurt all last year so he is more than ready to get back onto the court. He may not provide great outside shooting, but the Yellow Jackets now have a player by the name of Glen Rice Jr. - perhaps his name sounds familiar?
Small forward is the most questionable spot for Georgia Tech. Zach Peacock is expected to start, but last year he got more looks at power forward. A big key for the Yellow Jackets will be finding another player to log minutes here so Peacock can backup Favors and Lawal down low.
As already mentioned, Georgia Tech's bread and butter will be their two starting bigs - Lawal and Favors. It will be interesting to see how Hewitt handles the makeup of this team. Hewitt usually predicates his offense around guard play. Obviously it makes sense to feature his big men this year - but Hewitt hasn't always done what has made sense for his personnel.
In fact, he has mismanaged stars for years - Tech has always had talented players but still have yet to repeat the success of 2004-05. His misusage of players led to two of the biggest undrafted free agent signings in the NBA this decade - Anthony Morrow and Will Bynum - both getting considerable minutes for NBA teams this year. Alade Aminu, who graduated last year, could also find himself in a similar situation.
This year's team might just have too much talent though for even Hewitt to screw up. Favors and Lawal are surefire NBA draft picks no matter how Paul Hewitt uses them and Shumpert should avoid a sophomore slump. Still its Paul Hewitt, so if the excitement Derrick Favors is going to provide isn't enough for you, then you can enjoy watching Hewitt's facial expressions during the game (see picture above).
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