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MBB Post-season Thread

Ken's article also had this Bobber quote leaving open the possibility that it might still take a while.

"I’m hoping that it’s not in the distant future as it is in the relatively near future that we’ll be able to do that.”


 
My grapevine has shriveled up and died. The last peep I heard through it was McCall back on Monday. That can't be what's taking this long to get done. Any chance Bobber is looking to go over budget for someone big and had/has to wait for approval?
 
Just be happy it is your grapevine that has shriveled up and died and not something else.

Just sayin'.

RED WINE
 
At this point, there is only one answer. Yep. You got it...
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lefty_driesell_625-625x386.jpg


(I'm even willing to overlook that he is a Rutgers-Durham alum)
 
Nah, we are a football school and he doesn't know much 'bout that thar footbaw. Pass.
 
Now you're talking. That would put butts in the seats of our enormous hooter baabbyyyyy!
 
Totally onboard. May I be so bold as to suggest this guy as another assistant?



This program is broken and needs a guy with access to an awesome set of tools.
 
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab...ach-blames-wife-ncaa-violation-155921392.html

Josh Pastner
Title Head coach
Team Memphis
Conference American Athletic Conference
Record 167–73 (.696)
Biographical details
Born September 26, 1977 (age 38)
Glen Dale, West Virginia
Playing career
1996-2000 Arizona
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2002–2008 Arizona (assistant)
2008–2009 Memphis (assistant)
2009–present Memphis
Head coaching record
Overall 167–73 (.696)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3× C-USA Tournament championship (2011–2013)
2× C-USA regular season championship (2012, 2013)
Awards
C-USA Coach of the Year (2013)

2014-15 was the first year Memphis missed the postseason in 15 years.
 
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If it is Pastner, the delay makes a whole bunch of sense. Negotiating that crazy buyout will take some time. I'm depressed.
 
Memphis attendance down, some say about 6k per game. Players leaving.
Sounds like Tech Men's and Women's Hoops!

Come on, we have slipped, and not the program that a well-to-do-coach desires. He was 37-29 in his worst two years. CBG was 37-30 in his best two. I know, different leagues, competition. This guy is .696 in winning %. He can recruit at a higher level here.
 
Can someone tell me why this program continually finds itself drawing the short end of the stick? Memphis was praying that someone would take Pastner off their books, in the exact same manner that we were praying that St. John's would take Hewitt off our books. Hewitt said no to St. Johns and the Bobber said yes to Pastner. This sucks.
 
I keep saying it...

We are no longer a destination school for men's basketball. We have had 3 nationally relevant years in the last 20. We cannot recruit our own backyard. Meanwhile, our conference has bulked up with 4 more schools that play basketball at a high (Pitt, ND) to very high (Cuse, Ville) level. No longer is it just about beating Carolina, Dook and a couple of peaking teams like UVA, NCSU or Maryland each year. Now that list is UNC, Dook, UVA, Louisville, Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame. That's just to get into the top half of the conference - not even necessarily an NCAA bid. We've been struggling with VPI and Clemson.

I don't even know if Hewitt makes his tournaments with those four in the league, too. Remember in 2007 we were 13-7 (2-6) on January 30, and then we make that huge run in February to finish 20-10 (8-8) and sneak in to the NCAAT?

It's so plain to me it hurts. You come to coach GA Tech, a hard school by design academically, just so you can beat your head against that wall? We struck gold with Bobby Cremins who struck gold with Mark Price a year or two later. That led to an unprecedented string of guys (Ferrell, Hammond, Scott, Anderson, Barry, Forrest, Marbury) coming to Tech year after year for ten years. But that was in the days before mid-major ascendance, AAU determinism, and the Wall (see above). But the Cremins' thin gold line approach is not even hardly relevant today.

Still, even back then, we never beat UNC and Dook with regularity. Those were 3-4 losses most years. If we lost 4 more, it was 8-8. But there were only 8-9 teams in the conference and 8-8 made you 4th/5th. Tom Butters made sure that was NCAA worthy. It just is what it is to me.

I will say this, though: If there's a sport we can do it in, it's basketball. I don't know what he can do but bring him on and let's see. We gotta have somebody on that end of the bench. Pastner has never had a losing season as a HC. Then again, he's never played against the Wall. We'll see. It will be good to have a coach again, and I wish him the best of luck.
 
Looking more and more like Bobinski didn't have a good plan.

I am beginning to believe that if GT is ever going to gain a coach at the caliber they want, they need to quite trying to starve the GTAA into the place. Coaches are looking at a lot more than the salaries GT is offering (and I am admitting the salaries are way over what they should be) these coaches are looking at the fan support and the facilities and the support from the administration. GT has the facilities, but not the other things.

Maybe we should try to build by supporting the program. It will take longer, but may actually last longer as well.
 
I had to laugh when reading your first paragraph, and you aren't the only person pulling for Tech, calling this a "nationally relevant" season. We were fighting the George Washington's for 70th place in what is now a M.E.T. There are usually a half-dozen automatic wins on an A C C schedule, with an proportional imbalance of home contests. We accept 8-10 as being winners. It is a mindset here. Making these jobs harder than they are.
 
It's a what have you done for me lately and the "blue bloods" in college hoops. The first category is an easier club to attain. A few nice seasons going deep in the NCAA's, the chatter comes back, the recruits desire you to hold their hands in the dance.

Might be some middle teams like Wichita St. who can have continued success relying on a premium coach, because they don't have the draw, say our conference has. Mid-majors probably have a more unusual situation and set of dynamics to conquer, sustain.
 
GT obviously can't use the draw of the ACC anymore as a positive carrot.

And most of the Memphis comments I am reading about Pastner are glad to see him go.
Players transferring and downward spiral. If his recruiting has dropped of there where he's only looking for athletes, imagine the additional challenges at GT.

RamblinRed posted a thread specifically asking people to contact the board and ask them not to approve any contract for Pastner. That CANNOT be good.
 
You never know when you are going to strike gold. Tech never thought Bobby Cremins would achieve the levels he did when we signed him. Same for Hewitt for that matter. Duke certainly never thought they'd come anywhere near what they've gotten from K when they signed him. And this list can go on and on and on...

If Pastner - a nice Jewish kid from West Virginia and then Texas - does indeed become our HC, I'll get behind him and hopefully the Tech fanbase will as well. A change of scenery and perhaps recharging some batteries at a new program may be a great marriage between a success-starved fanbase and new coach.

Regardless of who is HC, it still stays the same as stated earlier in this thread...

1. Recruit a great staff.
2. Recruit the 3 signees to stick with Tech.
(2a. Hopefully get a grad transfer or two.)
(2b. Convince current roster to stay put.)
3. Immediately get on the radar of the bevy of 2017 talent in the local area and around the nation for that matter.

Also, regardless of who is HC, this will be "Bobinski's guy" - meaning, I imagine he will be far more involved from Day 1 in the program. Is that a good thing or bad thing? We'll see. His professional reputation and chances of going beyond his original 5-yr Plan as AD is completely riding on this I believe.
 
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http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...-negotiations-with-memphis-coach-josh-pastner

JT622 has it spot on. We got behind those other coaches in our past. This one has had to follow a HOF coach. One down cycle for two years(again, beats CBG's best two seasons here)and they want him out.

Let the man do his job, he has enough pride to want this challenge over what is left of 10 m. guaranteed. The AD here will pay with his job, should it all go further south. After Capel, Drew, Cuonzo, Amaker, Butler's coach, reportedly passing on us, this is most likely our fate. For better or worse, until the next coaching hire do us part....
 
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I had to laugh when reading your first paragraph, and you aren't the only person pulling for Tech, calling this a "nationally relevant" season. We were fighting the George Washington's for 70th place in what is now a M.E.T. There are usually a half-dozen automatic wins on an A C C schedule, with an proportional imbalance of home contests. We accept 8-10 as being winners. It is a mindset here. Making these jobs harder than they are.

The three "nationally relevant" seasons in the last 20 years were 1996, 2004, and 2005. I do not consider 2016 to be that.
 
That's ridiculous.
after seeing that, I have little hope for this hire uniting the fanbase. A lot of comments about this being a joke and Memphis wanting to fire Pastner, sounds a lot like the Dayton talk. Lack of X's and O's and floor coaching??? Is it really true that 60% of Pastner's recruits left Memphis? Can't be... surely these are not comments from objective people...

No doubt you are correct about needing to get a good staff in place.
 
You never know when you are going to strike gold. Tech never thought Bobby Cremins would achieve the levels he did when we signed him. Same for Hewitt for that matter. Duke certainly never thought they'd come anywhere near what they've gotten from K when they signed him. And this list can go on and on and on...

If Pastner - a nice Jewish kid from West Virginia and then Texas - does indeed become our HC, I'll get behind him and hopefully the Tech fanbase will as well. A change of scenery and perhaps recharging some batteries at a new program may be a great marriage between a success-starved fanbase and new coach.

Regardless of who is HC, it still stays the same as stated earlier in this thread...

1. Recruit a great staff.
2. Recruit the 3 signees to stick with Tech.
(2a. Hopefully get a grad transfer or two.)
(2b. Convince current roster to stay put.)
3. Immediately get on the radar of the bevy of 2017 talent in the local area and around the nation for that matter.

Also, regardless of who is HC, this will be "Bobinski's guy" - meaning, I imagine he will be far more involved from Day 1 in the program. Is that a good thing or bad thing? We'll see. His professional reputation and chances of going beyond his original 5-yr Plan as AD is completely riding on this I believe.

I agree totally with this. We have no choice but to get behind the next coach. You never know when you will strike gold in these things. My (way too long) comment was merely to share my (admittedly limited) opinion why the top coaches don't line up to come to GA Tech to coach basketball. They never have, really, but today that is a much more difficult task than even in teh days of the SHW.

That is all.
 
I agree totally with this. We have no choice but to get behind the next coach. You never know when you will strike gold in these things. My (way too long) comment was merely to share my (admittedly limited) opinion why the top coaches don't line up to come to GA Tech to coach basketball. They never have, really, but today that is a much more difficult task than even in teh days of the SHW.

That is all.
IMO GT's fanbase has proven that it will not do this beyond a year or two...

Students are given some of the best seats in the house and rarely pack the section... I have only seen the student section beside the band full a few times.

hope this isn't headed back to the paper sack days... when the place was mostly empty except for visiting fans.
 
IMO GT's fanbase has proven that it will not do this beyond a year or two...

Students are given some of the best seats in the house and rarely pack the section... I have only seen the student section beside the band full a few times.

hope this isn't headed back to the paper sack days... when the place was mostly empty except for visiting fans.

I don't know that it will go there. Pastner has been a reasonably successful coach at a reasonably successful mid-major. Anyone can have a down year or two. I look at it this way: the kind of person that Memphis can recruit is likely the kind that will jump at the drop of a hat. We've had - what - two top players transfer out of their own accord in the past 15 years (Nelson and Carter).

To get into Tech you have to want to be there. We don't (cannot) recruit the guys en masse that are just looking to hone their trade somewhere, anywhere for a few years. Now if such a guy wants to transfer here, we have taken them the last few years. But we typically cannot recruit them, or at least don't win those recruiting battles.

All to say that Pastner will have to recruit cleaner and better here than he has elsewhere... and with better recruits. Of course, he's got ATL and the ACC to help him, right?
 
I agree totally with this. We have no choice but to get behind the next coach. You never know when you will strike gold in these things. My (way too long) comment was merely to share my (admittedly limited) opinion why the top coaches don't line up to come to GA Tech to coach basketball. They never have, really, but today that is a much more difficult task than even in teh days of the SHW.

That is all.

You hit on the truth there. They never have lined up to come here.

One thing you and others have been saying that I totally disagree with is that the ACC is harder now. It isn't. It is harder to win the conference due to sheer numbers but there are constantly 4-6 bad teams in the league now. Who it is changes a little bit by year, but the bottom is not good. The 2004 ACC was far better than now. 7 out of 9 teams were in kenpom's top 25. This year was 5 out of 15.

I think expansion has damaged the ACC as a whole and really damaged the bottom. So where I think your conclusion is correct for the wrong reason is that the league isn't as attractive because there is a clear third tier in the conference now that did not exist previously. Unfortunately, due to bad coaching decisions (The Extension, the bad hire plus Extension 2) have put us into tier 3 in most people's mind.

We should be able to get out of tier 3 into tier 2, where we belong, with even decent recruiting.
 
This should be a good, happy and productive day for GT Hoops as we enter into a new era of the program.

I will enjoy it, avoid the whiners and negativism, and say WELCOME to CJP assuming the press conference is indeed on the way within the next couple of hours as is floating around the net right now.

(would've done the same for Bryce Drew, btw)

Further, I will be intrigued over the coming weeks to see whether the 3 signees stay on board, we get some unknown at the moment grad transfers, who the new staff will be, and the reaction of some recruiting targets to CJP as HC. Fun times (for me at least).
 
So Pastner has had some success recruiting Atlanta. Looking over his roster I see Shaq Goodwin from SW DeKalb - 4 year player over 1400 points. McDonald's AA played AAU w/ Atlanta Celtics. Senior this year.

Damien Wilson, came same year as Shaq from Oak Hill Academy. Also played AAU with the Atlanta Celtics. Played in 28 games as a FR only 15 as SO then transferred.

Speaking of transfers, Pastner's rosters are full of them. This year there were 4 Srs who were transfers and 1 Jr who started elsewhere. Alabama, Vanderbilt then smaller colleges and community colleges. those smaller schools may be out simply because their math credits probably will not transfer into GT and allow them to be eligible...
 
after seeing that, I have little hope for this hire uniting the fanbase. .

Unfortunately, the fanbase is united. This is not a hire that will result in a sudden bump in season ticket sales. But if the guy comes here and performs, all will be right with the world and the gigantic hooter will rock again. Looks like this is a done deal with an official announcement just a few hours away. Welcome to Tech Josh Pastner, and best of luck with the massive rebuild you are taking on here.
 
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