GT is one of 6 teams remaining in college basketball. If you have heard anything, how much has this run helped in the way of exposure for recruits in addition to the hustle that CJP & staff are doing in that regard? I have to imagine the team's success and the press/pub for a young guy like Okogie on ESPN is attractive to HS kids.
Yeah there has been some positive feedback and even kids like Al Durham who are signed/committed elsewhere but may get released are really paying attention. It may be enough to swing some momentum toward landing an elite kid. Unfortunately for CJP, M.J. Walker isn't really outwardly impressed by the winning because he is the one elite guy left for 2017, but I wonder if the transfer pool may widen for GT to get in the mix on the much-need power forward that can play immediately for next year.
If this too personal, please ignore it, but how difficult is it for MJ to manage his T1D in such an extreme athletic environment? He must be extremely disciplined and attentive to his health.
Interesting question and something Matthew Jordan has talked about publicly and with me before. Yes he works really hard gauging and maintaining his blood sugar during strenuous workouts. He has things like the fruit snacks (gelled sugar and fruit flavoring) that he can pop in his mouth during games to give him a boost as needed. He has had it long enough that he knows his limitations now and how to tell when he needs to adjust his intake of stuff. He is quite active working with young people that have it as well and helping them and encouraging them to play sports.
I will ask from a different angle since we dont know much about recruits yet. How has the season helped fill the coffers of the AA bank account. Do we get a good cut from the home games or extra TV money?
GT got money from the NIT games here and they will get a split of the revenue from all the NIT games they participated in. So yes it probably helped a little, but I think it is less help than having good turnouts for the final regular season games were.
Any news on the interest in Kj buffen? Several sites have him as the most underrated player in the class.
A 2018 hoops kid, no update on him right now. It is a dead period for NCAA basketball coaches and then there are several tournaments going on and if Buffen is playing I'm sure CJP or an assistant will see him several times over the next few months.
Does the GTAA department that handles media sourcing (ie getting GT exposure on TV, radio, etc.) plan on being more aggressive in Atlanta on the airwaves? Gets rather disgusting hearing about UGA all the time and it would be a nice change to balance the airwaves out.
There isn't really a way to be more active in getting GT exposure other than winning. The main issues you have are, 1.) dwindling time spent on sports on TV, it is 90 seconds at best splitting among everyone, 2.) local radio stations aren't set up to care. You have 680 with two massive UGA homers Buck and Matt whatever his name is who don't give a rat's ass about GT and the rest of the media is basically indifferent. 3.) GT often struggles to be media savvy aside from Pastner who says yes to basically anything. Football access is not as open as it could be and there is little incentive for media outlets to cover practices/pressers because the timing of them either don't work for SAs to attend or for TV in time for evening news.
Can we pretty much consider any potential recruits getting offers from Ole Miss nothing to worry bout given the way the NCAA is beginning to come down on them, kinda subjective question I know...
They are pretty dead in the water right now. It's funny because the halo of suspicion is killing UNC's basketball program long term right now, they've had the worst classes they have had since pre-Jordan right now. Have buddies covering Ole Miss and it is pretty much same thing, they are back to recruiting guys who don't want to go to Miss State and aren't good enough for Bama or LSU. They are selling the SEC hard mostly because that is all they can use.
After seeing some of spring practice with the various QB's, can you give three points regarding eaches status? (Short answer please, lol)
I mean I haven't seen much of anything yet to formulate an opinion. I've heard from source some stuff, but Saturday was the first day in pads and it will take the young kids at least a week to figure out anything. Jordan seems to be doing fine, that's mostly all I've heard.
Can you provide an update on the recruiting situation of Anthony Grant? I've seen on other sites that he is interested in committing somewhat soon and we seem well positioned.
Talk to him pretty regularly. Don't get the vibe he is about to do anything. In fact he has getting more P5 offers and they will keep coming in the evaluation period so I don't expect him to make a decision until mid-May at the earliest.
I know you said the remainder of CPJ's coaching tenure would really depend on the new AD hire and whether or not he felt like he had the commitment to football (from GT) to keep going. Given the positive momentum from the end of 2016, the hiring of Stansbury and the addition of some new support staff, do you feel CPJ has some more years in ATL left in him?
Honestly I think it will be a year-to-year thing going forward for PJ. He is hyper competitive so if they keep having good seasons 7+ wins with an occasional 10 win mixed in he will keep going for a while. It will really depend on how he sees the future playing out and if the team gets support from the fan base quite honestly. He took quite the body blows from M-Boob and from the media after 2015.
Please tell the Jamie Dixon story again, from what you recall the inside info being at the time.
I am thrilled with the job Pastner has done so far and I am 100% behind him. That said, Dixon would be on my short list if the time ever came again (though it'd be hard to pry him now from his alma mater). Even before they blew us out the other night, I have always been impressed with his style and overall success. IIRC correctly Pitt was less than 100% committed to him toward the end and I think they're going to end up really regretting it all.
So when Hewitt was fired, Dixon approached someone at GT who I know very closely in the administration and gave them a figure. He wanted the job, knew it was a step up from Pitt and the new arena and the talent around here could bump him up a level in the ACC. Dixon told his agent the number was ~$3 million and he was in. He had several people pushing D-Rad to hire him including some boosters and people in the FB program as well who knew him. D-Rad decided they could not afford the number and passed.
Dixon was making probably ~2.5 million at the time, he ended up at 3.2 by the end of his tenure at Pitt and then TCU paid him reportedly 5-6 million to get him from Pitt!
Who is the next in line as explosive AB following Orwin, Godhigh and Lynch? Do we have anyone in the pipeline that appears to be that big-time threat?
I think Searcy and JJ are both fantastic, but Lynch seems to be the home run guy of the three - so I'm kinda wondering about the next (younger) guy in line.
Jarrett has the hands as a receiver to be in line with those guys, but Cottrell has the top end speed. Cottrell's biggest issues have been his hands and blocking. If he can improve those and he has since he has been on campus then they think they have something. I think Jarrett is a guy like Lynch who the coaches' may not praise, but I think he has the skills to be productive in the offense long term once he has some more experience under his belt. Xavier Gantt is still pretty raw, but this fall would be the first time I'd expect him to be in a position understanding the offense enough to try and compete a little. This is still his first spring practicing.
Yeah there has been some positive feedback and even kids like Al Durham who are signed/committed elsewhere but may get released are really paying attention. It may be enough to swing some momentum toward landing an elite kid. Unfortunately for CJP, M.J. Walker isn't really outwardly impressed by the winning because he is the one elite guy left for 2017, but I wonder if the transfer pool may widen for GT to get in the mix on the much-need power forward that can play immediately for next year.
If this too personal, please ignore it, but how difficult is it for MJ to manage his T1D in such an extreme athletic environment? He must be extremely disciplined and attentive to his health.
Interesting question and something Matthew Jordan has talked about publicly and with me before. Yes he works really hard gauging and maintaining his blood sugar during strenuous workouts. He has things like the fruit snacks (gelled sugar and fruit flavoring) that he can pop in his mouth during games to give him a boost as needed. He has had it long enough that he knows his limitations now and how to tell when he needs to adjust his intake of stuff. He is quite active working with young people that have it as well and helping them and encouraging them to play sports.
I will ask from a different angle since we dont know much about recruits yet. How has the season helped fill the coffers of the AA bank account. Do we get a good cut from the home games or extra TV money?
GT got money from the NIT games here and they will get a split of the revenue from all the NIT games they participated in. So yes it probably helped a little, but I think it is less help than having good turnouts for the final regular season games were.
Any news on the interest in Kj buffen? Several sites have him as the most underrated player in the class.
A 2018 hoops kid, no update on him right now. It is a dead period for NCAA basketball coaches and then there are several tournaments going on and if Buffen is playing I'm sure CJP or an assistant will see him several times over the next few months.
Does the GTAA department that handles media sourcing (ie getting GT exposure on TV, radio, etc.) plan on being more aggressive in Atlanta on the airwaves? Gets rather disgusting hearing about UGA all the time and it would be a nice change to balance the airwaves out.
There isn't really a way to be more active in getting GT exposure other than winning. The main issues you have are, 1.) dwindling time spent on sports on TV, it is 90 seconds at best splitting among everyone, 2.) local radio stations aren't set up to care. You have 680 with two massive UGA homers Buck and Matt whatever his name is who don't give a rat's ass about GT and the rest of the media is basically indifferent. 3.) GT often struggles to be media savvy aside from Pastner who says yes to basically anything. Football access is not as open as it could be and there is little incentive for media outlets to cover practices/pressers because the timing of them either don't work for SAs to attend or for TV in time for evening news.
Can we pretty much consider any potential recruits getting offers from Ole Miss nothing to worry bout given the way the NCAA is beginning to come down on them, kinda subjective question I know...
They are pretty dead in the water right now. It's funny because the halo of suspicion is killing UNC's basketball program long term right now, they've had the worst classes they have had since pre-Jordan right now. Have buddies covering Ole Miss and it is pretty much same thing, they are back to recruiting guys who don't want to go to Miss State and aren't good enough for Bama or LSU. They are selling the SEC hard mostly because that is all they can use.
After seeing some of spring practice with the various QB's, can you give three points regarding eaches status? (Short answer please, lol)
I mean I haven't seen much of anything yet to formulate an opinion. I've heard from source some stuff, but Saturday was the first day in pads and it will take the young kids at least a week to figure out anything. Jordan seems to be doing fine, that's mostly all I've heard.
Can you provide an update on the recruiting situation of Anthony Grant? I've seen on other sites that he is interested in committing somewhat soon and we seem well positioned.
Talk to him pretty regularly. Don't get the vibe he is about to do anything. In fact he has getting more P5 offers and they will keep coming in the evaluation period so I don't expect him to make a decision until mid-May at the earliest.
I know you said the remainder of CPJ's coaching tenure would really depend on the new AD hire and whether or not he felt like he had the commitment to football (from GT) to keep going. Given the positive momentum from the end of 2016, the hiring of Stansbury and the addition of some new support staff, do you feel CPJ has some more years in ATL left in him?
Honestly I think it will be a year-to-year thing going forward for PJ. He is hyper competitive so if they keep having good seasons 7+ wins with an occasional 10 win mixed in he will keep going for a while. It will really depend on how he sees the future playing out and if the team gets support from the fan base quite honestly. He took quite the body blows from M-Boob and from the media after 2015.
Please tell the Jamie Dixon story again, from what you recall the inside info being at the time.
I am thrilled with the job Pastner has done so far and I am 100% behind him. That said, Dixon would be on my short list if the time ever came again (though it'd be hard to pry him now from his alma mater). Even before they blew us out the other night, I have always been impressed with his style and overall success. IIRC correctly Pitt was less than 100% committed to him toward the end and I think they're going to end up really regretting it all.
So when Hewitt was fired, Dixon approached someone at GT who I know very closely in the administration and gave them a figure. He wanted the job, knew it was a step up from Pitt and the new arena and the talent around here could bump him up a level in the ACC. Dixon told his agent the number was ~$3 million and he was in. He had several people pushing D-Rad to hire him including some boosters and people in the FB program as well who knew him. D-Rad decided they could not afford the number and passed.
Dixon was making probably ~2.5 million at the time, he ended up at 3.2 by the end of his tenure at Pitt and then TCU paid him reportedly 5-6 million to get him from Pitt!
Who is the next in line as explosive AB following Orwin, Godhigh and Lynch? Do we have anyone in the pipeline that appears to be that big-time threat?
I think Searcy and JJ are both fantastic, but Lynch seems to be the home run guy of the three - so I'm kinda wondering about the next (younger) guy in line.
Jarrett has the hands as a receiver to be in line with those guys, but Cottrell has the top end speed. Cottrell's biggest issues have been his hands and blocking. If he can improve those and he has since he has been on campus then they think they have something. I think Jarrett is a guy like Lynch who the coaches' may not praise, but I think he has the skills to be productive in the offense long term once he has some more experience under his belt. Xavier Gantt is still pretty raw, but this fall would be the first time I'd expect him to be in a position understanding the offense enough to try and compete a little. This is still his first spring practicing.
