Poll Vote of Confidence: Paul Hewitt (1/11)

[GMUSSTN]

stop the layup line

...nothing can stop that now...

 

[mkaufman1]

Low to no confidence. The team with the amount of returning talent is severely underpeforming expectations. What is scary is that last night is just the tip of the iceberg in what the team will face in the A-10..That isn't the "best", that's just the start.

The low is only justified by the fact that Jalen Jenkins Marquis Moore and Patrick Holloway look like they are getting better.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

THIS POLL IS UNSCIENTIFIC. WE SHOULD DO THINGS BASED ON SCIENCE!!

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

This is what has always scared me. Not that he would spectacularly, but that he would fail meekly. A mid to lower tier A10 team with occasional glances of potential that results in extending the misery.

Fail big and the decision is easy and we can move on. Fail but show some hopes of potential if you just give me 2 or 3 more seasons, and it starts to define the program and become its brand, meaning the next coach starts from scratch.

My biggest fear, period. Winning just enough to hang on.

 

[smccart5]

My biggest fear, period. Winning just enough to hang on.

Do you want to be like that pro team who wants to lose so we get a good lotto pick?

Here's another question and maybe a better one for this thread: Would you rather lose the rest of the games this season, all but guaranteeing a coaching change? Or play around .500 the rest of the year?

 

[GMUSSTN]

Do you want to be like that pro team who wants to lose so we get a good lotto pick?

Here's another question and maybe a better one for this thread: Would you rather lose the rest of the games this season, all but guaranteeing a coaching change? Or play around .500 the rest of the year?

Well, play around .500 leaves us about where we are now, probably our first losing season in forever, and no one feels any better about anything.

I'd rather lose out, start from scratch. If this is a lost season, lose it.

 

[Flexxar]

This is my analysis of the team...

SR - Physically strong, but mentally weak. Great types of players for a controlling coach. Not great for Hewitt. Also, these guys studied for the OCM system.

JR - Half OCM/half Hewitt's players. These guys were recruited to play in the caa by both coaches. I know for sure that we would have passed on one or two of these guys if we were already in the a10.

SO and FR - Holloway, Gujanicic, Jenkins, and Moore. I believe that these four guys have the highest basketball IQ of any players that we've had in a long while. They are smart and they are fearless.

Recruits - These guys are already physically and mentally developed. I know we've had limited exposure to them, but by the sound of it, they sound a lot like our SO + FR guys on steroids.

Hewitt thought he was going to walk into this position and coast for a while while he rebuilds his reputation. If we stayed in the caa, that was very probable. He could just pull some overflow from the bigger conferences (see Copes + AO) and he would be a hero. He was thrown a big curve ball when he saw that the caa was significantly better than he thought (remember when we went to the final 4 and no one on tv knew what the caa stood for) and we jumped into the a10. Hewitt saw that he was not going to be allowed to coast and he started to get his game on. Yes, he's been here for 3 years, but he only started to get serious about his job this year. I would give him a little more time. If our FR+SO+Recruits were terrible, I would abandon hope and give up my season tickets. However, these guys are awesome and I want to see where this goes. If Hewitt leaves now, then we'll never know.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Hewitt thought he was going to walk into this position and coast for a while while he rebuilds his reputation. If we stayed in the caa, that was very probable. He could just pull some overflow from the bigger conferences (see Copes + AO) and he would be a hero. He was thrown a big curve ball when he saw that the caa was significantly better than he thought (remember when we went to the final 4 and no one on tv knew what the caa stood for) and we jumped into the a10. Hewitt saw that he was not going to be allowed to coast and he started to get his game on. Yes, he's been here for 3 years, but he only started to get serious about his job this year. I would give him a little more time. If our FR+SO+Recruits were terrible, I would abandon hope and give up my season tickets. However, these guys are awesome and I want to see where this goes. If Hewitt leaves now, then we'll never know.

Thinking you can just "coast" and underestimating your league talent are two huge strikes, in my opinion. I'd like to keep my job and not do 2/3 of it, but I can't, because I'm accountable.

 

[Flexxar]

Thinking you can just "coast" and underestimating your league talent are two huge strikes, in my opinion. I'd like to keep my job and not do 2/3 of it, but I can't, because I'm accountable.

If I just lost my job right now, but still wanted to work, I might have to take a job that I would feel way overqualified for. I would naturally assume that if I took a giant cut in pay, that I would be allowed to take at least a small step down in effort that I applied to my job. That small step down in effort with Hewitt is what's making us all so angry. The truth is, we just aren't paying enough for the head coach position.

 

[gmutom]

Very solid recap, Flexxar. While I like Hewitt's quote in the paper in the morning about "not talking about the future right now," the reality is that the players of the future are the ones who provide us with the best chance of winning in the present (namely Moore, Jenkins and Holloway).

Although I give Hewitt some credit for not giving up on his three seniors, eventually he has to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team and not those players. If Sherrod and J2 are hurting us more than helping us, then he has no choice but to give some of their minutes to others to see if they can help us more.

Hewitt's biggest challenge as I see it is squeezing anything he can out of this junior class, because we can't afford to have four seniors next year who contribute nothing more than role minutes. (I'm not sure what is going on with Okoloji, but I'm not convinced he's coming back based on his recent comments about graduating in May and the fact he hasn't played the last two games.)

Like Patriot99 said in a previous post, I would start Copes in place of J2 to see if he can rise to the occasion. Assuming he can stay out of foul trouble (no given at all), let's give him 25 minutes a game and challenge him to be the player we thought we were getting.

 

[Dawgs99]

I would bet AO is gone after the spring semester. Anyone know why he didn't dress last night?

 

[Patriotfan49]

So when Hewitt decided to coast in his first years here, was it in a Bentley?

 

[GMUSSTN]

I would be more inclined to give him a chance if I hadn't ever had the chance to read on the GT forums what his program was like during his decline in Atlanta, and that we are getting very similar results here. I just don't think he can break out of this funk he's been in since the National Championship.

If he can, I will totally support him. I just don't think it's gonna happen.

 

[Patriotfan49]

AO didnt dress because he forgot his uniform and left it in the same closet that Sherrod left his game.

 

[GSII]

While some want to look into what players are gonna step up, isnt the system worth a huge look? the offense looks terrrible and numbers domt lie. just check how many points we score. How uninspired the players look on that side of the ball? Has anyone seen moore smile yet? Hewitts guard style system has to go.

 

[GMURaider]

Haven't. the. and. aren't.

Just havent seen anything that leads me to believe that he is taking us in teh right direction. We see bits an pieces of little positives here and there but they hardly ever carry over, and even then....they arent anything groundbreaking that probably shouldnt have been done weeks if not months ago.

That being said, I have zippy confidence in that hes the right man for the job now, or really ever....but fully understand its not all on him and that he will more than likely be here regardless.

 

[gmutom]

While some want to look into what players are gonna step up, isnt the system worth a huge look?

That a fair point, GS, but it's tough to run any system when you get little to no points out of your PGs and big men and you only have one guard who can consistently knock down 3s.

You've suggested the inside-out we used to run under Coach L, but what frontcourt player other than maybe Jenkins has the talent to post up and score in that system? Copes is probably our most obvious option since Jenkins is more of a face-up player, but that would entail Copes actually being able to catch the ball.

I liked what we saw with more dribble penetration by Allen, Moore, Jenkins, Holloway and even Corey last night, so maybe that's the key to overshadowing our inability to score consistently in the post or on the perimeter.

 

[expendable smurf]

I think the inside-out approach would actually be using Jenkins incorrectly and would be detrimental to his development. He isn't a traditional back-to-the-basket post player. But anyway, I'm not sure I have much confidence in Hewitt because I've been watching him for years and nothing has really changed. I was pretty happy with the basic rotation last night, so Hewitt is beginning to play the guys who give us the best chance to win right now and that's an improvement. When he benches Sherrod to start a game then I'll believe a bit more. I mean, we need Sherrod in order to be successful, but whatever is going on with him isn't currently improving our chances of success.

 

[GMUSig03]

I think the inside-out approach would actually be using Jenkins incorrectly and would be detrimental to his development. He isn't a traditional back-to-the-basket post player. But anyway, I'm not sure I have much confidence in Hewitt because I've been watching him for years and nothing has really changed. I was pretty happy with the basic rotation last night, so Hewitt is beginning to play the guys who give us the best chance to win right now and that's an improvement. When he benches Sherrod to start a game then I'll believe a bit more. I mean, we need Sherrod in order to be successful, but whatever is going on with him isn't currently improving our chances of success.

Sherrod was benched for one of the games in Hawaii and he only played 16 minutes last night. I wouldn't be surprised to see Halloway take his spot tomorrow night.

 

[GSII]

In the first half those dribble drives were falling. But I think it took triple the energy to produce. By mid way thru the second half, our shots were short, and rebounding fell. If this is his system and he won't change, then even more reason to fire him. And it doesn't look like he's bringing in a true post player. Still, Copes, J2 should of been working overtime with uncle Houston to become the post threats we need. But no, nobody addressed that. I guess its too late.