Georgia Tech appears to have hired Dayton coach Brian Gregory to replace the ever-underwhelming Paul Hewitt. Jeff Schultz gives them the skewering he normally reserves for all things Bulldog-related, and Tech fans over at Stingtalk are reacting in their usual measured manner (Stingtalk logic: so unassailable that it need not be spelled out in the form of premised argumentation. Subtle, nuanced barbs about how the other guy "sucks" will do just fine).

Despite my fondest wishes, it's likely not the worst hire in the world. I was pushing Ron Jirsa, but I fear I might have seemed a bit transparent in my motives. But as we sit here today, it damned sure doesn't look like the best possible hire either. Gregory led the Flyers to a 7-9 record and 8th place regular season finish in the Atlantic 10 this season, a deflating effort after the team beat North Carolina last season to capture the NIT title.

Taking an A-10 team to the NIT title is a pretty impressive accomplishment. He did it once, it's entirely reasonable to believe he could do it again. But if you're going to hire a midmajor guy, you want someone who's shown he can do it year in and year out, developing successive classes of players. Gregory hasn't been terrible at Dayton, but he hasn't been Gonzaga's Mark Few or Butler's Brad Stevens, either. Those guys have shown a gift for taking the big schools' sow's ears and turning them into a succession of silk purses. The jury's still out on Gregory in that regard.

I find the hire particularly interesting given what most of the Tech fans I know had been telling me about the hire. It was pretty widely assumed that Tech would go after a young up and coming coach and that private donors had finally put up enough cash to allow Tech to shop fairly freely. This hire doesn't seem like the kind of hire you make when you're serious about putting your ACC basketball program back on the map. Rather it seems like a decent hire designed to right the ship. Georgia Tech basketball has had a dark clound hanging over it for a couple of seasons now, and getting rid of Paul Hewitt was the first step back into the sunshine for Jacket fans. If Tech fans were looking to move forward, they could do a lot worse than Gregory.

Tennessee has likewise filled it's opening, securing the services of Missouri State's Cuonzo Martin. Martin led the Bears to a 26-9 record in 2012, culminating in a second round NIT loss to Miami. Last season his team captured the CIT championship in his second year on the job, turning around the 11-20 record of his first season. Martin also played and served as an assistant at Purdue under legendary coach Gene Keady, reputed to have run among the toughest practices in college basketball.

Tennessee still doesn't know exactly what the NCAA will do about the messy Bruce Pearl era, so it's entirely possible that, as Joel at Rocky Top Talk put it, 2011-12 will be "year zero" in a slog back to where Vol fans want their program to be. But Martin will probably try to instill the same philosophy he learned at Purdue under Keady and brought with him to Springfield: stifling, physical defense and aggressive rebounding from every player on the court. Depending on how things shake out Martin is either walking into a very difficult job that he may or may not be up to, or he's walking into a plum situation left by a guy who was amazingly stupid to screw it all up. Only time will tell.

While neither program made a "splash" hire, it's impossible to say yet that either is a bad hire. Remember that if Damon Evans had his way we'd now be coached by the recently unemployed Jeff Capel rather than Mark Fox. I think we did ok on that one. And that's what has to happen when you go searching for a new coach and you're not a top five national program. When you have an NCAA investigation hanging over your program, or when you have a limited budget. The vast majority of college basketball hires are like these. That is to say, there's an element of risk involved. Sometimes the risk pays off, sometimes it doesn't.

Ultimately, Dan Radakovich and Mike Hamilton are asking their respective fanbases to trust them, which is asking a lot given their recent histories.

Until later . . .

Go 'Dawgs!!!

In a classic example of a great moment in bad timing, Mark Fox's Georgia basketball team will be taking on Eastern Kentucky in Stegeman Coliseum on the same afternoon that Mark Richt's Georgia football team will be taking on Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. So as not to confuse the Bulldogs' overlapping non-conference games against teams who hail from states that are home to SEC East schools, who have directional indicators in their names, and whose mascots denote military ranks, I am setting up two---count 'em, two---comment threads.

Let's cheer on the Red and Black, both on the hardwood and (later) on the gridiron.

Go 'Dawgs!

By the time this posting appears, my family and I will be in transit to Memphis, so it is safe to assume that this game, like the last one, will be followed by an ill-informed roundball wrapup that is far from instantaneous. Likewise, this comment thread is not intended to take the place of the week-long random open comment thread; rather, it is intended to deal with a specific subject while leaving the general discussion for the earlier thread.

Mark Fox's Georgia Bulldogs host the Charleston Southern Buccaneers this evening, marking the Red and Black's second recent date with a team from the Big South Conference. The first came in an outing against High Point that produced the only outcome of the season to be determined by double digits. The Buccaneers have fared little better in their prior clashes with the Hoop Dogs, as the Athenians previously pounded the Bucs 116-59 in 1997 and 79-59 in 2003. In sum, anything less than a blowout would be a disappointment for a program seeking just its third undefeated December in three decades. (The Bulldogs also posted an unblemished ledger in the final calendar month of the year in the fall of 1982; that campaign culminated in a Final Four appearance in the winter of 1983.)

Go 'Dawgs!

With respect to the game itself, my observations are fourfold:

• In any sport under any circumstances, and particularly when playing on the road, this rule will be proven true every single time: when your game plan is to out-talent the opposition, you will look bad if the opposition’s game plan is to out-hustle you. You will win sometimes and lose sometimes, but you will never look good in that situation.
• Free throw shooting matters. Georgia stepped up to the charity stripe twice as often as Mercer did, yet the Bulldogs sunk only 16 of 26 free throws (61.5%), while 11 of the Bears’ 13 free throws fell (84.6%). I’m not at all certain there is a team on the Red and Black’s conference schedule that Mark Fox’s Hoop Hounds can overcome with that kind of disparity at the line.
• Coach Fox’s club has shown it can handle adversity. It has yet to show that it can handle prosperity. After carding by far the most impressive win of the young season and building up a 19-8 lead seven minutes into the first half, the Bulldogs allowed a budding blowout to turn into a nailbiter. Georgia has built all the character it needs can stand by winning ugly.
• At the end of the night, the Georgia Bulldogs beat the Mercer Bears. There was much fault to be found with the way in which the Classic City Canines won, but at least they defeated the Baptists rather than, say, losing to Kennesaw State, losing to Oakland, or losing to Jacksonville.

That gets the painful part of the game out of the way. Now for the pleasant part:

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After opening their season with a nine-game run in which no contest was decided by a double-digit margin, the Georgia Bulldogs finally played a more or less complete game against the High Point Panthers, cruising to an 85-38 win in Stegeman Coliseum.

The Fox Hounds held a ten-point lead at the half before going on a 51-14 run after intermission. Georgia took advantage of a 19-6 edge in takeaways, turning HPU’s double-digit turnover tally into 25 points. The Red and Black likewise dominated in the paint, outscoring the Panthers 42-10 in proximity to the basket.

The Bulldog bench made its contribution, adding 29 points to the home team’s total, and Georgia was much more effective than High Point in its shot selection. The Hoop Dogs went 31 of 59 (52.5%) inside the arc and seven of 18 (38.9%) from three-point range, whereas the Panthers were 12 of 58 (20.7%) in two-point field goals and five of 17 (29.4%) in long-range shots.

The Red and Black did not play a perfect game, however. High Point led 21-15 in offensive boards and nearly matched the host squad in rebounds (43-42). The Panthers out-shot the Bulldogs from the charity stripe, sinking nine of 14 free throws (64.3%) while Georgia went 16 of 29 from the line (55.2%).

Gerald Robinson led the winning team with 21 points, and Trey Thompkins contributed 15 points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocks in 19 minutes on the court. Four of Thompkins’s five free throws fell. It was just High Point, but the Bulldogs finally put away a team they were supposed to defeat handily, and that is an encouraging sign, even if the performance of Mark Fox’s charges was far from flawless.

Go ‘Dawgs!

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you; if you had asked me one day prior to the release of the Georgia Bulldogs' 2010-2011 men's basketball schedule to identify the High Point Panthers, I'd have guessed they were a high school team. I'm hoping tonight's game at Stegeman Coliseum will validate that belief, but, given the Hoop Dogs' penchant for playing close games even against overmatched opponents, I'm not holding my breath.

This is your game night open comment thread, in which you are welcome to cheer Mark Fox's team on to victory and/or wail and gnash your teeth as the Red and Black struggle to put away a visiting team during what was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule. Either way, join in the conversation.

Go 'Dawgs!