ATLANTA — Josh Pastner isn’t out of work because he couldn’t draw up a nifty inbounds play. He won an ACC tournament with players no NBA team deemed worthy of drafting. Georgia Tech fired Pastner because he was forever facing an uphill slog, which shouldn’t happen to an ACC program based in Atlanta.
Referring to a different sport, another Georgian — Kirby Smart — said, “You can’t outcoach recruiting.” That’s truer in basketball than in any other sport. Virginia is considered a clever team, but Tony Bennett wouldn’t have become a national champ without NBA draftees De’Andre Hunter, Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy. (Since they left, the Cavaliers are 0-2 in the Big Dance, having lost to 13th seeds Ohio U. and Furman.)
Bobby Cremins’ teams won three ACC tournaments and made the 1990 Final Four. Paul Hewitt’s Yellow Jackets twice played Duke to the wire in ACC finals and faced UConn for the 2004 national championship. Under those two coaches, Tech produced 17 Round 1 picks. In the 12 seasons since, Tech has had one player drafted — Josh Okogie, who committed to play for Brian Gregory and spent one season under Pastner.
