ATLANTA – It’s only fitting that the season would end this way. So much of the season was like it, and the regular season even ended this way.
Georgia Tech was able to hang in for most of the game against Florida State. They were right there, took the lead on a few occasions, and even when Florida State led by 10 in the first half, you never sensed that the Seminoles had the game in the bag. You sensed that the Yellow Jackets had a run in them to make it a close ballgame, and perhaps even win.
Well, they did, as was the case all season. They had a chance in the final seconds to tie or win it. And as was the case much of the year, they wound up on the short end of such a game, dropping a heart-breaking 64-62 decision in the ACC quarterfinals.
“The guys played extremely hard all year and put themselves in a position to win, but unfortunately for us this year more people made plays at the end than we would have liked to have happen,” said head coach Paul Hewitt.
Georgia Tech finishes the season 12-19 overall. Most notably, the Yellow Jackets went 5-9 in games decided by five points or less. An even better indicator of how close they were is that they went 1-4 in games decided by no more than one possession (three points). Add up the injuries, and this is a team that was clearly snake-bit.
Even so, for the Yellow Jackets to go across town and win on Thursday as the No. 12 seed was a sign of the character of this team. Despite not having much to show for their efforts on the bottom line, they kept working.
“I give the seniors a lot of credit,” said Hewitt. “This is a tough way to spend your senior year, but they continued to come out and play hard and provide good leadership for our guys. It is one of those seasons that is tough to explain, but at the same time you do recognize that these guys have a lot of character to continue to battle and play hard.”
Hewitt and his returning players next year surely aren’t looking ahead just yet, but there is reason to believe the Yellow Jackets will be better next season. They have an excellent recruiting class coming in, led by hometown post player Derrick Favors, and the only seniors they lose of significance are Lewis Clinch and Alade Aminu. While Clinch closed out his career playing very well (he averaged 23.5 points per game in his final eight college games), the four-man class they have coming in will boost the talent more, and they will get D’Andre Bell back after missing this season with spinal stenosis.
“I think they have a bright future for this program and staff,” said Clinch.
The 2008-09 season had plenty of adversity for the Yellow Jackets. With a talent boost and maturity from their returning players, 2009-10 should be a better one. This year’s team wasn’t far away from a winning season, in fact a lot closer than being seven games under .500 might suggest.
