Eleven games stand between my last opinion piece on men’s basketball head coach Josh Pastner and today’s piece. The team was coming off a double-digit loss against a horrible Louisville team and a humiliating 86-43 home loss to Duke, and I stated that “if the team cannot string something together at the end of this season, the sun should set on the Pastner era.” The team proceeded to go 7-4, won back-to-back ACC road games, and did not lose by double digits in any of the four losses. What was once a no-brainer has now become a debate by my standards, so I ask should men’s basketball fire Head Coach Josh Pastner or should he get one more year on the hot seat?
This season was once looking to be the worst in Tech history since the 1980-1981 campaign when the team went 4-23 and 0-14 in ACC play; however, the Jackets managed to turn things around with big wins as an underdog. However, prior to this 7-4 finish, the Jackets cemented their worst losing streak since the aforementioned 1980-1981 campaign, being a nine-game skid. Tech only escaped this streak off a buzzer-beating tap-in by Lance Terry against an under .500 Notre Dame. The win sparked the team to go on their run, but the nine-game losing streak cannot be ignored when evaluating Pastner. This nine-game streak is indeed the worst since the 14-game losing streak in 1981 which led to the termination of then Head Coach Dwayne Morrison. To ignore this historical parallel would be a disservice to what the team could become under new leadership.
Remarkably the Jackets finished with a better record than last season, finishing up at 15-18 and 6-14 in the ACC compared to last year's 12-20 overall and 5-15 ACC record. This season is considered a disappointment; however, it ranks as Pastner’s fourth-highest win total in his seven years at the helm. The three preceding this were Pastner’s only winning seasons here at Tech. Pastner now has more losing seasons than winning ones and it only appears to be declining more with no big recruiting classes incoming. The Jackets are currently sitting in a rut of a decision.
Pastner’s buyout is listed as being around $2.5 million according to the AJC's Ken Sugiura, which could be a difficult sum to build given Georgia Tech athletics is still financially recovering from the termination of Geoff Collins.
It is clear Pastner loves his team and has passion for his job based on his press conferences; however, he is unable to climb the mountain of winning when he should. The end of this season left most fans asking where that performance had been all year. Pastner was on the hot seat all year and it seemed as if he only acknowledged it toward the last ten games. If he were in his first or second year as a coach, I would say he deserves another year to prove himself because we do not know enough; however, that is not the case.
Even with Pastner pleading his case as "he hopes, and he prays" to continue as Tech's head coach, Pastner has proven his ability to wear down this program and consistently provide embarrassing games, but he has also proven his ability to pull the upset against big teams: Miami this year, Duke in 2020. However, Georgia Tech deserves a coach that provides an expectation of winning these games. It should not be a hope of not losing, it should be a determination to win each game. I feel that Pastner does not instill that culture in his program and it has shown on the court. The talent is not the issue; Miles Kelly, Lance Terry, Deebo Coleman, and the whole team are all great players that can help us cross that threshold from mediocre to great. Under Pastner’s leadership, it has not been so and it is simply a coaching issue.
Despite the phenomenal end to the season and the momentum it provided, Josh Pastner crossed a historically bad landmark in Tech Basketball. This combined with last year’s devastations is enough to change leadership. I do not think seven solid wins are enough to save Pastner’s job, nor should anyone. Athletic Director J Batt has a difficult call to make, but Tech fans must believe he will make the best call for the program and it should be supported regardless.
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