ATLANTA — It was 12 years ago this week that Georgia Tech toppled Kansas to go to the 2004 Final Four in San Antonio. The Yellow Jackets advanced to that year's national championship game.
Since that loss in the St. Louis Regional Final, Kansas has put together a 361-73 record, complete with two trips to the title game, a national championship (2008) and 12 consecutive Big 12 Conference regular season championships. (Not to mention 12 straight NCAA Tournament appearances)
Georgia Tech has gone in the completely opposite direction. The Yellow Jackets have a 190-194 record from the 2004-05 season to the present day, a 4-4 record in four postseason appearances (three NCAA, one NIT) and they are now searching for their third head coach, all while continuing to pay off the two who were dismissed.
Brian Gregory suffered the same fate as his predecessor, Paul Hewitt (the coach who guided Tech to the '04 Final Four), and according to the school's athletic director, Mike Bobinski, "The evaluation for me came down to ... what is the future like? Do we in fact have a clear path forward to greater success and higher levels of success in the years ahead, and my determination is ... I didn't see it."
Bobinski went on to say that the search for a new head coach would commence immediately. ESPN.com college basketball insider Jeff Goodman says that the athletic director will reach out to Chris Mack, the current Xavier coach who was there when Bobinski served in the same capacity for the Cincinnati-area university.
Another candidate, according to Goodman, ironically is Archie Miller, Gregory's successor at Dayton University.
Mark Price, one of Tech's all-time greats and one of the few Yellow Jackets whose number is retired, is one person who reportedly was interested in the job prior to Gregory's hiring. Price is currently coming off his first season as the head coach at the University of Charlotte.
Listed below are the records for Georgia Tech each season since its last trip to the Final Four:
2005: 20-12 and 1-1 in NCAA
2006: 11-17
2007: 20-12, 0-1 in NCAA
2008: 15-17
2009: 12-19
2010: 23-13, 1-1 in NCAA
2011: 13-18
2012: 11-20
2013: 16-15
2014: 16-17
2015: 12-19
2016: 21-15, 2-1 in NIT
Total: 190-194, 4-4 in 4 postseason appearances in last 12 seasons.
Cox Media Group
