Georgia Tech Basketball: Retaining Brian Gregory is a Smart Move by AD Mike Bobinski

According to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman via Twitter, Georgia Tech is going to retain Brian Gregory for 2015-16.

The decision to keep Brian Gregory is more about what AD Mike Bobinski can justify in his mind and explain to the school, and less about Brian Gregory and his performance.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets /

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Keeping Brian Gregory is a common sense move. Mike Bobinski chose fiscal responsibility, graduating kids, and bringing a coach back with an experienced team, over public pressure, having to pay unemployment benefits to two fired coaches and throwing his basketball program into further flux.

Mike Bobinski did the right thing. Really think about what fans are asking of Georgia Tech if Bobinski fires Gregory.

If you fire Gregory you are asking Tech to pay two unemployed coaches until 2017 as have a third coach hired that will have to go through the process of getting his kind of players in and establishing his culture.

That could be a prolonged process in itself. At least this way you have Gregory on a short leash and if you do fire him after 2015-16 you only have one year of unemployment benefits to pay.

Brian Gregory expected to coach Georgia Tech next season, sources told ESPN. There was speculation Yellow Jackets might make move now.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 16, 2015

Gregory will also be able to take the court with an experienced team in his system that will have a chip on their shoulder to right the wrongs of this past season.

Josh Heath, Travis Jorgenson, Marcus Georges-Hunt, Charles Mitchell, Quinton Stephens, Corey Heyward, Ben Lammers, Abdouleye Gueye, Tadric Jackson and Nick Jacobs are in the group for next season.

Chris Bolden may or may not be at Tech next year though his suspension is served.

Just based on that fact there are zero excuses. Gregory can’t fall back on, “we had a bunch of transfers learning to gel”, or “everyone was new to the system, these things can take time”. He has his players and his style in place.

Everyone is aware of the fact that Gregory is 19-51 in ACC regular season play and went 0-11 in games decided by five points or less including overtime games this past season.

Bur even with those numbers, the team played hard, and showed improvement during the season.

Fans say they will not show up, but If Tech is on the verge of a 20 win season fans will show.

In the end, Mike Bobinski put himself in a really smart position.

He would rather explain why he kept a coach that is bringing back an experienced team, who graduates players, and who has no excuse for not succeeding in 2015-16, than explain why he is paying unemployment benefits to two coaches for the next two years while having yet another revamp project of the hoop program taking place and not knowing how long the rebuild will take.

In two years Hewitt will be off the books and Gregory’s contract is up. Bobinski will have a clean slate to go in whatever direction he wants. Everyone wants instant gratification, but this situation actually is going to take some patience.

For now, the pressure is squarely on Brian Gregory to produce. Mike Bobinski is literally playing with house money.