Anyone that listens to our ACC podcast with @Hokiesmash_ASD and myself or reads this blog or follows me on twitter @TalkinACCSports knows I am not a fan of Josh Pastner.
As far back as 2016, I was skeptical of the Pastner hire. From that piece comments from his former Mempis player Shaq Goodwin were a red flag.
Q: How is your relationship with Josh?
A: It is bittersweet.
Q: What does that mean?
A: It’s bittersweet, for one, because I know I can’t speak too much or I won’t have a career. (Goodwin laughs). That’s for one. It’s just, it’s up and down.
Q: So it never leveled out, even by your senior year? Where you knew where he was coming from and he knew where you were coming from?
A: Part of me having my best season yet at Memphis (as a senior this year), a part of it was having a better relationship with coach Pastner. If I didn’t, I knew I would have another (bad) season like I did the year before. Then, I watched players, people I was close with like Damien (Wilson), watched Damien leave and I didn’t understand it. Like, why? Then I watched Austin (Nichols) leave and it was just like, ‘What really is the reason? Should I leave?’ After I realized that I was gonna stay, I knew I had to have a relationship with him. I gotta make something work. If I don’t, nobody will. And then I got 14 people watching me. That’s another thing I had to get adjusted to.
Then in 2018, after Georgia Tech landed under probation under his watch and had a disastrous finish to the season – even more red flags.
Then at the end of the 2019 season I said this…
For Pastner’s sake he better hope so, because another season without discernible progress and there won’t be any support or patience left from the Georgia Tech fanbase. I think most Georgia Tech fans are now skeptical Pastner can be the coach that can turn things around. Many had lukewarm feelings the day he was hired.
Now after a nightmare beginning to the 2020 season, where Georgia Tech was considered a darkhorse NCAA team the Yellow Jackets have started the season 0-2 with losses to Georgia State and Mercer. Josh Pastner says blame him not the players.
Josh Pastner’s message to fans, “be mad at me not the players” for these two losses.
— Kelly Quinlan (@Kelly_Quinlan) November 28, 2020
Guess what Josh – We do blame you, and we blame you 100%. We don’t blame players like Moses Wright, who came in as a project and made himself an ACC caliber player. We don’t blame Jose Alvarado who plays with grit and is a saint to stick it out with you all four years.
We blame you. You were a bad hire, and you’ve been bad for Georgia Tech. You failed miserably to prepare your team for the start of the season with your ill-fated contactless practices.
In a COVID world, the pandemic exposes deficient coaches with no place to hide.
That is you Josh Pastner.
Make sure you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply