GMU: Hewitt, Patriots Writing New Script

Let’s be clear, Paul Hewitt would have been just fine taking a year or two off from coaching college basketball after his 11-year run at Georgia Tech came to an end last spring.
 
But it’s not often that a position opens up with a program that’s coming off a 27-win season and would be returning a team favored by many to win its conference championship the following season. So rather than take a hiatus to spend more time with family and perhaps join the talking heads on a network such as ESPN or CBS, Hewitt jumped at the opportunity to succeed Jim Larranaga at George Mason.
 
And despite a few bumps in the road during the first month of the season, early returns are that the transition from Larranaga, the coach with the all-time most wins in school and Colonial Athletic Association history, has been for the large part a smooth one.
 
"I think it’s been seamless," the man who hired Hewitt, Mason athletic director Tom O’Connor, said of the transition. "You can’t ask people to give you their respect. You have to earn their respect, and with Paul, he has earned people’s respect already."
 
It hasn’t come easy, or as initially planned.
 
The personnel that has taken the court for the Patriots (7-3 overall, 1-0 CAA) to this point is different then what Hewitt thought he was inheriting when he accepted the position in April. Swingman Luke Hancock, who was instrumental during George Mason’s nation-high 16-game winning streak last season and hit the game-winning shot to beat Villanova in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, transferred to Louisville; Johnny Williams, a 6-foot-8, 266-pound power forward, had to take a medical redshirt following shoulder surgery; and then senior Andre Cornelius, who was set to enter his third season as the starting point guard, was suspended for all games scheduled during the fall semester after being charged with credit card fraud in September.
 
Then, after receiving Top 25 votes in several national preseason polls, the Patriots suffered overtime losses to Florida International and Florida Atlantic in games they were favored to win prior to dropping a 68-48 decision at Virginia last week.
 
"I think we’re probably a better team then [7-3], but we haven’t done it on the court," said Hewitt, who went 190-162 during his tenure with the Yellow Jackets, including a berth in the 2004 national championship game. "We lost to Virginia the other night by 20 in a game that I don’t think we played particularly well. But, overall, I love the work ethic, I love the overall attitude, and if we can get completely healthy and get Andre Cornelius back, I think by January we’re going to be a really, really good basketball team.”
 
Behind the play of senior forward Ryan Pearson, who averages team-highs of 18.9 points and 7.6 rebounds, Mason has at the very least been able to tread water while they adjust to the new regime and await Cornelius’ season debut. Mason rebounded from the loss in Charlottesville with a 76-61 win at Radford on Saturday, and will get Cornelius back for their home game on Dec. 21 against Duquesne Pearson and senior forward Mike Morrison, who averages 9.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots, have been integral in helping Hewitt implement his more up-tempo style to players who were recruited to play in Larranaga’s defensive-oriented system.
 
“I think Mike and Ryan have helped with the transition,” Hewitt said. “Because of the way the team is constructed, we only have two seniors that have been playing, and everybody else really didn’t play much at all last year. So we’ve really needed for Mike and Ryan to be those positive leaders and get everybody to buy in.”
 
It hasn’t hurt that the inexperienced supporting cast also happens to be a very talented one. Sophomore guards Sherrod Wright, who sat out last year with an injury, and Vertrail Vaughns chip in 11.1 points apiece, the point guard tandem of sophomore Bryon Allen and freshman Corey Edwards have combined for 61 assists (though have also totaled 43 turnovers) and young big men Jonathan Arledge and Erik Copes have continued to develop while playing behind Pearson and Morrison. Copes, a bruising 6-8, 244-pound freshman from Philadelphia who is regarded as one of the top recruits in school history, is averaging 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in just 17.1 minutes per game.
 
“We lost a lot of experience, what I call ‘real playing time’,” O’Connor said of the roster turnover, which also included the graduation of first-team All-CAA guard Cam Long and sixth-man Isaiah Tate. “So, regardless of whoever was the coach, you’re going to be placed in a situation where the players had to become familiar with being on the court. With Paul, I think he’s really accelerated giving them experience, and he’s worked extremely hard in getting these kids prepared for what’s coming up with the CAA.”
 
O’Connor said he has been pleased with his new coach’s ability to take what Larranaga built over his 14-year run at the school, keep in place what has worked while putting his stamp on the program. O’Connor had a well-documented close relationship with his former coach, who left abruptly to take the same position at Miami (Fla.) in the spring. But he said four decades of working in intercollegiate athletics has prepared him for the inevitable coaching changes, no matter how personal the working relationship had become.
 
“It really wasn’t that difficult for me because I’ve been in the business in the NCAA Division I since 1970, and I’ve had the opportunity to be around a lot of different coaches and adapt to the different personalities and whatnot,” said O’Connor who has been the AD at the Fairfax school since 1994. “But the biggest thing that you need to have when building a relationship is trust. And if you can develop that relationship both ways, that goes a long, long way. I’ve been able to develop that strong trust both ways with Paul. He’s just a terrific person who’s easy to get along with.“
 
Hewitt knew coming in that he wanted to leave well-enough alone, and he knows something about following in the footsteps of an icon – in 2000, he was hired after three seasons at Siena to take over at Georgia Tech for legendary coach Bobby Cremins.
 
“I thought coming in because they’ve had so much success here, that if we came in trying to make changes – any change, whether it be minor or drastic – that they may be resistant to change,” Hewitt said. “But I give the players a lot of credit, they’ve been very open and I think they like some of the things that we’re doing. And if there’s been something that they don’t like, then they’ve put a good face on it.”
 
Even with all the good vibes that have resonated throughout the team, the school and the community since Hewitt’s hiring, he recognizes that anything short of a deep run in the CAA Tournament and an NCAA bid would largely be looked at as a disappointment.
 
“I really like this group of guys, they’ve been fun to coach,” Hewitt said. “I don’t think we’ve been playing our best, but I don’t think we’ve been playing poorly, either.
 
“I think we’ve shown flashes of what type of team we can become.”