Brian Gregory, Georgia Tech Part Ways: Latest Details, Comments, Reaction

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets announced on Friday that they have dismissed basketball head coach Brian Gregory after five seasons.

Gregory compiled a 76-86 record and never reached the NCAA tournament during his tenure in Atlanta.

Gregory had two years and $1.3 million left on his deal, and the team will owe him a portion of that amount, per Ken Sugiura of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski issued a statement thanking Gregory for his efforts:

"

This was a difficult decision because of the character and integrity that Brian has demonstrated throughout his time at Georgia Tech. I have great respect for Brian as a person and for the effort he’s put forth on our behalf. He and the student-athletes under his direction have represented Georgia Tech in a first-rate manner and we’re greatly appreciative of the improvements he’s overseen in our program’s academic performance. However, as we look to the future, we believe a change in leadership is needed for our program to achieve higher and sustained levels of competitive success.

"

Steak Shapiro of 680 The Fan in Atlanta noted Friday’s announcement didn’t come as a major surprise based on Bobinski’s demeanor after the Yellow Jackets bowed out of the NIT—their first postseason appearance since 2010:

When his future was in doubt, though, Gregory's players went to bat for him. 

“He’s meant a lot,” All-ACC guard Marcus Georges-Hunt said after the ACC tournament, per Sugiura. “He brought me here, him and the coaching staff, him and [associate head coach Chad] Dollar, and I’ve been learning ever since. I’ve been learning the last four years how to become a better person and a better player, so he means a lot to me.”

Georges-Hunt was among 10 upperclassmen on the roster, and four of the 21-15 Yellow Jackets' five starters were seniors this year.

Citing the departing upperclassmen, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports said on the network’s NCAA March Madness Bracket Breakdown on Friday that the Yellow Jackets job is no longer coveted the way it once was. 

"The Georgia Tech job is not a great job anymore in the ACC because it’s like pushing a boulder up a hill. … You are taking a job right now that is going to be rock-bottom and a backbreaking rebuild in the ACC,” he said.

Georgia Tech’s 2016 recruiting class ranks 39th in the country, per 247Sports' composite rankings. 

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and Gary Parrish of CBS Sports each speculated over who might replace Gregory and take on the massive challenge in Atlanta:

For the better part of a decade in the mid-1980s, Georgia Tech was an ACC heavyweight, qualifying for the NCAA tournament nine years in a row, starting in 1985, under iconic head coach Bobby Cremins. 

The Yellow Jackets remained a respectable force under Cremins’ successor, Paul Hewitt, culminating with a national championship game berth in 2004.

But since then, Georgia Tech has slowly fallen to the wayside in the ACC’s competitive landscape, with seven losing seasons in the last 12 years.

The opportunity to coach in the nation’s best conference and in a recruiting hotbed may raise a few eyebrows among potential candidates, but the Georgia Tech job doesn’t have the allure it once did.