Nov. 19, 2002
By Simit Shah – Not all things have been easy for Paul Hewitt in his first two seasons as head basketball coach at Georgia Tech, but he always had senior leaders to guide his team.
Two years ago, it was a group that included Jon Babul, Shaun Fein, Alvin Jones, T.J. Vines and Darryl LaBarrie. Last season, Tony Akins put the team on his back and engineered a miraculous turnaround.
So as the 2002-03 campaign looms, Hewitt has turned to his most experienced player – Marvin Lewis. The only problem is that the junior guard turns 20 next week, not exactly fitting the definition of a seasoned, grizzled veteran.
“I know this team is going to put some gray hairs in my head,” said Hewitt, already sporting a few from the last two seasons. “You’ve got five sophomores and four freshmen. You got two old men – Marvin and Robert [Brooks]. This is the deepest team I’ve had, but it’s very young.”
The departure of Akins, as well as redshirt junior Clarence Moore’s decision to leave the team, has left Lewis in a position of responsibility, but he’s not shy about stepping up to that challenge.
“I’ll take the team on my shoulders,” said Lewis. “If the freshman don’t know something, I’ve got to tell them. It’s a big jump, but Robert and Isma’il [Muhammad] will have to lead the team as well.”
A silky smooth shooter from Germantown, Maryland, Lewis has been in the starting lineup from the moment he stepped on campus in the fall of 2000. At 6-4, he’s at home working from the perimeter, but he was forced to work inside as a freshman on an undersized team.
His initiation into the ACC was rough at times, but he made the conference all-freshman team after averaging nine points and five rebounds. Lewis spent more time in the backcourt last season and emerged as one of the league’s top three-point threats, connecting on 39 percent of his attempts. He also improved on the defensive end and finished second on the team with 41 steals.
“The thing that I learned from last season was how to win,” remarked Lewis. “We had a lot of new players, and we went through that process together. Tony was a big part of that. You look at the end of the year, and we really understood what Coach wanted us to do.”
Filling Akins’ shoes will not be an easy task for Lewis. The point guard carried the team last season and received much of the credit for the second-half turnaround. There was no doubt that it was his team both on the court and in the locker room. Lewis watched Akins closely and learned some valuable lessons.
“Tony was vocal on the court,” observed Lewis. “That’s very important. Early on, he was the only one talking, but he started to get all of us communicating during games, and that what the difference was at the end of the season.
“That’s what I have to do. I’ll have to be more vocal, but I’m fine with that. I’ve played the most games, and this is my third year now. I just need to use my experience in this role.”
Hewitt expressed confidence in Lewis’ leadership abilities. “He’s very mature, very bright,” Hewitt described. “It’s definitely not natural for him. He hasn’t been a vocal leader since he’s been here, but he’s adjusted well. He’s a guy that has worked extremely hard. His teammates can see how he’s improved his game in the off-season, and it’s those types of things that earn respect.”
Another question mark for the Yellow Jackets is who will take the big shots. Akins had the ball in his hands down the stretch in most games last season, so Lewis will look to fill that role as well, but he’s more familiar with that job.
Lewis hit one of the biggest shots of last season, draining a buzzer-beating three-pointer to down 15th-ranked Virginia on the road. “Anything that needs to be done, I’ll do it,” he said. “That’s the attitude on this team.”
Lewis knows his immediate job is to get the team off to a quick start and avoid the pitfalls of last season. The Jackets lost their first seven ACC games, but salvaged the season with a late surge that saw them win seven of their last nine conference games. The team fell just short of a postseason bid.
“Coach is constantly reminding us of that,” said Lewis. “We don’t want to go there again. It was a tough spot. Those of us that are back understand what it takes to win. We just have to make sure the young guys understand that.”
“We have some pieces, if they come together, that can develop into a very good basketball team,” Hewitt predicted. “The first month of the season is going to tell us a lot.”
The season tips off against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday. The early season schedule includes Minnesota, Tennessee and Syracuse. Conference play begins in late December, and Lewis and the Jackets are aiming for the school’s first conference title in seven years.
“We look at the ACC as wide open,” said Lewis. “If we play hard, we’ll be fine. We have to take what we did in the second half of last season and build on that.”
