The Paul Hewitt Saga is over, according to Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman. Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich has reportedly informed Hewitt that Tech will not renew his contract, effectively firing the long tenured coach. The news comes shortly after a first round departure from the ACC tournament in which the Jackets scored just 43 points, the fewest in any game in the Hewitt era.
The report likely comes as positive news to the majority of the fan base as Hewitt had more than his share of vocal critics. Radakovich's other major coach search and subsequent hiring was Paul Johnson three years ago.
Hewitt finishes his career at Tech with a record of 189-160 overall and 72-104 in ACC play in 11 years. Tech is renovating the basketball arena next year and will be playing home games at Philips Arena and Gwinnettt Arena, so the new coach will have a year to introduce a system and get acclimated before opening the new arena.
Former AD Dave Braine gave Hewitt a raise and extension after the run to the national championship game in 2004. Essentially, the contract was endless, a six-year contract that automatically had an additional year added onto it on April 15 of every year. To fire him, Tech has to pay him the $7.2 million buyout over the next two years.
Radakovich's search for Paul Johnson took roughly two weeks to complete after the firing of Chan Gailey. I would expect a similar time frame for the search for a new basketball coach.
Update - Coley Harvey of the Macon Telegraph and Mark Schlabach of ESPN confirm via Twitter:
Just had a 20min convo with Paul Hewitt. Literally getting off the phone. I'll post it in coming min. It is true. He's fired
Coley Harvey
macontechtalk
Filed to ESPN.com: Confirmed Paul Hewitt fired as Georgia Tech's basketball coach #GeorgiaTech
Mark Schlabach
Mark_Schlabach