The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Final Four revisited: Grueling ACC run prepped Tech for ’04 Big Dance
Club’s new wideouts added to complement stars London and Pitts.
Twenty years ago, a Georgia Tech men’s basketball team captured the hearts of its fans and exhilarated a city with a run to the 2004 national championship game, played April 5, 2004.
This is the second of a three-part series looking back on that team’s storied run to the Final Four in San Antonio as told by the players, coaches and other members of a team whose success has not since been matched at Tech.
Today’s installment revisits the Yellow Jackets’ conference season ahead of making the 2004 NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection. Tech went 9-7 in league play, a mark that included a win at Duke in March that ended the Blue Devils’ 41-game home winning streak, and finished tied for third in a nine-team conference. The Jackets went 1-1 in the ACC tournament.
The 2003-04 ACC included a Duke team with Chris Duhon and JJ Reddick, a Wake Forest squad that featured Chris Paul and a North Carolina roster that had Sean May and Rashad McCants.
■ Coach Paul Hewitt: “Everybody (in the ACC) was tough. The second game (against an opponent) is always more interesting because somebody’s trying to avenge a loss and the other team’s trying to figure out a way to beat ’em again. It was challenging. Maryland had just come off winning the NCAA championship two years before. So, yeah, it was a grind. It was an absolute grind. But the good thing about it, if you’re able to survive it, when you get out of the league the NCAA Tournament tends to be a little bit easier.”
■ Forward Isma’il Muhammad: “I don’t think it was debatable, (the ACC) was the best conference in the country at that time. We knew that even if we dropped a game or two, our confidence never wavered because we knew night in and night out we were competing against the very best teams in the entire country. As the ebbs and flows went through a season, we always remained confident. It literally never wavered. And I think that’s what was special about the coaching staff, the players, the support staff — we all believed in each other.”
■ Assistant coach Dean Keener: “Gantlet’s the best word to use. We broke out 12-0 and lost at Georgia and then, I believe, lost a week later at Carolina. But we never sensed any cracks in the armor. You could tell that this team was good. They shared the ball. They played the right way. The go-to guy was the open man. (Hewitt) did a really nice job of making sure everybody knew their role.”
■ Guard B.J. Elder: “It was just a tough conference. During that time I tell the guys on the team here now, the difference in the league that I was in and now is the guys that are now one-and-done guys were in their sophomore, junior, senior years a lot of times. It was a tough league. Each game was its own game and tough to win.”
■ Center Luke Schenscher: “I have a very clear memory of going into Cameron Indoor and playing Duke when they were on a 40-something home game winning streak. We beat them comfortably in the end. It was the first time we had beaten Duke since I was at GT and sitting in the locker room after the game I remember thinking, ‘Geez, we are pretty bloody good. There are not too many teams that could do that.’ That’s when I first started thinking we had potential to go deep into the tournament if we got the chance.”
■ Guard Marvin Lewis: “As an administrator now, I talk to a lot of our student-athletes about just how long the season is and that you gotta push through the ups and downs and, obviously, celebrate the highs. But you wanna stay pretty even because it’s a long season. What I will say is even in those moments where we might have lost two in a row or might have been struggling, there was never any doubt in our ability, never any doubt in what this team could do. I think that exemplified itself in us beating Duke at Cameron. That was another moment that said, ‘We can do this and we can do this at a really high level.’”
■ Radio play-by-play s Durham: “The team’s collective connectivity was really fun. It was a really fun team to be around. They went through some highs and lows. They had a twogame losing streak in the ACC where they lost at home to NC State and then there was some question, ‘How would they get in the NCAA Tournament?’ Then the win at Duke at the end of the year to break Duke’s long win streak at home, that was a huge deal, too.”
■ Schenscher: “The overall main feeling I remember from that year was that it felt like we were just as happy for our teammates’ success as we were for our own. We understood that the success of the team was the most important thing for us and our success over individual success.”
ORLANDO — After landing quarterback Kirk Cousins in free agency, the Falcons quickly pivoted to another DIY project: the reshaping of the wide receiver group.
General manager Terry Fontenot and coach Raheem Morris, who was the wide receivers coach during the Falcons’ 2016 Super Bowl season, set out to replicate that group of wide receivers that included Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu, Taylor Gabriel and Justin Hardy. Big guys, small and fast guys and tough special teams guys.
This year, the Falcons signed wide receivers Darnell Mooney (5-foot-11, 173 pounds) and RayRay McCloud in (5-9, 190) in free agency, traded for Rondale Moore (5-7, 180) and retained special teams maven KhaDarel Hodge (6-2, 208).
“I’m excited for us to get a fresh start at wideout,” Morris said. “Get some speed in our (group) and develop some things. I think the (Desmond Ridder for Moore) trade married up well for both of us.”
Of course, the Falcons return wide receiver Drake London and have tight end Kyle Pitts.
“Atlanta, the first time that I was here, I just have a vision for how that position looks,” Morris said. “I was lucky to be around Roddy (White), Julio Jones and Harry Douglas. If you keep going, ( Justin) Hardy and you’re talking about Taylor Gabriel.”
Morris was with White for his last season in the NFL. But each of the receivers had roles to play based off quarterback Matt Ryan getting the ball to Jones.
“You have different body types,” Morris said. “Different movement skills. You want to be able to put all of those guys in that (meeting) room. So you can really provide that quarterback with more opportunities to get those guys the football, so that you can be explosive.”
Mooney could play the Sanu role, even though he’s not as big. Sanu was 6-2, 210. The speedy Gabriel scored a career-high six touchdowns, and Moore could fit his role.
McCloud and Hodge could be major special teams guys, as was Hardy, who played in 73 games over five seasons, mostly on special teams.
Mooney was signed to a threeyear deal worth $39 million, with $26 million guaranteed. Some believe, as when Sanu signed a five-year, $32.5 million deal in 2016 essentially to replace White, that Mooney was overpaid.
But the Falcons have a vision for him in the offense.
“When you are talking about Mooney, you are talking about an elite separator,” Morris said. “A guy with gas. You’re talking about a guy who can run. You’re talking about a guy who can get the ball in his hands and make plays.”
The Falcons also believe Mooney will fit within the fabric of their locker room.
“You’re talking about the kid, the character, knowing him from the draft when he came out on what he was and some of the stuff he brought to the table,” Morris said. “A highly competitive young man. It fired me up about the opportunity to go and get him.”
With London and Pitts, the Falcons believe Mooney can play the X (split end) position and get a lot of one-on-one matchups. Wide receivers commonly are known as X (split end) and Z (flanker) in NFL schemes.
“When you see the guy be able to stand up at the X position and probably be an elite separator for you, win some of the oneon-one matchups,” Morris said. “Win some of those 50-50 downs, that he turns the other way for you, really fires me up.”
Fontenot said, “He fits what we are looking for.”
The Falcons also have Josh Ali, Austin Mack and Chris Blair. However, they are not finished adding receivers.
“We knew we needed to add there, and these are the guys we are excited about,” Fontenot said. “It’s not that we’re specifically saying we don’t want to add any more big guys or we want to smaller fast guys, it wasn’t that. It was just about adding really good football players that we feel really good about with regards to their skill sets.”
With the major moves at quarterback and at wide receiver, the Falcons can address other areas of concern in the NFL draft, which is April 25-27 in Detroit.