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When Bobby Cremins moved to Georgia Tech from Appalachian State, he was an absolute breath of fresh air. It didn’t take him too long to get going. He went from 10 wins to 13 to 18 to 27 his fourth year.
He had a unique style too, rarely going deeper than seven players and usually just six.
It worked for awhile but in 1996-97, the Yellow Jackets finished just 9-18.
He would never make the NCAA tournament again.
In his last four years, Tech finished 9-18, 19-14, 15-16 and 13-17.
Losing eats at any coach but for Cremins, who fled campus for a while when he felt he was responsible for South Carolina’s losing the ACC Tournament, it was probably worse and he resigned after the 1999-00 season (it didn’t help that early entry to the NBA Draft accelerated at about the same time his career declined).
He had some wonderful teams though and in 1992, Georgia Tech played Duke in the ACC Tournament semis with Duke winning 89-76.
He was great for the ACC and the conference lost a lot when he departed.