March 9, 2001

Chris Boyer
TheACC.com

ATLANTA - Georgia Tech's senior center Alvin Jones has been one of the ACC's, and perhaps the country's, most improved players all season long. Earlier this week he was named to the All-ACC First Team, and now he has scored 20 points, blocked six shots, and led the Yellow Jackets to a quarterfinal win the ACC Tournament and possibly back to the NCAA Tournament.

All along the way and with each passing achievement he has sung the praises of and given exclusive credit to his new head coach Paul Hewitt.

"He (Hewitt) has been everything. Without him I wouldn't be the player I have become. I give him all the credit from making the All-ACC to the game I played tonight. He had me out doing individual work outs this week when the rest of the team wasn't even practicing. He asked me to go out and take more shots, because he knew that would be a big factor in what we wanted to do tonight. He has gotten me more focused and into great shape. I listen to everything he has to say to me. Every time he talks to me he is trying to make me a better person, a better player."

In the quarterfinal win Jones swatted away six Cavalier shots, including some key blocks down the stretch. Again, the soft-spoken big man gives the credit to his coach.

"Coach Hewitt has been going through some film with me and showing me different things. A lot of times I have been getting caught looking at the ball, instead of trying to block shots. Coach tells me I am athletic enough to probably contest every shot. He's pointed that out to me over and over. That's what I tried to do tonight. Every time they came to the basket I tried to alter their shots in some way."

In the last two minutes of the game, Jones hit two key baskets, dished out two assists, and took a charging foul. Jones, almost immediately, goes back to Hewitt's role.

"We prepare ourselves to finish games strong through all the hard work we do in practice. There are times out there when Coach Hewitt has our tongues hanging out of our mouths. He tries to work with us to teach us how to get through it and get the win. That has really helped us, and a lot of the games we won this year have been close. We have just been able to finish more of them off. That's what we did tonight."

Of course, the credit Jones gives Hewitt doesn't end with the fundamentals, conditioning, and x and o's. He also credits his motivational skills.

"Coach gave us one of the best speeches I have ever heard tonight. He basically told us that we needed to go out there and dominate, play to keep the Georgia Tech tradition strong. He told us about previous teams in the ACC that people have doubted, who went out and won the Tournament. He really got us fired up."

Hewitt is quick to make sure his star player gets the credit he deserves for playing his part as well.

"Alvin deserves all the credit in the world for handling the change the way he has and coming up big," says Hewitt. "A lot of kids wouldn't have stayed and stuck it out and played for some kind of lunatic."

At day's end, Hewitt and Jones both go home tonight not positive they are in the NCAA Tournament, but realizing that they will be playing tomorrow. All the while Jones continued to deflect the praise.

"I give a lot of the credit to all of my teammates. Everybody played a big part in our win tonight. We knew we had to win to prove a lot of things to ourselves and to Coach Hewitt. I think we played more intense than they did (UVA). We were hungrier than they were."

"I am not sure how the math works for getting into the NCAA Tournament. I do know that we will be back here playing another game in the ACC Tournament. I am looking forward to matching up with Brendan (Haywood of UNC) again. We have a great relationship. I also like that we still really control our own destiny. We still have some basketball to play, we're not watching TV quite yet, because anything can happen here. It's the ACC Tournament."