Thursday, March 27, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The coach who stands 10th in victories in NCAA Division I history agreed Wednesday to become the coach at Georgia State, college basketball's least successful major-college program.
"Every program I've ever taken over has been down," said Driesell, who was to be officially introduced at a news conference today as the 11th -- and certainly most prominent -- coach in school history. "I would like to take over a school like Kentucky some time, but I've never been that lucky."
At Georgia State, the 65-year-old Driesell is taking over a team that is the antithesis of Kentucky.
The 24,000-student university in downtown Atlanta has a record of 252-626 (.287) since launching its NCAA program 34 years ago. The Panthers have had only three winning seasons, the last coming in 1991-92.
"I wanted to coach some more, and I just think this is a great, great challenge," Driesell said. "I think it has a lot of selling points, too. I think Georgia State could be like Mississippi State, Iowa State, N.C. State and Kansas State. It's a great university in one of the greatest cities in the world. Why would a kid not want to come play in Atlanta?"
Very few have, at least when it comes to Georgia State. The university, attended mostly by commuter students with no real loyalty to the athletic program, plays before sparse crowds in the obscure Trans America Athletic Conference, going virtually unnoticed in a city with three major-league teams and another major university, Georgia Tech, just a couple of miles away.
"The challenge was to go out and hire a name coach, somebody with a proven record so when we announced the hiring, it would send out a signal that Georgia State was very serious about its basketball program," said athletic director Orby Moss, adding that the school has a five-year plan to upgrade its team.
Driesell, whose career record is 683-335 in 35 seasons, was fired March 5 by James Madison, a day after he announced that the 1997-98 season would be his last -- even if he had not reached the landmark of 700 victories. Officials at the Virginia school were caught by surprise, and they felt like the program deteriorated in the past three years.
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