AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2005 > November > 30 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USTech demonstrates it can, will compete
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
East Lansing, Mich. — Much good should come of this. Georgia Tech came to the snowy North and had a shot — a clean, if hurried, look — to beat one of the nation’s most gifted teams on its floor. To say the Jackets deserved to win would be incorrect, but if they play the way they played for roughly 30 of these 40 minutes they’ll deserve to win 20 or so times this season.
In losing 88-86, the Jackets learned they have the scorers to run with anybody. Still at issue is whether they have the urge to guard somebody. This game was lost in the first half, when Michigan State was allowed to make 58.6 percent of its shots. To its credit, Tech scored enough — 54 points in the second on 64.7 percent shooting — to keep the game within reach of a last-gasp rally, and sure enough the rally arrived and Zam Fredrick hoisted a trey to steal it at the end, but he back-rimmed the thing.
No matter. The important thing here wasn’t to win, though that would have been nice, but simply to progress. When you lose to a bad Illinois-Chicago team by 22 points at your place, you have cause to question everything. Asked what Wednesday’s margin would have been had the Jackets given a similar non-effort, Paul Hewitt said, “40 or 50.” And then: “I had a dream the other night that it was 42-2 at half.” And it wasn’t State with the deuce.
For four minutes, this game seemed en route to something lopsided. The Spartans flew to leads of 12-3 and 15-5. Then Tech decided to play, and when Tech decides to play it can still be rather good. As has been suspected, some of these sophomores — Ra’Sean Dickey, Anthony Morrow, Jeremis Smith — are greater talents than the seniors they replaced. Shrugging off the taunts from the idiots in the Izzone (as the MSU student section is known), the three mustered an aggregate 61 points.
“When we play for each other, instead of playing young, we’re a very good team,” Hewitt said. The Jackets played for each other for the majority of these 40 minutes, but a simple majority wasn’t enough to carry the night. There’s a lesson in that, too.
Hewitt: “It simply comes down to, ‘Did you come here to play, or did you come here to win a championship?’ You win championships with defense and rebounding. I told the guys in the first four minutes of the second half [after State’s Paul Davis got himself going], ‘You’ve given up.’?”
The Jackets hadn’t really. They never trailed by more than 12 points, and they have enough shooters — as opposed to last season’s team after B.J. Elder got hurt at Kansas on New Year’s Day — to give themselves a chance. Ask the Spartans, who led by 10 points with 1:27 to play and were reduced to praying that Fredrick’s last shot clanged.
Scoring won’t be the issue with these guys, but Tech didn’t rise to the 2004 NCAA championship game on the backs of scorers. It got there because a bunch of role players dedicated themselves to the greater good, defending like demons and playing every possession as if lives were at stake. When you have success like that, you invariably start signing bigger-name recruits, and almost no heralded recruit made his name defending.
Will these Jackets make such a commitment? It’s far too early to know, but much of Wednesday’s game struck a positive chord. Tech outrebounded the nation’s best rebounding team and left the esteemed Tom Izzo wondering about the work ethic of his own guys. “If you don’t check [meaning defend], you don’t win big games,” Izzo said. “If you don’t check, you don’t win championships.”
Michigan State could well win a national championship four months hence. If these Tech sophomores learn from their tutorials this winter, they’ll be in the chase come 2007 and 2008.
Permalink | Comments (26) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC
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By Lane
December 1, 2005 12:01 AM | Link to this
Great effort by GTU - I’m hopeful these kids could really make a strong run as the season progresses and Paul coaches ‘em up.
By techwood
December 1, 2005 01:08 AM | Link to this
Lane, what the f !* k is GTU?!?
Great game by Hewitt and the team!! Looks to be like a team that can go places come march!
Does anyone notice the lack of ‘diversity’ on the team? I guess when it comes to equality in NCAA basketball it only applies to head coaches. When it comes to scholarship players it’s not really a priority.
Since coming to GT, Hewitt’s only ‘diverse’ recruit has been Schenscher. Halston Lane and Ed Nelson both transferred. Makes you wonder.
By 2D
December 1, 2005 07:33 AM | Link to this
Shut your piehole techwood…
I could care less if the players are green, purple or anything else if they represent Tech well.
And please… NO MORE GTU…! You sound like that idiot Marbury when he accounced his commitment.
By nyjacket
December 1, 2005 07:34 AM | Link to this
Do not let good shooting sway your opinion though the effort/skills of Dickey and Smith were very impressive. As for lack of diversity of the team - who cares - Coach Hewitt recruits the best student athletes he can. It is overly simplified to say the team lacks diversity because of the color of a players skin. I have to think growing up in South Carolina (Dickey, Zam)is a lot different than growing in up in LA (Bell). Bottom line this team will have to play MUCH better defense if it is to compete every night in the ACC.
By 2D
December 1, 2005 08:19 AM | Link to this
sorry, can’t type… ANNOUNCED
By Corndizzle
December 1, 2005 08:29 AM | Link to this
Got another White-guy from NY coming in next year. Satisfied?
By Ed Odom
December 1, 2005 08:43 AM | Link to this
I’m never ecstatic about a Tech loss, but this has got to be one of the finest bounce back efforts in the history of Tech basketball. After an unimaginable loss to UIC, to less than a week later come within a missed shot at the buzzer of: overcoming a 10 point deficit with about a minute and a half left, taking its first lead of the night and walking out of the gym a winner against an experienced and 14th ranked MSU team is no small thing. Dickey was something else, Morrow played very well and 11 assists by Fredrick is very encouraging.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 08:45 AM | Link to this
Great effort eventually in the game. I have no doubts that if we out hussle teams start to finish, we will win most every game. Last night we could even have won had we started up the defenisive intensity just a little sooner…like from the tip off.
I’m happy with their progress, they represented the Georgia Institute of Technology very well for such a young bunch.
I think they can play spoilers this year…the key is and always is…out hussle the other team tip off to buzzer!
THWG!
By John
December 1, 2005 09:00 AM | Link to this
Good comment on diversity and no, he shouldn’t shut his piehole. He has every right to blog this subject. I have been thinking about this also and it worries me. I don’t want GT to turn into the other GT (Georgetown). It is wrong to have a school as diverse as Ga Tech having a sports team that isn’t.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 09:18 AM | Link to this
Political correctness is the bane of society. It sounds good, but in reality it hands lower achievers rewards and takes the rewards from harder working over-achievers. America was built by over-achievers. No one has the right to not be offended, but you wouldn’t know that by all the energy spent trying to be politically correct. I’m all for diversity, but only if you haven’t overlooked the most deserving in exchange for someone more diverse. I think you take the best of the best, regardless of color for everything: business, sports, academia, etc. This isn’t what happens in much of America anymore, because of the ever feared law suit over racism or political correctness. What we end up with is a more diverse workplace, but less overall talent and motivation.
Yes America has fallen into the downward spiral of political correctness and there is likely no turning back. It will eventually lead to socialism and the fall of the country in the future.
just my opinion
Sign the very best, I don’t care what they look like…I only care how they play and represent themselves as honorable characters.
By John
December 1, 2005 10:01 AM | Link to this
GaTech92 - You were missing the point ‘techwood’ was trying to make. About how the NCAAP and others cry fould loudly and often about the fact that there aren’t enough black coaches. I am in agreement with you - don’t care what color they are - the best coaches should be in - should have nothing to do with color. The NCAAP and others apparently don’t feel this way. But with that said, if they loudly object to that - what do we say when college teams are not diverse then? They don’t seem too concerned over that fact that a predominantly white school (Georgetown) has all black players. Shouldn’t they come forward, in good spirit, and suggest the school be more diverse? Need to be consistent either way - I think that is what he was trying to say and I agree with him.
By Jim
December 1, 2005 10:06 AM | Link to this
To Ga-T-92 I agree 100%.
By SteveO
December 1, 2005 10:14 AM | Link to this
The black players play better and are better athletes. I’m white but I know that.
By Chris B.
December 1, 2005 10:26 AM | Link to this
Great effort on the road. With a little more experience and a few breaks earlier in the game, we win that one.
The diversity comment makes me laugh. Coach Hewitt absolutely loved big Luke. You should have heard him defending him on the radio. We’ve also got Brad Sheehan, a big 6-10 white kid from NY, coming in with this next recruiting class. The walk ons have been diverse and the international kids are as well. That comment was stupid.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 10:38 AM | Link to this
John, you are of course correct. The points you make are fundamentally why being politically correct is a double standard and a bane of society. Again…it sounds good…but you have presented a fine example of why it’s not sincere in actual practice. It’s just a tool to help some people sometimes, but conveniently ignored for other people. You know us non-minority, non-females don’t get to have a group to defend us, because we “have it allâ€? already right?
Well I’m a single parent. I have no cell phone. I have no high speed internet. I share a one bedroom apt with my son. I paid my own way through college and have a good job, but I don’t get handouts. I see people less skilled promoted ahead of me in the name of “diversityâ€?. So yeah…I don’t think it works for everyone…it hurts hard working over-achievers (look at my numbers and my customer service polls).
This is a hot button issue with me personally, but I view it as a no win situation. Politicians are out to be re-elected, not to do what is “right�. Minorities are swing voters and an easy Liberal sell to “help them more�. I’m not against helping people. I just against helping some, while ignoring the others…like your example.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 10:45 AM | Link to this
Let’s talk basketball though, all this reality is depressing :)
By Dook Sux
December 1, 2005 11:06 AM | Link to this
All the good white kids from the last class went to Dook, number one in the country last I checked. For several stretches of the game Dook was playing five white guys. As long as a player can fill a roll and help play as a team he can be green for all I care. But the point is, color has nothing to do with basketball skill.
By wes
December 1, 2005 11:38 AM | Link to this
Looks like we’ll have some good basketball to watch THIS year, afterall.
And Bradley, stick to writing about basketball. Your Final 4 picks in 2004 were great! However, the whole football thingy, leave the prognostications up to Master Schultz.
By Old Techster
December 1, 2005 11:44 AM | Link to this
**DIVERSITY DOESN’T SCORE
I’m an old Techster and remember thedays of Rodger Kiaser - yep, we didn’t have diversity back then either. Many a night back then opponents suffered a last-second thirty-footer death dealt by THE ROG (remebmer his dog-killer shots).
Thsi group may not be diverse either but thay showed me they have IT - you know, the skill and athleticism to compete. They only lack experience - by mid-season they will have that too; then “look-out, Y’all!”
Hewitt is pointing this bunch toward “TOURNAMENT SEASON” and rightly so - basketball actually plays out their championships!
By ben
December 1, 2005 12:21 PM | Link to this
Rednecks- Get off this blog and go listen to Neil Bortz. (I grew up in Alabama and am white before you pigeonhole me too) Back to basketball. Zam still has a long way to go- he collapsed at crunch time, but overall he played better. Jeremis played the first half like he was a perimeter player and looked bad. In the second half he started banging down low and I thought it helped keep us in the game. This team just needs to stop thinking so much and play. That will come with time. Is Dickey a man or what?
By Mikey
December 1, 2005 01:23 PM | Link to this
By Lane
December 1, 2005 12:01 AM | Link to this
Great effort by GTU - I’m hopeful these kids could really make a strong run as the season progresses and Paul coaches ‘em up.
just want to say whoever wrote this, u are not very bright, because Georgia Tech is one of the Four Colleges in Div I-A, not to have university in it’s name, so this guy doesn’t know what he is talking about
By Mr Breeze
December 1, 2005 01:49 PM | Link to this
Where’s Sparty? “Hewitt will really find out what his boys are made about tonight when the Jackets get thumped by 20-30 points.” Just be quiet and let people who know the subject talk, creep. Stay on your own lame blog, please.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 02:24 PM | Link to this
Ben -
See, your one of the reasons it is politically unacceptable to have a rational discussion about anything to do with racial issues……….unless the discussion is only supporting one view point.
The inability to openly discuss something, without being called names, does not a Democracy make.
BTW - how many times does the Constitution mention “Democracy?”
By Roundball_101
December 1, 2005 03:19 PM | Link to this
GaTech92, I think the point Ben was making was that we’re here to talk basketball. Not your politics. However, it sounds like he pegged you correctly with his reference to Neil Bortz.
By Ga_Tech_92
December 1, 2005 05:06 PM | Link to this
OK, so let’s talk Basketball and yes I listen to Boortz sometimes, I watch CNN too…so what do you make of that lol.
(basketball basketball basketball)
btw - there’s nothing wrong with listening to boortz or cnn or anything else…it’s best to have a variety of sources imo.
By xmann
December 1, 2005 08:05 PM | Link to this
What the ….?
How the hell did a basketball blog turn into some political soapbox? Call into your local talk show and discuss your views.Tech fans, and basketball fans in general want to talk basketball!!