What to make of the win over Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings, all-
Interesting game last night between Tech and Georgia. The Jackets fell behind by 10 at the half and then by 13 with 16:40 left. Helped in large part by a full-court press that created 12 second-half turnovers and a strong rebounding effort (Tech had a 27-14 edge in the second half, including 15 on the offensive glass), the Jackets came back for perhaps the biggest win of the season.
Dennis Felton said Georgia lost for three main reasons - Second-chance points (it was even in the first half, 12-4 in the second in Tech’s favor), steals (12-5 edge in the game, 6-4 in the second half) and Tech’s eight blocks (five in the second half). Felton said that generally the consequence of beating a full-court press like Tech’s was that it gives you easy shots to the basket. However, Gani Lawal and Alade Aminu repeatedly stuffed Georgia players when they took it to the rim after beating the press.
Felton said it was an “almost-hard-to-believe number of plays at the rim to erase some dunks and layups for us.”
Before I forget, Felton’s take on Tech: “Extremely athletic and big, and they’ve got a good piece in (Iman) Shumpert. He’s a terrific young point guard, but Schumpert looked like a freshman tonight. He had a tough night. (3-for-14 from the field, four assists, seven turnovers). (Just so we’re clear, while it might read like Felton was trying to put down Shumpert, he wasn’t.)
“But they’ve got a great shooter in (Lewis) Clinch. They’ve got a pro in Lawal and they’ve got a great physical presence and leader in Peacock. They’ve got really nice parts. They just don’t have a lot of depth.”
Anyway, back to Tech’s defense. It appeared, maybe in the vein of the Alabama game, that Tech got going once it started pressing and playing more aggressively on defense. Said Clinch, “That’s how we play - we’re a run and gun team.”
Paul Hewitt noted his team’s increased aggression on defense and fight on loose balls. It certainly seems like Tech benefits when it extends itself defensively. The problem, though, is that to press, it’d be hard to do that a lot with Tech’s depth. The Jackets will get a boost when Mo Miller comes back. Hewitt said that he’s scheduled to start practicing Thursday and that when he is ready to actually play will be up to him.
Said Hewitt, “I love to press and I think we’re good at it. It’s just going to be a matter of me spotting guys like Bassirou (Deng) and Brad (Sheehan) and trying to stretch the bench.”
On Miller coming back, “When he comes back, we will definitely keep pressing. The biggest thing that Moe is going to do for us when he comes back healthy is allow us to put Zachery Peacock back at forward where he is really comfortable.”
So I’m wondering what your takeaway was from the game and thoughts are going into the second ACC game Saturday (against Maryland):
Is it the sluggish first half, the comeback, the possibility of using the press more and how that might give Tech a boost, the satisfaction of beating Georgia? Or something else?
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Winning formula or a mirage?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you were watching the men’s basketball team play at Alabama on Saturday, I wouldn’t blame you for switching it off early.
Tech fell down by 30 with about nine minutes left, 73-43. Then a couple things happened.
The Tide let up, or at least lost some focus. And Tech woke up. The Jackets probably haven’t played harder all season than they did over the next eight minutes.
Not only were they trapping fullcourt and sprinting back on defense, the Jackets refused to allow an easy basket. They committed hard fouls at the rim, plus two intentional ones that angered the crowd.
Gani Lawal and Alade Aminu were scoring at will inside, Iman Shumpert hit a pair of threes, and the crowd was getting, if not antsy, then frustrated. Tech cut the deficit to 10 with about a minute to go.
Obviously it was too little, too late. But the question is whether the Jackets can bottle that energy and aggressiveness and bring it tonight against Georgia. And can they play that way against ACC teams?
“I’m hoping that what they saw in themselves, with the effort level we played at, the aggressiveness we played with, I told ‘em, That’s what it was like in the old days around here,” CPH said. “When we walked out of the building, everybody was like, those guys played hard. That’s the way it was every single time. We were not a team people liked to play against because it was a physical, tough pressing game.
“We went hard and put ‘em at the foul line, and that’s how you’re supposed to play basketball. If you want to be a winning team, any winning team contests plays at the rim really hard and they run back really hard every time.
“If we take anything out of this game, that’s how we’re supposed to play.”
It was a stark contrast to the end of the Virginia game, when the Cavaliers ran the ball “down our throat,” Hewitt added.
If nothing else, the way they finished allowed the Jackets to leave Tuscaloosa holding their heads up.
Do you think Tech found a successful formula, or was it just a mirage?
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2009 breakout players
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In case you missed it, we took a look yesterday at five players who should make an impact in 2009. These are guys who did not play at all, or played sparingly, in 2008.
Here is the article about Robert Hall, Anthony Allen, Richard Watson, T.J. Barnes and Omoregie Uzzi.
Do you agree with these selections? Who did we leave out? And who will make the biggest impact?
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What’s next?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Good morning, all-
Hopefully you’ve gotten some of the anguish of the Chick-fil-A Bowl out of your system, though I’m guessing the Capital One Bowl result didn’t help you much. Looks like the Bulldogs took out the frustration of the Tech loss out on the Sparties. It’s quite possible, too, that UGA was just a better team than Michigan State. I’m guessing, for those of you who work with UGA fans, this morning wasn’t a lot of fun.
Anyway, some thoughts. Don’t know how much you have thought or heard that LSU “solved” the triple option. Paul Johnson was asked something to this effect after the game and he was a bit sarcastic about it, that LSU figuring out the triple option is what made Tech fumble the punt, put the opening kickoff out of bounds, etc.
It was true that Tech couldn’t run the ball effectively, but Johnson and co-offensive line coach Mike Sewak’s take was that LSU dominated the line of scrimmage. It was a little like the Boston College game, where Ron Brace and B.J. Raji kept driving the guards and center back into Josh Nesbitt. The same thing was happening with LSU, and that takes away the dive in the triple option and screws up the rest of the play. My guess would be that Tech will have its problems against defensive lines that are stout more than those that are fast, not to say that LSU’s line wasn’t also fast.
At any rate, I think I’d trust the results of the season and Johnson’s tenure at Georgia Southern and Navy over one game.
And about the rings - I didn’t do a great job (or maybe even a good job) of conveying the meaning of the rings. It’s something Johnson has always done for his teams. It was meant to commemorate the season, not just the win over Georgia. Obviously, the win was a highlight of the year, which is why that went on the ring. But it’s not like that’s the only thing that’s going on it.
Also, I’ve seen some posts on some other boards about how Johnson treating bowls as a reward backfired. It’s possible, but I don’t know if that was the problem. What Johnson meant, and has said, is that he doesn’t use bowl practices like an additional spring practice, where sessions are longer and more grinding. The practices Tech had were like typical in-season practices, where the focus is on preparing for the opponent. Most, if not all, of Tech’s practices before Christmas were in full pads. I can’t vouch for the intensity of them, as reporters aren’t allowed to watch practice, but I never got the sense that they were goofing off or anything.
In some ways, the Chick-fil-A Bowl may have the sort of effect going into the offseason that the Gardner-Webb game did in the season. Johnson and Sewak both wondered aloud if beating Georgia and then having a month of fans (and media) patting them on their back didn’t give them a false sense of security about the game. I think this will likely bring them back to earth a little bit. I can see this game being brought up every time offseason workouts start to slacken.
Which brings me to my question. What are your priorities for this team - becoming bigger/stronger/faster? Continuing to develop the Run & Shoot? Find answers on the offensive line? Defensive line? More depth at A-back and B-back?
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Embarrassed in the Dome
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s no other way to put it: Tech got embarrassed by LSU.
It was 35-3 at halftime, 38-3 after three, and that was the final.
The Jackets made a ton of early mistakes. In the first half they roughed the passer, fumbled a punt, failed on a fake punt from their own 22, and got burned by an onside kick.
Josh Nesbitt missed open receivers. The defense got run over. It was Tech’s biggest halftime deficit since trailing Georgia 34-0 in 2002.
LSU looked more powerful, more prepared.
Did this dismal performance by Tech shock you?
Does it diminish what Tech accomplished this season?
And what did you think of LSU’s fake punt with under 10 minutes to go?
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