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Monday, February 20, 2006
Rough road awaits Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech’s point guards combined Saturday at Maryland for 28 points, 10 assists, five steals and five turnovers and the Jackets still lost.
That’s an ominous sign to say the least.
When Coach Paul Hewitt gets that kind of production out of Mario West and Zam Fredrick (although occasionally they were on the floor at the same time and one played off the ball), Tech has 10 fewer turnovers than an opponent, and holds the other team’s top player (Nik Caner-Medley) to half the 20.1-point average he’s put up over the previous nine games you wonder: what’s it take to win a road game?
The Jackets are 0-9 on the road, 1-1 at neutral sites as the Centenary game was played near Centenary, but not on campus, apparently. (I would consider the Georgia loss as a neutral site, personally, because it was at the Gwinnett Arena, but I don’t think it’s being counted as a neutral site game by the school.)
Anyway, it’s no secret why Tech lost. The Jackets had terrible issues inbounding the ball in crunch time, shot poorly (41.1 percent, 28.6 percent from three-point territory), and mismanaged timeouts again, similar to the UNC game. The most disappointing thing is that 11 of Maryland’s previous 13 opponents hit 40 percent or better from three-point land, and Tech - which generally shoots the three fairly well — hit six of 21. Morrow was two for 10. Ouch! Since hitting their first nine treys at UNC, the Jackets have made just six of 29 (20.7 percent).
Neither Fredrick or West (or anybody else) could solve Maryland’s pressure early in overtime when trying to inbound. A couple times, the inbounds pass went all of three or four feet across the baseline, to a player with his back more than 90 feet from Tech’s basket. I’m not Dr. Naismith, but when that happens, it seems to me that all it takes is two defenders to stand shoulder-to-shoulder behind the pass receiver, and he’s stuck. He can’t turn and split them because a foul will be called. He can’t dribble out of trouble right or left because the ball or dribbler will probably go out of bounds. Likewise, passing lanes left and right are very limited when that tight against the baseline. Beyond all that, off-the-ball players aren’t moving very well to get open in those situations.
Maryland hit just one of five field goals in overtime, but that one hurt. Ekene Ibekwe drove the lane off a sideline inbounds pass, dunked, and got fouled (D’Andre Bell becoming the third Jacket to foul out). Then, Ibekwe made his free throw, part of an 8-0 overtime run.
Maryland hit seven of nine free throws in overtime (when Tech hit two of two).
Overall, the free throw disparity was more normal by far than the UNC game, as Maryland shot 34, Tech 24. In regulation, Maryland shot 25, Tech, 22. It wasn’t like the UNC game, or heaven forbid, Northwestern’s loss at Ohio State Saturday where the Buckeyes took 30 free throws and the Wildcats just two.
But it was enough to matter, for sure. That’s going to happen on the road more often than not. Tech still could’ve won this game, though, with a couple more field goals (Tech hit 30 of 73), or at least by inbounding better in overtime.
It gets no better. Duke arrives Wednesday.
Gotta figure out how to hold onto a timeout or two until the final minutes of games and/or overtime. And if Jeremis Smith has a shot at the basket again like he did at the end of regulation, even though D.J. Strawberry did a heck of job getting back to get in the way, he either needs to go for the rim and hope for a basket/foul, or stop-and-pop. Kicking it outside to another shooter (Fredrick) won’t very often fly with time running down like that. Mike Jones blocked that shot to force overtime.
Interestingly, Jones moved into the lineup a few weeks ago when one of Maryland’s best defensive players (can’t recall his name) became academically ineligible. “I saw [Fredrick] wide open, and I knew D.J. was [inside],” Jones said. “I tried to get back as fast as I could. It feels good because I’m known for offense (he scored a team-high 21 points), but tonight my defense played a big role.”
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