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Thursday, November 23, 2006
Tech men still a work in progress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Happy Thanksgiving.
I’m going to be more brief than I have been because I’m in hurry (brief layover in Salt Lake City; clothes to change, kids to buy gadgets for, etc.).
I’m going to bet a lot of you were in a hurry to anoint Georgia Tech. Last night was a bit of a rude awakening, although I wouldn’t agree with one snotty dork I heard in the media room last night who said, “The clock struck midnight on them Yellow Jackets.”
No way. No fluke, this team reaching the finals by beating a much improved Purdue squad, and a very good Memphis team which went on to smoke a pretty darned good Kentucky team that had scrapped with UCLA a day earlier.
No, these Jackets are anything but poseurs. They are young, although the Bruins are not exactly old men themselves. Tech was out-played and out-schemed. The loss, which was quite ugly at times, was not purely about players.
The Jackets didn’t look as if they’ve been schooled on how to get out of the traps UCLA threw at them, not that they won’t be much better the next team an opponent so adeptly double-teams the ball on the perimeter to stall the offense and also to quickly slide double teams into the post.
That’ll be the book on Tech for the short term; watch Penn State try it Tuesday.
There’s plenty of talent on this team to be special, and plenty of coaching acumen, too. Time for some teaching, though, as you can beat Hewitt and Co. will work on this and other predicaments in coming days. It looked like the UCLA plan was simply one the Jackets haven’t spent enough time preparing to face.
So there’s some work to be done. Hewitt said there would be an adjustment period for his freshmen, and it’s arrived. Javaris Crittenton (and his teammates) will in all likelihood improve at seeing ahead of time where these double teams are likely to come from. Then, off-the-ball players will start to move more smartly to open spots, particularly from the weak side of the floor, and the ballhandlers will better anticipate where their next pass needs to go rather than realizing that too late -when they’re encased by defenders making it tough to get the ball out.
Otherwise, Thaddeus Young (4 of 12 from the field, back-to-back games of dubious shot selection) must find his fit in the offense, an I wonder if Jeremis Smith was right when he said his right knee, injured late, will be fine. Anthony Morrow’s gradually rounding into form, it looks like.
Coaches pat each other on the back almost all the time, but I believed UCLA’s Ben Howland when he said after the game the Jackets are going to be a real menace.
The pieces are there. Their assembly continues.
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