AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 12
Monday, March 12, 2007
Some post-bracket thoughts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There may be plenty of people surprised that Georgia Tech made it into the NCAA tournament. I’m not one of them. I’m surprised at some of the teams left out, like Drexel and to a lesser degree Syracuse (10-6 in the Big East with a win over Georgetown but 3-6 against RPI top 50).
Tech’s 7-2 mark down the stretch of the regular season, an 8-7 record against top 50, wins over Memphis and North Carolina (who both finished in the top five), that had to do it. In fact, where I thought yesterday Tech was on the bubble but tilting toward the good side, there has been some scuttlebutt suggesting the Jackets were more secure than I thought.
This is somewhat second hand, but where many felt that if N.C. State upset North Carolina to win the ACC tournament the Wolfpack would’ve supplanted Tech as the seventh and final team from the ACC, that may not have been the case.
From what I hear, and from a reputable source, had N.C. State won, the ACC would’ve landed eight teams, and that probably would have pushed out Arkansas, which went 7-9 in the SEC (Syracuse was 10-6 in the Big East, go figure all of this).
Anyway, more details in coming days, but here are a few things to mull over:
Center Ra’Sean Dickey has scored in double figures just once in the past 10 games, when he had 14 against Virginia.
Anthony Morrow has scored 18, 11 and 20 in his past three games.
After scoring 3 against FSU, and 7 against Duke, Thaddeus Young has averaged 19.4 points in five games since, including career highs of 25 against North Carolina and then 30 against Wake (29 in regulation). He’s hit 38 of 63 shots in that span (60.3 percent), and hit 10 of 20 3-pointers. He’s averaged five rebounds over the past nine games.
Alade’s last game was a beaut, even if he fouled out: 17 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
More later on UNLV, and the Jackets.
