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Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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?
