AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 13
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Duke on deck
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hello, all-
I’ll toss a few things at you about the Maryland game and the Duke game coming up Wednesday. First, I asked Gani Lawal about Maryland. He said that the team did some things well defensively, but it was the turnovers that killed them. He also said that the team failed to throw “a knockout punch” in the second half. Tech, if you’ll remember, had a 10-point lead in the second half but squandered it.
“We were on the brink of breaking it open into a 10, 11-point lead, really spreading it open, really making it a route, we’ll throw the ball away or we’ll come down and rush the shot,” he said. “Those are the types of things that, if we want to be the type of team that advances in the future, especially come March, we have to do it, especially playing in the ACC. Because everything is so critical. It makes me mad all over again just thinking about it.”
Paul Hewitt said that Zachery Peacock missed the game because of severe indigestion. He said Peacock woke up early Saturday with sharp stomach pains. He was in the training room for the first half, but was taken to a hospital at halftime and stayed overnight in Maryland. He flew back Sunday with team trainer Richard Stewart.
He’s expected to play against Duke.
I asked Mike Krzyzewski Monday on the teleconference about Tech’s problems shooting from three-point range (28.9 percent). (I’m writing a story for Wednesday about the Jackets’ shooting.) Perhaps not surprisingly, he veered completely away from the question about what he saw in Tech’s shooting woes.
“What I see with them is how many offensive rebounds they’ve gotten. I think a missed shot for them is actually a part of their offense. They have those three big kids that go to the boards and do such a terrific job on the boards. I think they’re one of the best rebounding teams in the country.”
Which you could also take to mean, They don’t shoot particularly well, but you’re not going to get me to say it.
Hewitt’s take on Duke: “They just play the style of play that they play every year. They’re very aggressive. They try to deny your wing. They force a lot of turnovers. They’re switching ball screens a lot more than I remember in the past.”
Given Tech’s problems with turning the ball over thus far, this isn’t a very strong matchup for the Jackets, you’d have to say. Duke gave up just 14 points in the first half of their last game against Florida State (although the Devils only scored 19). In terms of getting the ball in the post, shooting from three-point range and not turning it over, you’d have to think Tech is going to have to play its best game by a wide margin to have a chance.
What sort of chance do you give Tech in this game, and what has to happen?
(This is totally unrelated, but the athletics department should be firming up its season-ticket pricing for football for 2009 soon. We’ll try to get that as soon as we can. Apparently, prices won’t move much, if they do.)
