AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January
January 2009
Wake and Tech, 43-41 at the half, 74-76 at the buzzer!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the half:
The last ten minutes of the first half between the Jackets and Deacons were a showcase of everything that has been lacking from Tech basketball this season. During that stretch, Tech cut into a double digit deficit and actually tied things up with about a minute left in the period.
How’d they manage to do that?
Its simple…they are playing the tough, physical, intimidating, and infuriating defense that Paul Hewitt teams are normally known for. They are contesting every board and battling hard in the paint. We’ve seen hard fouls go both ways and technical fouls go both ways.
The Jackets are playing the style of defense that got them to San Antonio in 2004. As a result, they are playing Wake toe to toe and the crowd is really into the game. The only real question at this point is whether or not they can keep up the intensity and pace for a second period against a very good Wake team.
This game has been old school Paul Hewitt basketball…the defense and physicality that causes opposing fan bases to hate the Jackets. This is how the Jackets MUST play in order to win big games in the ACC.
The crowd is going to have to be a factor in the second half…it should be fun to watch…
At the end!
The Jackets defense continued to play hard and despite the offense going extremely cold down the stretch, the Jackets had a chance with the game close at the very end.
A key defensive stand resulted in a shot clock violation with under a minute left to play, the Jackets tied the game up at 74, and then the Deacons threw an inbounds pass away with about 7 seconds left to play.
Iman Shumpert calmly brought the ball up the court with the clock ticking, scrambled Wake’s Jeff Teague about three different directions, and drained a short jumper with one second left on the clock.
The Jackets intercepted the Wake inbounds near midcourt, the clock ran out, and the Jackets had notched their first ACC conference win over a Deacons team who had just upset Duke.
What a game…what an effort…this is the Tech team we’ve been hoping to see all season.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment |
Random Ramblings..January 24
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Men’s Hoops
Since my last blog, the men’s basketball team has played three games and lost them all.
Hosting Duke, the Jackets led by as much as eight points in the first half before fading and losing touch in the second half. The Dukies wound up winning by 14 points in a game where the Jackets missed 12 free throws (shooting 36.8% at the stripe). The Dukies missed 11 free throws themselves, but wound up taking 8 more charity shots.
One the road against the Wolfpack, the Jackets played hard and led by as much as ten points with 4:40 left in the game. But then the defense relaxed and State fought back to tie the game with 30 seconds left to play. The Wolfpack won overtime by five and the Jackets rang up another loss in a game where they shot 35% from the field…offsetting 55% behind the arc and 81% at the line.
Hosting Boston College, the Jackets fell down by as much as 14 points with 6:41 left but battled back and tied the game with 3:50 left…essentially a 14 point run in three minutes. The game then went back and forth before Shumpert hit a pair of free throws with 0:14 on the clock to send it into overtime. But again…the Jackets couldn’t close the deal and suffered their second overtime loss in three days.
So now the Jackets are 0-5 in the ACC and are set to face 16-2 and Top 10 Clemson…on the road…after Clemson got embarassed by UNC 94-70. That’s not a recipe for success.
All of your Tech “fans” who claim you wouldn’t complain about a bad season as long as we beat UGA. Do you still maintain that perspective? Would you consider 9-20 a successful season simply because we beat UGA? Would it be worth it?
Women’s Hoops
The ladies just upset #2 North Carolina 66-62 and are playing great basketball with a record of 14-4 overall. They travel to #4 Duke for a 1pm game on Sunday and look to end a streak of 28 straight losses to the Dukies.
I asked my daughter if she wanted me to buy more basketball tickets and got a very enthusiastic response. So I looked online and learned that GT alums can buy a season ticket for $30 and get a second one free. If they continue that promotion next year I’ll definitely buy a pair. Where else can you get AT point credit and two season tickets to a GT sport for $30?
For $50 you can get a “Women’s Sports Pass” which grants access to both women’s hoops and women’s volleyball. As the father of two young girls I think I’ll be looking at this very closely down the road…especially with the success MaChelle Joseph has been having lately.
Football Recruiting
Our current recruiting class of 20 commitments is rated #27 overall and #5 in the ACC by Scout.com.
The latest recruit, Lance Richardson, is a 6-2 safety out of South Carolina that made a splash in the recent South Carolina All Star game.
Does anyone else remember who the last “sleeper” recruit to sign with Georgia Tech out of South Carolina, after making a splash in an all star game?
Does the name Vance Walker ring a bell?
Go Jackets!
THWG!
45-42!
Permalink | Comments (27) | Post your comment |
Highs (67-62) and Lows (68-61) This Week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jackets were on the road today in an ACC match against Maryland and led from the 14:57 mark in first half until midway through the second half before losing a 10 point lead in the course of just a bit over two minutes. The game remained nip and tuck until the last minute when fouls and free throws resulted in the final 68-61 margin of victory for the Terps.
The game ultimately turned on a turnover differential of 28 to 13 and a poor 57% free throw shooting.
I guess the old “its tough to win on the road in the ACC” rule applies here. Still…the Jackets have let games against Virginia and Maryland slip through their grasp now and the odds of making things up against the likes of Duke, North Carolina, or the tougher ACC teams is slim.
For now Tech fans will have to look back fondly on the 67-62 win over the UGA hoops team earlier in the week. I was fortunate enough to attend that game as the guest of a UGA acquaintance and his daughter and son-in-law.
The first half of the UGA game was about the ugliest basketball I’ve ever witnessed in person. Some of that might be attributed to the fact that I’d had my eyes dilated earlier in the day and was wearing an old backup pair of glasses. I could make out the white jersies and the red jersies but that was about it. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise though, since the Tech team played extremely soft and extremely poorly.
The fans for both teams seemed quiet and content to sit quietly by while the two teams thrashed about in futility. For a rivalry game (even on a week night) the crowd was pitiful. I would wager that AMC was only about 80-90% full and that there were less than 100 UGA fans in attendence.
By the time the second half began, my eyes had adjusted. Unfortunately, the mutts quickly pushed a 10 point lead to 13 points and the Tech fans began to get restless.
After about five minutes of UGA domination in the second half, Paul Hewitt decided to have his team press and things began to change quickly. The Jackets began to make a run and cut into the UGA lead. The only problem was the quick rate at which Tech was picking up fouls. I know at one point I looked up at the score board and the Jackets had 18 fouls on the court…three guys with four fouls and two guys with three fouls.
Amazingly, the Jackets avoided fouling anyone out and tied the game up around the seven minute mark. This got the crowd back into the game and things went back and forth until the 1:22 mark when Peacock hit a layup that gave Tech a two point lead that swelled to five by the end of the game.
So now Paul Hewitt finds himself in a strange sort of limbo…0-2 in the ACC but supported by the recent win over UGA.
Duke, NC State, Boston College, Clemson, and Wake Forest make up the next five games. An 0-7 ACC start would overshadow the win over UGA and the coaching chairs in AMC would heat up again very quickly.
Duke is ranked #2, Wake is #4, Clemson is #11, and Boston College is #24.
Even the NC State game is on the road.
Talk about a long row to hoe…Coach Hewitt has his work cut out for him…
Go Jackets!
THWG…45-42, 67-62!
Permalink | Comments (20) | Post your comment |
Great Season Ends on a Sour Note…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I hated how things ended at the Peach Bowl but that doesn’t erase the fact that this team far exceeded all expectations and rang up wins over Clemson, Miami, Florida State, and Georgia en route to a spectacular 9-4 record in Paul Johnson’s first year on the Flats.
I started the season holding out hope for a winning record and a bowl bid, any bowl bid.
We stumbled a few times because of youth, injuries, and a new system on both sides of the ball…that should have been expected. And it only really hurt and disappointed me AFTER my expectations had been raised by early success and big wins over rival programs.
The really exciting part is looking forward to 2009. The entire offense comes back with a ton of experience and we’ll be adding some recruits and at least one transfer player who are ready to contribute. Defensively we’re losing some great defensive linemen but the guys behind them played a huge number of snaps this season and will be ready. And the defensive secondary will return completely intact and with a ton of experience under their belts.
The future is most certainly bright. And if the guys I spoke to before the game are correct, there is real potential for some early commitments for the next recruiting class. Paul Johnson and his staff have made an impression and we’re going to be a recruiting power here in the state of Georgia. The days of UGA picking and choosing their recruits with little or no thought about Tech are coming to an end.
We talked a good bit about basketball during the Peach Bowl tailgate as well. Most of the comments and opinions aren’t suited for a family oriented blog here on the AJC. I’ll just say that the general concensus is that Georgia Tech has made the transition from basketball school to football school. I talked to more than one season ticket holder, who like myself, has simply lost interest in the basketball program and couldn’t even tell you when the next game is. Its hard to believe that we are just a little over 4 years removed from playing for the national title…
The football and basketball programs are good examples of how quickly the fickle fortunes of sports can change…who would have thought that the football team might win more games on the season than the basketball team?
Coach Hewitt has a great class coming in next year and is still the odds on favorite for the #1 basketball recruit in the country (Derrick Favors) but he’s going to be under extreme pressure to turn his recruiting prowess into wins…something we have lacked sorely since the 2004 run.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
