AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 10
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Shootin’ and recrootin’ ramblings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s been a good bit written already about the Jackets’ inability to score. That’s no surprise really since they have no fast break identity and the point guards struggle to run a half court offense. Just when are they supposed to score? From the foul line? We know how that’s gone this season.
Against Florida State, the Jackets won the first half by six points but lost the second half by ten points … thus the four point margin of victory for the Noles. But I’m looking at the stats and I’m seeing that the Noles shot 30.9 percent overall from FG range against Tech’s 34.4 percent. And they got out rebounded by 12 … 47 to 35.
And there it is … FSU had 12 steals en route to 18 GT turnovers and managed to get to the foul line 28 times against Tech’s 10 trips. Tech shot an impressive 80 percent from the charity stripe against FSU’s 70 percent. They just didn’t get there enough.
And why didn’t they get there enough? I can’t explain it. It looks like Aminu, Lawal, and Peacock took most of the shots for the Jackets. They can’t draw a defensive foul? That makes no sense … the strength of this team is the big men in the paint. Are they playing a finesse game down low? What happened to banging it in there and playing with physical aggression? That’s how the Jackets upset Wake Forest. Was that lesson forgotten so quickly?
Against Maryland, this past game, neither team seemed capable of scoring effectively and the loss came down to the fact that the Jackets committed 24 turnovers against just 14 assists. Maryland tried to give the game away, shooting 35 percent for the game (31 percent from three point range) and hitting only 64 percent of their free throws. But the Jackets couldn’t muster enough half court or fast break offense to break open the game and run away from a Terps team that scored only 57 points in the win …
Recrootin’
The people expecting Tech to pull classes ranked as highly as UGA need to ratchet down expectations. Tech doesn’t have the broad curriculum or the entry standards to consistently pull classes in the Top 10. And on top of that, Tech now has a head coach who will recruit offensive skill positions that don’t fall in line with the pro-style approaches that most recruiting services seem to be tailored for. Paul Johnson is going to recruit the best option style quarterbacks in the country and he’s going to look for hybrid backs that can play the A-back position where they are expected to block, run, and catch. He’s going to pull a receiver like Stephen Hill every now and then because some guys like the thought of playing against man coverage. And he’s going to pull big time running backs who want to play the B-back position that Jonathan Dwyer is about to make famous at the BCS level. But the remainder of the offensive guys are going ! to be “Paul Johnson Guys” and not Scout or Rivals guys.
Defensively Tech should still be able to pull highly rated players. Wommack doesn’t do anything unique on defense that differentiates Tech from anyone else. He’ll continue to pull guys like Sweeting and Lanier who are four star guys and rated Top 25 at their positions.
All in all, Tech fans CANNOT measure Coach Johnson by recruiting service “stars”. They can only measure him by the wins and losses.
And to be honest … Top 25 recruiting classes coupled with superior coaching and schemes by Paul Johnson will win A LOT of football games.
You don’t need Top 10 recruiting classes to be better than UGA … that much has already been proven. All Johnson needs is some freshmen and a few walk ons who can run and block in order to execute what some radio talking heads have called a “high school offense”.
Go Jackets!
THWG!
45-42!
