Yellow Jackets hit road to take on brawny Bears

One team has beaten Auburn and Alabama on the road. The other has beaten Winston-Salem State.

One team is No. 1 in CollegeRPI.com’s rankings. The other is … well, they aren’t No. 1.

So as Georgia Tech prepares to leave Alexander Memorial Coliseum for the first time this season and travel down I-75 to take on Mercer today in Macon, which team is which?

The Bears, picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic Sun Conference, are tied atop the RPI with Kansas. They are ranked higher than Connecticut (121), Michigan State (183) and North Carolina (209).

They defeated Piedmont College by 26, SEC West favorite Alabama by three and Auburn by four.

How are they doing it?

Three big ways: the trio of James Florence, Daniel Emerson and Brian Mills. They combine to score 49.3 of Mercer’s 79.7 points per game.

Second, the Bears are outrebounding opponents by 20 a game, 49.7 to 29.7, led by Emerson’s 12.3 per game.

Third, the Bears are limiting opponents to a .386 shooting percentage inside the 3-point line.

If you can’t shoot and you can’t rebound, it’s hard to win.

“I’d like to tell you that we do all kinds of neat tricks and work hard on it and run bubble drills and all kinds of crazy rebounding drills,” Mercer coach Bob Hoffman told the Macon Telegraph, “but all we do is talk about trying to get position and pursue the ball.”

Georgia Tech defeated Winston-Salem State using the same formula: The Jackets outrebounded them 54-35 and limited them to less than 30 percent shooting. But Tech coach Paul Hewitt says his young frontcourt has a lot to learn.

“These guys, I’ll just settle for boxing out and then learn to get the ball,” Hewitt said. “It’s going to be a learning process for both Alade [Aminu] and Gani [Lawal].

“Now, that said, they are clearly two of the most athletic frontcourt players I’ve ever had … but it comes down to them understanding the [defensive] possession is not over until we get the ball in our hands and we get out and go.”

> Georgia State will host Jacksonville State at 4 p.m. today.

The Panthers (2-2) defeated Southern Poly 82-64 on Wednesday. Jacksonville State is 1-1 under first-year coach James Green, with a victory over West Alabama and a loss to South Carolina.

GSU point guard Joe Dukes is averaging 14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 2.0 steals, leading the Panthers in all four categories.

“I like this team and I like their work ethic, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” GSU coach Rod Barnes said in a statement. “We did some better things last game, and I’m hoping we can continue to build on that.”

> The Georgia women’s team (2-0) will continue its two-game trip in Michigan with a 2:30 p.m. game against Detroit. The Bulldogs defeated Oakland on Thursday 64-61.

> The Georgia Tech women’s team (2-1) will host Mississippi Valley State at 2 p.m. today at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.