Gani Lawal's value for Tech greater than stats

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By Matt Winkeljohn

For the AJC

What you see is not always what you get -- at least in the case of Gani Lawal -- because Georgia Tech gets so much more out of the young man teammates refer to simply as “G.”

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Johnny Crawford, jcrawford@ajc.com Gani Lawal (31) led the Jackets with 21 points against the Duke Blue Devils at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

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The Yellow Jackets wouldn’t have defeated Duke 71-67 on Saturday afternoon without a team-high 21 points and game-high nine rebounds from the junior forward from Norcross High. Tech overcame a six-point deficit five times in the second half, and Lawal scored the go-ahead points on four of those occasions.

Yet the value of G goes deeper than numbers. Lawal is the needle in the Jackets’ compass.

“You see him get 21 points and nine rebounds, but he does a lot behind the scenes to get these guys pumped up,” coach Paul Hewitt said.

Iman Shumpert confirmed it. “We were sort of trying to find ourselves before the game, find something that everybody likes to do. It became our ritual, and it was Gani’s idea.”

The ritual is secret, Shumpert said, but this is not: Lawal can play.

He scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds in the second half, yet had a special sense before that, about the time he received the ball some 21 feet or so from the basket, and then displayed his expanding game.

The Blue Devils retreated because they know Lawal’s game is not built so far from the goal. “That’s part of why I came back to school [rather than go to the NBA],” he said after the game. “To work on that.”

So Lawal put the ball on the floor as if to begin a power drive, then pulled up and stuck a 16-foot jumper to give the Jackets a 19-18 first-half lead. “I felt it in the atmosphere,” he recalled thinking. “I was thinking this might be a good day, this might be a good day.”

His baseline jumper gave Tech its first lead of the second half, 44-43, and a pair of free throws gave the Jackets their second, 48-47. Then, body language and subtle comments came into play.

Lawal had seen something.

“Coming off a high screen the play before he got the dunk, he said, ‘Just put it on the rim. Just put it on the rim,’ " Shumpert said. “When I was going [down the middle with the ball], I think they were switching, and he noticed that he had a clear path to the basket, and he told me not to pull the ball out to re-start the offense, but go to the basket.”

So the next possession, Shumpert did as told.

“I shot it,” he said. “I was expecting to make it, but when it came off, he got it.”

Understatement alert: Lawal went up with two hands and threw the ball down, and the crowd erupted as the Jackets went up 50-47 with 8:01 left in the game.

“This year, when he feels like everybody’s down, he’s just got a little more in his tank to pick us up,” Shumpert said. “When he posts up, if we see his number, we give it to him.”

A turnaround baseline jumper over sturdy defense with 1:01 left gave stretched Tech’s lead to 64-60. Those were his final points. He has scored 71 over the Jackets’ past three games. “Lawal is really playing outstanding basketball right now,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “He gives them such a good presence.”

Saturday, G was feeling it. He wanted teammates to feel it, too.

“At halftime, I just told them to go after it harder,” he said. “I told them we were down six, and we were playing sloppy basketball. If we can find a way to keep the defensive intensity up and execute our offense, we’ll win the game. That was my message. [In the second half], I just told the guys to find a way to get me the ball.”

Good plan, the G plan.

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