Georgia Tech begins ACC play Wednesday with trip to No. 6 Duke

The numbers do not tell a good story for Georgia Tech men’s basketball. The metrics and analytics say that the Yellow Jackets are in store for an unhappy ending.

But coach Damon Stoudamire’s team can change that narrative over the next two and a half months with how it performs in ACC play starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday at No. 6 Duke.

“We feel like we haven’t played our best basketball, which is really encouraging because it’s December. You wanna play your best basketball in February or March,” Tech guard Chas Kelley said Sunday after the Jackets beat Florida A&M. “But we feel like this is the year that we can get over the hump and make the NCAA Tournament.”

Tech, as of Tuesday, begins ACC play with a NET ranking of 178, the second-worst mark among ACC teams. The analytical site kenpom.com ranks Tech at 134, also the second-worst rating of any ACC squad.

The Jackets have nine wins, all at home. Eight of those nine wins have come against Quadrant 4 opponents (according to the NET). Their victory over Marist on Dec. 16 is considered a Quadrant 3 triumph. Tech lost its only road game (at Georgia) and both of its neutral-site matchups.

Kenpom projects the Jackets to go 4-14 the rest of the season to finish 13-18.

Of course, the games aren’t played on paper.

“I can just see our team growing in a lot of different ways,” Stoudamire said Sunday. “I think we’re trending in the right direction, so I’m excited about that.”

Stoudamire’s team is on a four-game win streak in which it is averaging 87.5 points per game. Senior guard Kowacie Reeves has emerged as the team’s leading scorer among five players averaging double figures, and centers Mouhamed Sylla and Baye Ndongo each are pulling down more than eight boards per game.

As a team, Tech has thrived in assists, blocks, field-goal percentage defense, defensive rebounding and 3-point defense. But it has struggled with turnovers, making 3s, making free throws, field-goal percentage and fast-break scoring.

Duke (11-1) has been as advertised, winning its first 11 games before an 82-81 loss to No. 15 Texas Tech on Dec. 20 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Blue Devils are 6-0 at home and led by star freshman forward Cameron Boozer (6-foot-9, 250 pounds), who is averaging 23.2 points and 10 rebounds per game.

Tech has lost three in a row against the Blue Devils and five of the past six meetings. The Jackets also have lost 13 in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium since a victory in March 2004.