After deflating loss for Georgia Tech, Damon Stoudamire says ‘it’s a ‘me’ thing’

Until last weekend, the best thing you could say about the Yellow Jackets was they lost to some good opponents by small margins. The win at North Carolina State was the first sign that Georgia Tech may not be among the worst teams in ACC men’s basketball.

The Jackets had another chance to prove they are better than that on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion. Following the win over the Wolfpack with a victory against No. 18 Clemson would breathe some life into Tech’s sleepy season.

It seemed the Jackets might pull it off when they went toe-to-toe with Clemson in the first half. But the Tigers ran away to a 77-63 victory after halftime as they got away from the scouting report, coach Damon Stoudamire said.

“We’ve got to be better, collectively, at retaining the information,” Stoudamire said. “It’s an ‘us’ thing. And when I say it’s an ‘us’ thing, it’s a ‘me’ thing. So, I’ve just got to keep doing it.

“But there comes a point in your season where you’ve got to take a stand … This was a game where I looked at it like, ‘OK, if we can get this game, this will be when we really start trending.’ We just didn’t do it.”

The Jackets (11-9, 2-5 ACC) have 11 conference games remaining. The takeaway from the first seven is that the promising finish to Year 2 with Stoudamire wasn’t a sign of better things to come.

The Jackets last year avoided playing on the first day of the ACC tournament for the first time since 2021. Now they are on their way to another bottom-six finish in the league.

Tech led Clemson 33-31 with less than two minutes until halftime. The Tigers (17-4, 7-1) went ahead for good on Dillon Hunter’s off-balance, challenged 3-point make at the buzzer.

“We were never the same team after that,” Stoudamire said.

Tech’s deficit swelled to 57-43 as Clemson made five of its first seven 3-point tries after halftime. The Yellow Jackets suffered their fourth loss by a double-digit margin in seven ACC games.

“We made mental mistakes,” Tech forward Kowacie Reeves Jr. said. “With a team like that, that’s their entire makeup (is) when you make mental errors, they prey off of that.”

The Jackets figured things out at about this time last year. They won seven of their last 10 ACC games, including two victories over ranked teams. Point guard Naithan George hit the transfer portal after the season, but Stoudamire retained standout forward Baye Ndongo and had a good class of recruits on the way.

The season opener provided the first clue that Tech wouldn’t maintain that momentum. The Jackets needed overtime to beat Maryland Eastern Shore, one of the worst teams in Division I. Tech piled up wins against more bad teams while losing to decent or better foes, including Georgia and Duke.

The Jackets lost 89-66 at home to bottom-tier Pitt on Jan. 14. Three days later they won at North Carolina State. A week later they fell apart after halftime against Clemson.

“When the game is (hectic) you see who can really think on the run,” Stoudamire said. “So, you have to figure that out. Somebody on the floor has to take the onus for everybody. It can’t always be from the sideline.

“It’s easy to practice those things, (to) stop practice and walk through it. But that’s not really the reality. We’ve got to keep plugging away and just keep fighting. We haven’t shown we can do the right thing on a consistent basis.”

Scoring has been the main issue for the Jackets. Per kenpom.com, they rank behind every ACC team except Boston College in efficiency. Tech shoots 3-pointers at a good clip but doesn’t create enough of them. The expected strong front line hasn’t materialized, in part because Mouhamed Sylla has missed time with injuries and Peyton Marshall hasn’t earned regular minutes.