Scott Cross’ vision for Georgia Tech takes shape in season-opening win
Georgia Tech opened the Scott Cross era playing the kind of basketball its new coach has spent years building his reputation on.
The Yellow Jackets jumped out to an early double-digit lead against Hampton, crashing the offensive glass and making life difficult for the Pirates in a 75-55 victory at McCamish Pavilion.
“The first 15 minutes was really beautiful basketball for me,” Cross said. “That is kind of how I envisioned this thing looking.”
Chalk up the next 25 minutes of play to teaching moments.
The Jackets finished with 19 offensive rebounds and held Hampton to just 28% shooting. But they also had 18 turnovers and made only 4 of 28 3-point attempts.
Tech shot just 41.8% from the field and won by 20 while showing the traits that defined Cross’ successful teams at Troy: dominating the glass and making shots difficult for opponents.
“I’m one of those nerds that looks at all the major stats,” Cross said. “You want to win all of them. But if I have a choice, I would look at the rebounding, I would look at field-goal percentage defense. So those are the two big ones for me.”
Colby Garland, a transfer guard from San Jose State, led Tech with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Kam Craft scored 12 and Jackson Fields, a West Virginia transfer, added 10.
The missed shots were “uncharacteristic of our team,” said Craft, who went 2-for-8 from 3-point range. “But the fact that we were able to play the way we did in the first half, I think that’s a great sign. It also reflects coach Cross’ message that we want to be a tough team, a hard-nosed defensive team.”
Tech freshman guard Kayden Allen scored nine points in just 11 minutes. Sophomore Cole Kirouac had six points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Tylis Jordan established himself as a starter after Cross said a switch flipped during preseason practices.
The Ole Miss transfer finished with nine points, eight rebounds and five blocks.
“Definitely that’s my role here on this team, kind of bring the energy on the defensive end,” Jordan said. “Fly around, be the athlete that I am. I feel like when I do that we play better as a team, we play faster and ultimately it creates open shots for everyone.”
Cross has emphasized offensive rebounding as a key to his system. He calls it tagging, a philosophy in which all five players attack the glass.
Tech outrebounded Hampton 59-33 and allowed just 12 fast-break points, an important measure of whether its aggressive rebounding approach is working defensively.
“It worked out really well,” Cross said. “And then on the backend you’re looking, are they getting easy layups? Are they getting easy 3-point shots in transition? I think for the first 15 minutes they had zero. I think we got a little bit sloppy in the first half. We’ll show film on it and we’ll just continue to work on it and try to get better.”
In all, Tech had 10 players that logged at least nine minutes.
Freshman Moustapha Diop did not play because of an undisclosed injury. Cross said he expects the 6-foot-11 forward to return for Friday’s night home game against Georgia Southern.
Cross said his rotations will continue to develop during the nonconference slate in November. The expectations for how Tech plays, however, are already established.
“Let’s block out, let’s rebound, let’s tag, let’s get extra possessions,” Cross said. “When you do that, you don’t have to be perfect from the 3-point line or from the field.”