The college football season has ended, thereby elevating college basketball’s visibility on the local sports landscape, at least for those daring enough to open their eyes.
This seems like an excellent time to check on Georgia Tech. For those with eyes open, we may know soon whether it’s time to close them again.
The Yellow Jackets play host to 12th-ranked Notre Dame on Wednesday night. Then they have road games at Pittsburgh and No. 2 Virginia. Tech is 0-3 in the ACC and 9-6 overall. For a team that has found a way to be competitive in an upgraded schedule, only to be just good enough to lose on too many nights, these next three games have become a potential tipping point.
“There’s really no take-a-breath games in this league,” Tech coach Brian Gregory said. “If you would’ve looked at our first three games to start the ACC, at Notre Dame, home against Syracuse, at Wake Forest, you would’ve said, ‘If they go 1-2, they’d be doing a hell of a job.’ I feel confident going into every game, but there’s a lot that can go either way.”
Some need to start going Gregory’s way.
The program was in wreckage when he took over four years ago. Gregory has done pretty well in recruiting and has succeeded in rebuilding bridges with the fan base, merely by not being Paul Hewitt.
But he needs to win more, and he knows that. After an expected miserable first season (11-20, 4-12), there were strides in Season 2 (16-15, 6-12) but hiccups in Season 3 (16-17, 6-12), partly because of injuries. Few projected the Jackets to have a great season this season, given the losses of Daniel Miller, Trae Golden and Robert Carter Jr. (surprising transfer to Maryland). The question is whether they can be competitive and avoid dropping into oblivion in the ACC because that’s what happens if 0-3 becomes 0-6.
Athletic directors don’t have as much patience as they used to. There are too many pressures, mostly related to the changing economics in college sports. Gregory had a friendship with Tech athletic director Mike Bobinski before either arrived at Tech, which puts him ahead of Paul Johnson. Gregory coached at Dayton when Bobinski was the athletic director at rival Xavier.
Johnson wasn’t offered a contract extension until after Tech defeated Georgia and clinched a berth in the ACC title game. After putting a scare in Florida State in the conference championship game, the Jackets rolled over favored Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl.
Gregory has three years left on his deal after this season, so nobody is sending up red flairs, yet. But he understands that direction in the football program has been affirmed, and some are waiting for a similar sign in basketball.
“That’s the way it should be,” he said. “It’s basketball season now. We have to see where we’re at, where we stack up in this league, whether we’re making the progress and our guys are still getting the job done in all aspects. The final piece is our success on the court. But I think with what we’ve done in non-conference is we’ve put ourselves in the position to play in the postseason. Now which tournament? That remains to be seen.”
It’s a bit early to get into RPIs and bubbles and brackets. But if Tech lands in the NIT and not the NCAA, Gregory hopes that would be viewed as progress, even if the NIT seldom stirs the masses.
“When you look at rebuilding programs, sometimes you have to take a look at what steps need to be taken before you get there,” he said.
Tech played well but suffered from “offensive lulls,” Gregory said, in a double-overtime loss at Notre Dame and a one-point defeat to Syracuse. The bigger disappointment to him was a relative defensive collapse at Wake Forest (76-69).
In general, this been an offensively challenged bunch that ranks 13th of 15 in the ACC in scoring (66.1) and last in field-goal percentage (41.9). The Jackets are going to need to find somebody who can make a shot at the end to win a game.
“There’s no magic potion I’m going to sprinkle on the guys or somebody is going to sprinkle on me,” Gregory said.
For now, it’s probably best to keep just one eye open.
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