Midway through the second half of Georgia Tech’s Tuesday home game against VCU, the Yellow Jackets were wobbling. A nine-point lead had shrunk to one in less than three minutes.
Tech fans saw this scenario play out repeatedly last season: The Jackets would go dry on offense, surrender the lead and rue the lost opportunity. However, with the lead back to three, guard Adam Smith stepped into the breach. Dribbling on the left wing, he waited for an opening, then darted into the lane for a basket to push the lead to 53-48.
After a stop on the next VCU possession, Smith slipped past Rams guard Doug Brooks, and then, as Brooks went for the steal from behind, Smith hit the brakes while protecting the ball. Like a tailgater in traffic, Brooks couldn’t avoid contact and fouled Smith, who went to the line and made both ends of a one-and-one to expand the lead to seven. Crisis averted. The Jackets won 77-64.
“VCU, they like to reach from behind, try to get tap-backs, get their hands on the ball,” Smith said. “I kind of knew he was going to do that.”
Tech fans have reason to be hesitant about buying into the team’s 7-2 start. For starters, in coach Brian Gregory’s first four seasons, Tech was a combined 35-16 in nonconference play, but 20-55 against ACC competition and failed to make the postseason. However, the Jackets have given cause to believe that this team could break from its recent past. The skill and experience of additions such as Smith, who came to Tech this season as a graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, is no small part of that thinking.
“Oh, yeah — we’re a lot better,” Gregory said.
The Jackets have the opportunity to demonstrate it again Saturday against Georgia in Athens. Tech has won four in a row against the Bulldogs, its longest streak in the series since winning four consecutive in 1963 and 1964.
Gregory sees the improvement in statistics and what he sees in games and in practice.
“You look at plays that we’re able to make that we’ve just never been able to make before,” he said.
In Smith, for instance, Tech has the 3-point scoring threat it hasn’t had in Gregory’s tenure — he has made 41.4 percent of his 3-pointers — and a guard with the quickness, shot-making skill and experience to manufacture the back-to-back scores he did against VCU.
“Grad student, fifth year, all that stuff kind of comes into play,” Smith said. “Old men out there.”
On the possession after Smith’s free throws, forward Marcus Georges-Hunt patiently feinted drives into the lane until VCU’s defense broke down, at which point he slipped a pass to forward Charles Mitchell for a wide-open lay-in.
“I’m not sure two years ago, he would have been able to make that play,” Gregory said of Georges-Hunt.
In senior transfers Nick Jacobs (Alabama), James White (Arkansas-Little Rock) and Smith, there’s improved athletic ability, scoring ability and experience. Returnees such as Quinton Stephens, Josh Heath and Travis Jorgenson are benefiting from accumulated experience. Seniors Mitchell and Georges-Hunt are playing at the highest levels of their careers. Mitchell has recorded a double-double in each game this season, the only player in the country still perfect in that category.
“I feel like we have a lot more pieces that can contribute in a lot of different ways,” Georges-Hunt said.
The true proving ground will come once ACC play begins in January. After Georgia, Tech finishes non-conference play with three home games against Southeastern Louisiana (Dec. 21), Colgate (Dec. 23) and Duquesne (Dec. 29). Gregory is careful to note that being better qualitatively is one thing, “but you have to be better during that 40 minutes that you play.”
At least through nine games, that’s what has happened.
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