In a season that veered off course in the past nine games, Georgia Tech doesn’t have much trouble finding areas that need improvement.
Transition defense needs to tighten, too many shots near the basket have missed and offensive play needs to be more aggressive to elicit better shots and more free throws.
As the Yellow Jackets begin the second half of the ACC schedule Sunday against Miami, inconsistent play from point guards Josh Heath and Travis Jorgenson can go on the list.
“At times, we’re getting exactly what we need, but we need more,” coach Brian Gregory said. “We need more. I think they both understand that and have been really focused in on the practice part of it to make sure that they’re doing what they need to do.”
Tech’s 80-71 loss to Duke on Tuesday provided an illustration. In the first half, aided by Duke’s compliant defense, Heath and Jorgenson combined for six assists with no turnovers in a combined 17 minutes as the Jackets took a 40-36 halftime lead. Both had highlight moments. Heath penetrated and floated an alley-oop pass to forward Nick Jacobs for a dunk. Jorgenson led a fast break and fed Jacobs for a layup.
In the second half, they made almost no statistical imprint on the game. The two had two points, no assists and no rebounds as Gregory limited them to a combined 10 minutes as the Blue Devils cut up the Jackets, going on an 18-2 run to break open a tight game.
In the time they played, they mirrored the play of the team as a whole, giving up shots too easily on defense and playing tentatively on defense.
“I feel like everyone on the team feels like we can all be playing better than we are,” Heath said.
Earlier in the season, Heath and Jorgenson’s play in part led Gregory to move Marcus Georges-Hunt from the wing to the point, which in the process has pushed Jorgenson down the rotation. In the past seven games, Jorgenson has not gotten in three times, the first games in his career that he has not played by coach’s decision.
Both have phenomenal assist/turnover ratios. Heath’s is 3.48 (80 assists/23 turnovers), 10th in the country through Thursday’s games, and Jorgenson’s is even better (4.0 on 48 assists and 12 turnovers; he does not have enough assists to qualify for ranking). But Gregory wants to see more daring from them in the form of pushing the pace in transition and also in drives to the basket to either score or create shots for teammates.
“A little bit is aggressiveness, a little bit is them being more assertive, and they’ve got to feel confident in the fact that that’s what we need them to do,” Gregory said.
On defense, Heath lost Duke guard Grayson Allen on back-to-back possessions early in the second half, fueling a 16-point second half for Allen in the Blue Devils’ rally. Heath was switched off Allen on the next possession, taken out shortly after and did not return for the remainder of the game.
Heath has heard Gregory’s message.
“I could definitely be more aggressive at times, defend better, do little things better, lead my team, all that stuff,” he said.
At 12-10 overall and 12th in the ACC at 2-7 going into the weekend, time may be running out for the Jackets to make a realistic run at the postseason, if it hasn’t already. But the start of the second half of the conference schedule would be a fitting time to turn things around.
“We always realize there are more games out there that we can get and make a difference,” Heath said.
Tech’s first half has been rigorous, to say the least. Of the top nine teams in the league standings, Tech has played seven of them, all of whom were in the top 40 in RPI going into Friday’s games. The second half will include five more games against RPI top-40 teams, including Miami (No. 15 as of Friday).
“There’s nothing you can do about where you’re at right now,” Gregory said. “All you can do is concentrate on where you want to get to, and we have a great opportunity in these next nine games to change things around quite a bit.”
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