Georgia Tech guard Corey Heyward first compared the season to a roller coaster before deciding that wasn’t quite right.
“It’s a roller coaster, but you don’t enjoy it,” he said. “That makes more sense. Where you kind of get a headache.”
The Yellow Jackets will try again to alter the course of this plummeting season Saturday. Tech will play at Clemson, one of three teams the Jackets have beaten in ACC play. Despite the 3-13 record in league play (12-16 overall), the Jackets continue to give strong effort and haven’t moped.
“You just have to keep being positive,” Heyward said. “That’s the big key.”
It hasn’t been easy. After their 52-51 loss to Louisville on Monday at McCamish Pavilion, the Jackets fell to 0-9 in ACC games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime.
“I know nobody wants it to be like this, just losing by one or two points, but we gave our all those games,” forward Robert Sampson said. “We’re looking forward to these next two games and hopefully do some damage in the (ACC) tournament. There’s still an opportunity to go anywhere we want. It’s just going to take a lot of hard work.”
More work undoubtedly has to be done at the end of games. Tech led No. 17 Louisville by 13 points with nine minutes remaining before losing. The Jackets were outscored 24-10 over the final nine minutes to lose 52-51. Tech turned the ball over six times in the final 9:07 after committing only eight turnovers in the first 30:53.
In the final minute of regulation in the nine losses, the numbers spell out Tech’s futility quite clearly. Tech has scored 21 points in 29 possessions. Opponents, often going to the line after having been intentionally fouled, have scored 37 in 28. The Jackets are 3-for-15 on field-goal attempts to tie or take the lead and 8-for-27 overall.
Remarkably, Tech took only five free throws in those nine minutes, making one. Opponents have gone to the line 31 times, making 24. Of the 31, 23 were taken with the opponent in the lead, situations where Tech was fouling intentionally. Regardless, five foul shots in 29 possessions for Tech speak to the Jackets’ inability to get to the line in critical moments. In the nine games, Tech was ahead at the one-minute mark three times and tied twice.
“In a lot of ways, (losing close) creates even more questions among players and coaches to try to figure it out,” coach Brian Gregory said. “Is it just one thing you need to tweak? Is it multiple things? It’s been hard. There’s no doubt about it.”
Tech can take confidence from its win over Clemson in the first meeting, a 63-52 victory Feb. 16 at McCamish. The Jackets held the Tigers to 36.4 percent shooting from the field and totaled 15 assists, tied for their second-highest number of the season.
“I thought our activity level on defense was exceptional, keeping them in front of us on some drives, some isolations, different things like that,” Gregory said.
It ended the Tigers’ 10-game winning streak over Tech. The Jackets can stop another losing streak Saturday — they’ve lost nine in a row at Littlejohn Coliseum.
From a standings perspective, Tech is locked into playing in the opening day of the ACC tournament. The bottom four teams will play March 10, in Greensboro, N.C. The Jackets will be joined by Boston College, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Seeding for 11-14 is still in flux, but the winners will play the Nos. 5 and 6 seeds Wednesday. Going into the weekend’s games, those teams were North Carolina and Miami, respectively.
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