With a staggering volume of turnovers, Georgia Tech lost to Alabama Sunday afternoon in its second and final men’s basketball exhibition before the start of the regular season. The Yellow Jackets were defeated 93-65 at Alabama’s Coleman Coliseum.
Tech was undone by 24 turnovers, including five by guard Michael Devoe, who returned to the court about a week and a half ago after a toe injury. It followed the Jackets committing 17 turnovers in a home exhibition win over Division II Georgia College October 20.
“Our turnovers were the whole issue,” coach Josh Pastner said in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I can’t stress that enough.”
It takes some doing to turn the ball over 24 times. The Jackets were last in the ACC last season at 14.3 turnovers per game, but could only get as high as 22 in a game.
“You just can’t have that,” Pastner said.
Pastner said that Alabama was also more physical and aggressive than his team and came after the Jackets with a “hit-first mentality.” That showed up in the first half, when the Jackets could only secure three offensive rebounds despite missing 19 shots from the field (14-for-33) and got to the free-throw line three times. Tech went into the half down 40-32.
The Crimson Tide ran away from the Jackets in the second half, when they bagged 11 of 18 3-point tries. They finished the game 17-for-37 from 3-point range. Tech again played man-to-man defense in favor of its 1-3-1 zone defense for the majority of the game.
By comparison, Tech was 5-for-18 in the game from 3-point range, led by Devoe’s 2-for-3 effort. Guard Bubba Parham, who was 5-for-5 on his 3-pointers last Sunday against Georgia College and is being counted on for 3-point help, was 0-for-2 from 3-point range and 0-for-4 overall, although he contributed four rebounds, three assists, two steals and no turnovers.
“They were athletic and long and they were physical,” Pastner said. “Their physicality, we hadn’t seen that in a while.”
Alabama was 18-16 last season and just missed making the NCAA tournament. The Tide were picked to finish sixth in the SEC. After its 14-18 record last season, the Jackets were picked to finish 12th in the ACC.
Pastner said that part of the turnover problem Sunday was due to his decision to go deep in the bench and to take a look at different combinations of players on the floor. In the game, no Tech player was in the game more than 27 minutes, and all 11 scholarship players who will be eligible at the start of the season played at least nine minutes. Subbing frequently, he said, prevented players from getting into a flow of the game and with each other, but was necessary.
“I tried to do the best I could to play even matchups, even time, even combinations so I could give everyone a good look,” Pastner said.
Also, players such as forwards Moses Wright (four turnovers) and Kristian Sjolund (four turnovers) and Devoe are all returning from injuries and have some rust.
Pastner was particularly focused on trying different groupings because Tech starts the season at N.C. State November 5 in an ACC league game, followed by games against Georgia and Arkansas in the third and fourth games of the season, respectively.
“I really wanted to try to use Georgia College and Alabama to make sure I have an understanding of who we are, what we have, how we need to get better, because you’re just not going to have time to experiment (once the season begins),” Pastner said.
Pastner said that transition defense, a weak spot against Georgia College, was better. Forward Evan Cole scored a team-high 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Center James Banks had a team-high eight rebounds with six points on 2-for-7 shooting. Devoe and Wright both scored 12.
“He did a nice job at transition offense for us,” Pastner said of Cole.
Pastner said he was not discouraged by the results.
“We’re going to be better,” he said. “We’ll be able to score it, we’ll be better just by settling into a rotation, too. It’s why you play these games.”
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