The conventional wisdom for attacking a zone defense is to make 3-point shots to force the defense to expand and open gaps in the interior.
Against Syracuse on Saturday, Georgia Tech may attempt the reverse. The Yellow Jackets defeated the Orange two years ago at the Carrier Dome and lost by a point last season at McCamish Pavilion. The Jackets made but seven 3-pointers in the two games, coach Brian Gregory noted Friday.
“We’ve had success being able to get the ball inside, being able to get offensive rebounds, getting a couple transition points,” Gregory said.
That said, Tech will arrive far more capable of making 3-pointers against the Orange in another critical matchup for the Jackets in their attempt to keep postseason hopes alive. Tech earned its first ACC road win Wednesday over N.C. State, but a win over the Orange would be the Jackets’ most significant road victory of the season in addition to stacking another win on its total. Tech is 12-8 overall and 2-5 in the ACC.
The Jackets have made 36.9 percent of their 3-point attempts this season, good for 79th in the NCAA entering Friday’s games. Tech ranked 343rd of 345 Division I teams last season at 26.7 percent. In the 46-45 loss to Syracuse last year, it wasn’t as though the Jackets were avoiding the 3-pointer; they just didn’t make them. They were 3-for-17.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim memorably called the game, in which the teams shot a combined 30.3 percent and turned the ball over 26 times, “without a doubt, the worst offensive game I’ve ever seen.”
Saturday may offer Tech guard Adam Smith the opportunity to again demonstrate his worth to the Jackets. After dropping four 3-pointers on the Wolfpack in Tech’s 90-83 win, Smith now has 66 3-point baskets through 20 games. That is 20 more than any Jackets player made in any of Gregory’s first four seasons.
The 90-point total was Tech’s first in an ACC game since March 2008.
“We should have had a parade,” Gregory said. “I mean, us, scoring 90 points on the road?”
Even Smith is wary of the lure of the 3-pointer against Syracuse, which is No. 1 in the ACC in defensive 3-point field-goal percentage at 30 percent. (Tech is third at 31.2 percent.)
“That’s what they want you to do,” Smith said. “They bet on that. You have to be careful about the shots you take. You can’t get frustrated or get too comfortable just because it’s a zone. You have to take good shots, whether they’re threes or twos and just execute as a team.”
The answer figures to be patience and finding big men Nick Jacobs and Charles Mitchell either in the high or low post, a formula that Tech executed with precision in its 67-62 upset of the No. 7 Orange in March 2014. Center Daniel Miller and forward Robert Carter were a combined 13-for-24 — taking almost half of the Jackets’ field-goal attempts — and doled out eight assists in one of Gregory’s more significant wins.
Jacobs could play a significant role. He has scored in double figures in five games in a row, reaching 20 points against N.C. State on 8-for-14 shooting. His mid-range jumper could be effective to exploit gaps in the zone.
“The biggest thing is to not get frustrated with (the zone),” Smith said. “You see a lot of teams go against the zone because they don’t get the shots that they can get against a man (defense). They get frustrated, start rushing stuff. (Instead) just move the ball, trust your teammates and execute.”
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