Observations from Georgia Tech's 65-58 loss to Georgia State on Saturday in an exhibition game at McCamish Pavilion.
1. The most obvious flaw that the Yellow Jackets demonstrated was their 3-point shooting – they were 3 for 25 from beyond the arc. Freshman point guard Jose Alvarado was 0-for-8 from 3-point range, freshman forward Evan Cole was 0-for-4 and freshman guard Curtis Haywood was 1-for-5. That’s a combined 1-for-17.
3-pointers accounted for 48 percent of Techs’ 52 shots from the field. Last year, the rate was 25 percent. Georgia State sagged its zone on center Ben Lammers – “We did not want the big fella to beat us,” Georgia State coach Ron Hunter said – which proved wise, as he was 5-for-5 from the field. And as Tech continued to stack up misses from long distance, Georgia State had no reason to adjust.
“Some of them were just so wide open, you’ve got to let them fire,” Pastner said. “They’ve just got to make it. Some of them were rushed, but a lot of them – out of the 25, probably 18 were wide open.”
It was a popular strategy to make Tech beat teams from the perimeter, and it will undoubtedly continue until things change.
2. Pastner was not overwhelmed by the play of his freshmen, who were playing their first game in McCamish. Alvarado played 30 minutes with three points, three steals, one assist, no turnovers and one rebound. Haywood had three points (a 3-pointer), four rebounds, one assist and two turnovers in 32 minutes.
Cole: five points (3-for-3 from the line), three rebounds, one steal in 21 minutes. Forward Moses Wright: six points (2-for-8 shooting), five rebounds, four fouls, four turnovers in 19 minutes.
Alvarado showed some scrap with his steals – he had at least two of them in on-the-ball defense, poking away a dribble – and notably didn’t turn the ball over, but Pastner didn’t like his effort until the end of the game. Alvarado committed a major sin for a guard – no defensive rebounds.
Pastner acknowledged part of it might have been the new environs, “but he can’t wait till the 35-minute mark to get going,” he said. “We needed that energy from the start.”
Cole showed active hands and played with effort but couldn’t latch onto a couple rebounds that extended possessions for Georgia State. Pastner wanted more offensive rebounding from Haywood (no offensive rebounds) and better shooting (1-for-6 overall, 1-for-5 from 3-point range). Wright turned the ball over four times but impressed Pastner with his activity (five rebounds, two on the offensive glass).
3. For better or worse, this was a game that Georgia State (and its many fans among the 2,112) wanted more than Tech did. Even prior to the game, Pastner acknowledged that getting players experience and looking at different combinations would be more of a priority than the final score.
Georgia State showed more energy and did a better job going to the offensive glass. After the game, Hunter and team members were clearly pleased to celebrate the win with Panthers fans.
“It counts for all of us,” Hunter said. “It may not count in the standings and all that, but our kids, that counted. Every time we get to play. And it counted for the student body at Georgia State. That’s a Georgia State win.”
That spirit underlines why Pastner will never play Georgia State. (The last time the two teams met was in December 2008.) It would be good for fans and publicity for the game in the state of Georgia, but he sees it as a no-win situation.
4. The best player on the court was Georgia State guard D’Marcus Simonds, the Sun Belt freshman of the year last season. Simonds took various Tech players to the basket and finished with 30 points, making 11 of 19 attempts from the field and seven of nine from the free-throw line.
“I told him before tipoff, ‘If you’re the best player on the floor, by the end of the game, let me see,’” Hunter said. “And I think everybody in this arena knew who the best player on the floor was.”
5. Obviously, regardless of the outcome, it wasn’t exactly a heartening performance by the Jackets. But, it was an important learning experience for the freshmen, who played 102 of the available 200 minutes. Pastner started three of them (Alvarado, Cole and Haywood) with center Josh Pastner and guard Justin Moore. (Guard Tadric Jackson scored 13 in 20 minutes, going 6-for-9 from the free-throw line, while Lammers led with 14 points and nine minutes.)
“These games are really good for us just because we’re relying on a lot of young guys and this is all new for them,” Pastner said.
Shooting 3 for 25 against Georgia State’s zone won’t look so bad in December and beyond if it helps Tech better figure out how to attack it.
“This is why we need games, and we’ll get better, just like we got better last year,” Pastner said. “We sat here last year, we got lucky against Shorter (in an exhibition game), but we got better. This is just part of it.”
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