Georgia Tech forward Quinton Stephens demonstrates his willingness to stand out every day when he leaves his dorm room and hops on his bike.
A long-limbed 6-foot-9 student perched atop a standard-issue red Schwinn mountain bike can catch attention.
“I look a little goofy, but it takes me from A to B, and I can get there quick,” Stephens said.
While he pedals to Piedmont Park or the Atlanta Beltline when he wants to escape campus, one of his more frequent destinations is Tech’s basketball center, where he goes daily for private shooting sessions to hone his stroke. While Stephens has been willing to differentiate himself in his pursuit of success, the returns have yet to accumulate in a commensurate measure.
Tech, which will play No. 17 Louisville on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion, will look again to him to play a supporting role to guards Marcus Georges-Hunt and Adam Smith and forward Charles Mitchell. With a combined 41 double-digit scoring games this season in 18 games, the Jackets have come to rely upon their contributions. On Saturday, the greater the yield from players such as Stephens, the better Tech’s chances of earning a win that would be awfully helpful in its attempt to reach the postseason for the first time since 2010.
Stephens scored a season-high 16 points in the upset win over Virginia on Jan. 9, but has followed with six points on 2-for-11 shooting in the two games since, both losses.
“That’s the challenge,” coach Brian Gregory said. “We need more games like the Virginia game. When he was open, he was aggressive to shoot, and he took quality shots and he knocked ’em down.”
Stephens, from the Marist School, has the shooting eye to have shot 4-for-4 from 3-point range against the Cavaliers, the latter two of which proved to be game-changing punches and prompted Virginia coach Tony Bennett to comment that “he’s got such a nice stroke.” Perhaps most memorably for Tech fans, he hammered Georgia in the 2014 season opener with a 6-for-8 masterpiece from 3-point range to lead the Jackets to their fourth consecutive win over the Bulldogs.
However, the battle has been to keep his stroke going. Stephens has 13 double-digit scoring games in his career, but none have occurred in consecutive games. In fact, his performances in the ensuing 13 games have offered no carryover — 3.3 points on 27 percent shooting. His respective career averages are 4.9 and 36.9 percent.
The Jackets have drastically improved efficiency on offense this season, but thus far in ACC play have continued to come up just short, continuing the pattern of the 2014-15 season. Tech is 1-4 in the ACC (11-7 overall), with each defeat by eight points or fewer, although the lineup has been rigorous. Three of the losses were to RPI top-40 teams — North Carolina, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. Needing every point, the Jackets could use more dependable contributions from Stephens.
That most likely will be the case against Louisville, which is 15-3 overall and 4-1 in the ACC. The Cardinals have won their past two games by a combined 37 points.
“One of his main roles is to make shots, make open shots,” Gregory said after Stephens scored four points on 1-for-3 shooting in Saturday’s 78-77 loss to Virginia Tech. “When you get ’em, you’ve got to make ’em. That’s one of the dilemmas we’re in. We need other guys to become a little more consistent and to understand their role and to do that role.”
Stephens has engaged his inconsistency with a positive attitude and a lot of work. Following the lead of Smith, Stephens shoots by himself daily, typically not leaving the gym until he has knocked down between 250 and 300 shots. That helps him fight through up-and-down results.
“Really, in my opinion, it’s just my mindset,” he said. “It’s all I can control. Like I said, I never stop working hard.”
Stephens’ habits have won the respect of the team and coaches. Before the season, he was named a captain, along with Mitchell and Georges-Hunt.
“He puts in the extra time, comes to practice ready to practice every single day, takes care of his stuff off the court, as well, which is important in this program, and really has embraced the positiveness and daily approach that you want guys to do,” Gregory said.
He has done so despite fluctuating minutes. And while his scoring has been inconsistent, he remains one of the team’s more effective rebounders.
Gregory said Thursday that, with no mid-week game this week, he had used the extra practice time to “wipe the slate clean” and told players they would have to earn starting privileges. They were presumably conditions that Stephens, who earned his first starts of the season in the three games before the open date, could handle.
During practice this week, he said players were “really competing with one another, finding out who really, really wants to win.”
If the bicycle-riding forward can translate desire and preparation into performance, the Jackets may yet achieve the results they seek.
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