Georgia Tech was to be my salvation after seven years in South Florida’s college basketball wilderness. Atlanta isn’t the epicenter of college hoops — that’s my hometown of Louisville — but at least I thought it was closer to it in spirit.
In Atlanta, I would live up the road from Cremins Court, where “Lethal Weapon 3” once played to rave reviews. The Yellow Jackets hadn’t sustained that level of success since the mid-1990s, but they were a semi-permanent fixtures in NCAA brackets under Paul Hewitt.
They can’t be bothered with basketball in Athens, but the Jackets were going to give me the kind of big-time, city-school hoops I crave. I was even willing to forgive that oh-so-lucky James Forrest 3-pointer that beat the Cardinals in the Dome in 1992. I needed the Jackets to be good enough to keep people talking about college hoops, which is in my blood.
The Jackets haven’t been good enough. There is no excitement. It stinks.
The Jackets lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament during my first spring here, and they haven’t come close to getting back the dance. There have been way more bad losses than big wins over that time. It was bittersweet when Louisville fans took over half of McCamish Pavilion during their past two visits, a reminder of what I’m missing.
I watched Thomasville’s Robert Carter Jr. power No. 8 Maryland to victory against No. 3 Iowa on Thursday night. The crowd was electric, the teams were good and the game mattered. In other words, it was unlike anything Carter saw all that much during his two seasons at Tech before he transferred.
I’ve heard Tech fans reminisce about the days when they had to wait in line to get into Alexander Memorial Coliseum for big games. I could feel Kenny Anderson’s pain when, after a brutal Jackets loss to Virginia Tech a couple of weeks back, he pleaded for them to make the NCAA tournament “just one year.”
It doesn’t make sense that they haven’t. The Jackets play in the ACC, king of all leagues. This region is rich with prep basketball talent, players who can see ex-Jackets all over the NBA. McCamish Pavilion is a sparkling arena that’s intimidating when it’s rocking.
But that doesn’t happen much lately. The Jackets just haven’t given their supporters much reason to buzz. The Jackets can’t gain traction even during a season in which upstarts regularly knock off powerhouses.
Tech had its moment when it delivered a stirring victory against Virginia in its ACC home opener. There was a large and rowdy crowd at McCamish, in spite of students being on break. The Jackets followed that with a loss at Notre Dame, but no harm in a conference road loss to a legitimate opponent.
Then the Jackets faded late in losing at home to lowly Virginia Tech. Then the Jackets faded late again while losing at home to then-No. 17 Louisville.
Those late-game stumbles in close losses have been common under coach Brian Gregory. Advanced-stats proponents will tell you the results of close games are a matter of luck, but you have to wonder if there’s something else at play when the Jackets lose so often in the same way under Gregory.
It’s not easy for Tech in the ACC. The league got better when it added two schools that care about basketball (Notre Dame and Pittsburgh) and two more that live for it (Louisville and Syracuse). It hasn’t helped that so many of the area’s prep stars have bypassed Tech for out-of-state destinations, Shaq Goodwin (Memphis) and Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia) lately among them.
And so Tech muddles along, and I feel isolated in my love of college basketball. I loved Georgia State’s stirring NCAA tournament run last season, but I don’t think coach Ron Hunter has another NBA prospect in his family. Shout out to Mercer for knocking off Duke in the tourney a year before the Blue Devils won it all but, no offense, Southern Conference basketball doesn’t do much for me.
The Jackets still can make a run. That was a solid victory at N.C. State on Thursday and games remain against Syracuse, Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, Louisville and Pittsburgh. Win enough of those and some more in the ACC tourney, finally make the NCAA tourney and more people will start caring.
I’m ready.
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