Georgia Tech’s regular season has been whittled to three games, and the Yellow Jackets are shuffling to the finish line.
The Jackets will play Maryland on Saturday afternoon at Philips Arena, once again with a depleted roster. Guard Glen Rice Jr. remains suspended, and backup center Nate Hicks is still out with mononucleosis, though he could return next week. Coach Brian Gregory hopes that guard Jason Morris will be able to offer productive minutes after suffering a foot injury last Saturday.
The shortage of players has meant that Gregory has had to do perhaps the one thing a first-year coach in a rebuilding mode would most prefer to avoid — practice less. Not only is the roster so short that Gregory and assistants have filled in during practice, but Gregory is limiting the intensity to protect his players’ legs since they’re playing extra minutes in games. Gregory called the practice approach a quandary.
“No question about it,” Gregory said. “If you had your full complement of players and so forth, you would still tone down the [practice] time, but it would be different than the situation we’re under right now.”
Tech has lost 14 of 16. The Jackets are 9-18 overall and 2-11 in the ACC. Maryland (16-11, 6-7), which defeated Tech 61-50 on Jan. 15, will send the ACC’s leading scorer, guard Terrell Stoglin (21.3 points per game), at the Jackets.
Without Rice (Tech’s leading scorer and leading rebounder) and Hicks, Tech has nine scholarship players available, including former walk-ons Derek Craig and Nick Foreman. Last Saturday, the Jackets lost in overtime to Virginia Tech, a game in which guard Mfon Udofia played 42 minutes, and the four other starters played 33 or more. The Jackets were trounced two nights later by Clemson. After watching video of the game, Gregory said it looked as if the team were playing in quicksand.
“We just didn’t have any explosiveness or anything,” he said.
Gregory said his ideal is to play big men such as Daniel Miller and Kammeon Holsey between 26 and 30 minutes. Since Hicks was sidelined four games ago, Gregory has red-lined Miller, playing him 34, 34, 37 and 30 minutes, giving him a break in the Clemson game as the game got out of hand.
At 29.8 minutes per game, Miller leads all ACC centers in minutes played and ranks fourth among forwards and centers.
Miller acknowledged the extra minutes has affected his play “a little bit, but it’s not that bad,” he said. “The first two games, maybe, but I’ve gotten used to it a little bit more.”
One player who has perked up is guard Brandon Reed. In his past three games, the transfer from Arkansas State has averaged 10.7 points per game and has made eight of 18 3-point attempts (44.4 percent). Before that, his 3-point field-goal shooting rate was 27.6 percent. Reed said he has felt more confidence in his shot and has tried to fill in the scoring void left by Rice.
“I always felt like I did belong [in the ACC], but it was an adjustment period,” Reed said. “Guys are a lot quicker and a lot stronger.”
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