It took him five years, but Brian Gregory has lifted Georgia Tech from terrible to mediocre. You’re free to wonder if mediocrity is the sort of exalted plane that should lead an ACC coach to declare himself even momentarily “satisfied” — as Gregory did after Saturday’s 63-59 over Pittsburgh — but let the man take his bow. After starting 2-7 in league play, his Yellow Jackets finished 8-10. That’s not nothing.
Neither is it everything. This has the feel of a culmination, not a corner turned. Saturday was Senior Day for five Jackets, four of whom arrived as transfers, three who played only one season at Tech. Entering the game, those seniors were responsible for 76 percent of the Jackets’ points this season. Seniors scored 59 of Tech’s 63 points against Pitt.
Even as Gregory was touting his team as “playing near the top of our league” — this after finishing in two-way tie for 11th — we have to ask if the Jackets shouldn’t have been better than 18-13. As of Saturday morning, it had the ACC’s seventh-leading scorer in Marcus Georges-Hunt, its fourth-leading rebounder in Charles Mitchell and its leading 3-point shooter in Adam Smith. (Seniors all.)
Even as Gregory was, in his postgame remarks, playing down the importance of conference records — “because of the unbalanced schedule” — we note that Tech had to play North Carolina, Miami, Virginia and Duke only once each, with three of those games being staged at McCamish Pavilion. (Also: Mike Krzyzewski didn’t accompany his Blue Devils here.) Counting two games apiece against Louisville and Notre Dame, the Jackets were 2-6 against the ACC’s six best teams.
The intent isn’t to suggest that the Jackets aren’t playing better than they have at any time under Gregory. (Although that wouldn’t be hard, would it?) But his suggestion that Tech “deserves to be in the (NCAA tournament) conversation” was a flight of fancy. Beating No. 44 Pitt figures to provide only a modest bump to Tech’s RPI, which was 73rd before Saturday’s play. The only realistic chance the Jackets have to make the Big Dance is to win the ACC tournament.
And maybe they will. They’ve won five of their past six games. They’re not blowing every lead anymore. Gregory actually called a neat play out of a timeout Saturday, freeing Smith off a curl for a game-tying trey. (Hey, credit where it’s due.) Winning always beats the heck out of the alternative. Lest we get carried away, let’s say again: This is the best it has gotten under this coach, who has had five seasons to lift Tech into an actual NCAA tournament conversation and hasn’t quite done it.
And now we ask: Is that enough to keep bringing him back? Counting the league tournament, he’s 28-65 in ACC competition. (That’s a winning percentage of .301.) Even if we’re to buy his contention that conference records don’t mean as much as they once did, they still mean something. And Gregory, in his best year, has taken his team — one laden with seniors, which not many teams are anymore — to 11th place.
It must also be said that this hasn’t been a vintage ACC season. Of the league’s top six teams, only Miami and North Carolina were demonstrably better than they were last season, and the Tar Heels haven’t been quite as good as advertised. Pitt and Syracuse were nothing special. Florida State and N.C. State were the worst they’ve been in years. Boston College (0-18 in league play) was historically bad.
Yes, Tech clambered from 3-15 in the league to 8-10. Yes, it outperformed its preseason ranking of 13th, as assigned by the assembled conference media. Georges-Hunt is a good player. Smith is a fine shooter. Nick Jacobs — yet another senior — and Mitchell are a strong inside pair. And yet: Tech lost at home to East Tennessee State and Virginia Tech, which are the kind of losses that quash an NCAA tournament discussion. The latter game rankles still.
The Jackets jumped ahead of the Hokies, who were 2-16 in ACC play last season and picked 14th this time around. A Virginia Tech team that saw its leading scorer (Smith) transfer to Georgia Tech surged from 14 points behind to win. A Virginia Tech team that lost its opener to Alabama State just finished 10-8 and tied for seventh in its league in its second year under Buzz Williams.
If the Jackets had finished above .500 in league play and seventh in the ACC in Year 2 under Gregory, we’d have sung sweet songs of brighter tomorrows. They couldn’t get to 10-8 even in Year 5. Unless Georgia Tech wins four games in four days in D.C., it will land in the NIT.
Again, that would mark a kind of progress for a program that hasn’t graced a postseason tournament since 2010. Still, having done it with five seniors, this seems a blip. The latest guess is that Gregory will return for next season. That mightn’t be a good thing.
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