Late Thursday night, Georgia Tech will learn considerably more about how much progress it has made in the past eight games.
Entering their ACC tournament first-round game against Miami, the Yellow Jackets are peaking. They won two of their last three regular-season games and are playing more crisply on offense and more cohesively on defense.
“I don’t think there’s any question that you’ve seen improvement by players,” coach Brian Gregory said. “I think it’s pretty clear that, for the most part, that we’ve gotten much better defensively. We’re moving the ball better, sharing the ball better.”
This improvement, however, primarily took place against the ACC’s lower tier. Tech went 1-7 in the first half of the ACC schedule against teams with a combined record of 80-48 in the league and 166-76 overall. The eight opponents finished in the top eight in the league.
In the second half, Tech was 3-5 and easily could have won two more games. The combined record of those eight teams was 43-85 in the league and 111-131 overall. All but one of the opponents finished in the bottom six of the ACC.
Miami will be the first team Tech has played with a winning ACC record since Feb. 9.
In their first meeting Jan. 24, Miami pounded the Jackets by a 64-49 score. Tech was entirely outplayed.
“We had no flow offensively or defensively, and they took us out of it,” Gregory said.
There is no question that the Jackets are playing better. Point guard Mfon Udofia has performed his role more efficiently (38 assists to 18 turnovers in the past eight games after 16 and 19, respectively, in the first eight). Forward Kammeon Holsey has flourished as a scorer, going from an average of 6.5 points in the first eight games to 12.5 in the second eight.
“The very first thing is, they are running the floor much faster, they’re sharing the ball effortlessly, they have a little better balance to their offense,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “Their energy on defense is a significant improvement to the last time we played them.”
Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik, whose team beat Tech on Feb. 15 and then lost to the Jackets on Saturday in the final regular-season game, said the Jackets played with more unity in the second game, when they were without guard Glen Rice Jr. Tech’s leading scorer and rebounder was suspended following the first Wake Forest game, has not played since and will not play in the tournament.
“They moved the ball well, they executed their game plan,” he said. “It was one heartbeat.”
Gregory relied on an often-used theme to explain Tech’s development. Tech is not just practicing harder and better, but doing so more consistently. He has seen increasing buy-in to the necessity of a commitment to practice.
“And I think understanding it and realizing it and actually doing it every day are two different things,” he said. “But they wouldn’t have made those improvements that we’ve talked about if it isn’t dramatically different than how they went about it before.”
Center Daniel Miller has become a more dynamic scorer as the season has closed and rebounded more aggressively.
“We can see ourselves getting better,” he said. “After most practices and then after games, it’s good to see that. It motivates us.”
Miller can measure himself against one of his poorer games of the season, a four-point, four-rebound effort against Miami in which he was under the weather. Holsey managed the same totals.
If they can deliver against forward Kenny Kadji (12.9 points per game, 5.6 rebounds) and center Reggie Johnson (10.5, 7.0), Tech will have an opportunity for an upset. If they can’t, the Jackets’ season will almost certainly end around 11:30 p.m.
“We’re more interested in the process of what pieces need to be in place to give us the best chance to deserve that win,” Gregory said.
In that puzzle, continued improvement is no small piece.
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