The continued year-over-year progress that Georgia Tech women’s basketball coach MaChelle Joseph has practically made her signature may be coming to an end.
Ranked No. 22 in the preseason poll on the heels of their first appearance in the Sweet 16, the Yellow Jackets find themselves deep in the ACC standings with an outside shot to make the NCAA tournament. Joseph, leading a team with six freshmen against a merciless schedule, is O.K. with the rough waters, which continue Friday night against No. 22 Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.
“This is a very unforgiving league,” Joseph said Thursday. “If we were losing like this with all seniors like last year’s team, I’d be concerned. But the fact that we’re playing all the freshmen and coming up short against the No. 6 team in the country and we’re losing by seven points, we have a chance to win at the end, I’m not disappointed. I’m not discouraged.”
Joseph’s numbers were slightly off, but not significantly. On Sunday, Tech lost at home to No. 10 Maryland, 66-57. Down as many as 16, the Jackets closed to five points with 2:51 to play, this in a game in which she shook up the lineup by starting four freshmen and a sophomore. The loss was Tech’s fourth in a row and dropped the Jackets to 8-10 overall and 1-6 in the ACC. Tech had not lost four consecutive games since the 2005-06 season, Joseph’s third at Tech. That was also the last time Tech didn’t have a winning record and didn’t make the NCAA tournament. Starting with that season, Tech won as many or more games than it did in the previous season.
To match last year's school-record 26 wins, Tech would likely have to finish a perfect 11-0 in the regular season and then make deep runs into the ACC and NCAA tournaments.
“I haven’t given up on winning 20 games or going to the tournament,” Joseph said. “That’s still out there for us, but right now, that’s not the focus. The focus is on getting better every day.”
In the Maryland loss, though, Tech may have found the seeds of its revival. Leading scorer Tyaunna Marshall, a preseason All-ACC choice, had one of her best games of the season, scoring 18 points with nine rebounds off the bench. The Jackets, who had given themselves no chance in recent games with dreadful starts, hung with the Terrapins through the first half, leading by as many as six.
“The underclassmen started us off very well, the freshmen and (Sydney Wallace),” Marshall said. “When we just got in, we all did everything we had to do and played for each other.”
In hindsight, the results to this point perhaps should not come as too great a surprise. Tech lost five seniors from last year’s team, including WNBA first-round pick Sasha Goodlett at center and point guard Metra Walthour. Combined, the two started 227 games over their career. Then forward Tjasa Gortnar, who started 10 games as a freshman last season, decided not to return to school after tearing her ACL for a second time while playing for the Slovenian national team.
And, due to receiving late notice on the increase in conference games to 18, Joseph said, Tech overscheduled in the nonconference, decreasing opportunities to find minutes for the six freshmen. Joseph conceded she underestimated the impact of losing seven players – the five seniors, Gortnar and guard Sarah Hartwell, who transferred to Illinois.
“It’s just one of those things where we’re just trying to get better every day,” Joseph said. “I do see a lot of progress. It’s just not showing up in the win column.”
It’s been a learning year for everyone from the freshmen to Marshall, thrust into a leadership position as a junior.
“I’m finally realizing it’s tough leading six freshmen and stepping up to be a leader on this team like I’m supposed to be, but I’m getting it,” Marshall said. “It took a little bit longer than I expected, but it’s fine and we’ll go forward.”
Of the freshmen, Tech has received good play from Brittany Jackson, averaging 10.3 points and 4.1 rebounds. She had a three-game streak with 20 or more points. Against Maryland, Joseph started freshmen Breana McDonald, Roddreka Rogers, Nariah Taylor and Aaliyah Whiteside alongside Wallace. Jackson came off the bench.
According to rpiratings.com, Tech's RPI through Sunday was 59th. (Its strength of schedule was rated No. 8). Just to get to .500 in the conference, Tech would need to finish 8-3. That would put the Jackets at 16-13 going into the ACC tournament, hardly NCAA material.
"If we can go and get a win (against FSU) to start our confidence up and get a streak going, I really believe that the last 11 games of the conference season, we can win straight through and finish out this conference 12-6," Marshall said.
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