Georgia Tech’s attempt to reboot its season will get another chance Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets’ opponent figures to be more likely to submit than its previous two.
After losing home games to Pittsburgh and Miami, the Jackets face Boston College for a 9 p.m. Tuesday night matchup (ESPNU). Entering Monday’s games, the teams were part of a four-way tie for last place in the ACC, at 1-4.
Tech is still trying to find its stride after losing forward Robert Carter (torn meniscus) in the final nonconference game and trying not to lose control of the season.
“You’re going to lose some games,” guard Trae Golden said. “But we’re good. There’s a lot of basketball left. We’re not losing any confidence in our team because we know we’re good and we’re just going to get it figured out.”
Miami may play the best defense in the conference, and Pittsburgh could be the ACC’s best passing team. Both used those strengths effectively against Tech. Boston College is not particularly distinctive in any way, though entering Monday it ranked No. 2 in field-goal percentage in the ACC in league games (44.4 percent), about three points better than the Jackets.
“It’s huge,” Golden said. “This is a big game for us.”
Among coach Brian Gregory’s primary teaching points to his team after the listless defeat to Miami is to play more aggressively against Boston College.
“We were just passing the ball around the horn, and we weren’t in attack mode,” forward Marcus Georges-Hunt said.
The Jackets didn’t create shots for each other and didn’t attack the basket. Nearly half of their field-goal attempts were 3-point tries. Golden and Georges-Hunt will be primarily responsible for creating the offense. They’ll also be asked to continue to bear more rebounding load with Carter out. Georges-Hunt, who had six rebounds against Miami after collecting 11 in the first four ACC games, said the team is beginning to understand its heightened rebounding burden.
Tech’s effort in a winnable game against Boston College could be a gauge of the team’s resilience going forward. Gregory acknowledged that Tech’s position — with Carter, a key cog, likely out for the season, other injuries shortening the roster, a two-game losing streak and two road games ahead — is “a fragile situation” for a rebuilding team.
“The best thing for players to do is to just keep putting in the time and putting in the effort and feel good about what they’re doing and know they’re getting better and different things like that,” Gregory said. “I haven’t seen any issue with that.”
The Jackets likely will have forward Jason Morris back in the lineup. Morris, who missed the past two games after suffering a concussion in a car accident, practiced Monday at Tech before the team traveled to Boston and was expected to play. Guard Solomon Poole, who has missed the past three games with a medical condition related to migraine headaches, will not play.
The last time the Eagles and Jackets met, Boston College ran Tech off the Greensboro Coliseum floor with an 84-64 victory in the opening round of last season’s ACC tournament. Tech led 15-0 and 28-14 before Boston College swamped the Jackets behind guard Olivier Hanlan, who lit up Tech with 41 points, a record for freshmen in an ACC tournament game.
Hanlan made his final 12 attempts, including eight from 3-point range. After missing its first nine shots, Boston College made 31 of its final 52 attempts. Golden said the team hadn’t been shown video from the game, but perhaps it wasn’t necessary.
“For all of us, even the people that weren’t a part of that, we all know what happened,” Georges-Hunt said. “We all feel a certain type of way about it.”
