With the start of the basketball season a week away, Georgia Tech women’s coach Nell Fortner and men’s coach Josh Pastner met with media Tuesday to answer questions about their coming seasons.
Fortner’s team, which made its second consecutive NCAA Tournament last season, plays its first game at home against Georgia State on Nov. 10 (after an exhibition at home against Clayton State on Thursday). The men’s team, which stumbled last season after winning the ACC Tournament in 2021, begins play Monday against Clayton State at McCamish Pavilion.
Here are six things learned (three apiece) from the media sessions:
Moving faster
Fortner made it clear that she plans for this team to play at a much faster pace than it did last season, when the Yellow Jackets excelled on defense and took their time on offense. The Jackets led the ACC in scoring defense last season at 52.7 points per game, which enabled them to finish 21-11 despite being 13th in the conference in scoring offense (60.9 points per game).
“Hopefully, it’s a fun style to watch, and we’re not throwing the ball all over the gym,” Fortner said. “That’s the thing we might see early but hopefully not.”
She has two transfers, guards Cameron Swartz (Boston College) and Bianca Jackson (Florida State), who should help, and she noted two freshman guards, Kara Dunn and Tonie Morgan, who also can play a faster style.
“It’s a more open type of offense,” Fortner said. “We’re looking for the first best shot. And nobody has dibs on that shot.”
Middle of the pack
Tech was picked to finish eighth in the 15-team ACC after finishing sixth in the conference last season and making its second consecutive NCAA Tournament. The Jackets also did not receive any votes in the preseason AP Top 25. Fortner said she didn’t think of that as unfair given that Tech lost two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year Lorela Cubaj and leading scorer and three-year starter Lotta-Maj Lahtinen.
“It creates a huge challenge for us,” Fortner said. “It creates some, ‘Hey, we’ll make them make sure they understand who we are’ and have to fight for something. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. We have some ground to make up, and let’s just hope we do that.”
New faces
The roster has turned over considerably, with seven players out of 13 who are transfers or freshmen. The transfer group includes forward Kayla Blackshear, who arrived from Alabama between semesters last season but did not play after playing three games for the Crimson Tide. Blackshear was the No. 75 high school recruit (ESPNW) in the 2021 class.
Fortner has four freshmen in guards Raeven Boswell, Inés Noguero, Dunn and Morgan. It is a group that Fortner and her staff were able to put together without the COVID-19 restrictions that limited recruiting.
“This freshman class is a great core group that we had to build upon and to come behind and add to,” Fortner said. “So, really excited about that.”
Improved players
Two players who have made significant strides over the offseason are guard Deivon Smith and center Rodney Howard. A year ago, Smith was in his first season after transferring from Mississippi State. Howard was in his second season after transferring from Georgia but saw his minutes increase after sitting behind Moses Wright.
Both improved as the season went along but also had their seasons disrupted by injury. Smith averaged 5.7 points per game and 3.4 rebounds. He shot 40.3% from the field.
Pastner said Smith “has really turned the corner. Really proud of him. He’s been really good this offseason.”
Howard averaged 6.5 points per game and 5.1 rebounds and shot 56.1% from the field. He had six double-figure scoring games in the team’s final nine games after having three in the first 18.
“He’s gotten better offensively,” Pastner said. “He’s just a better player than he was last year.”
Defensive rebounding
Pastner mentioned that defensive rebounding has been a particular focus for improvement from last season. The Jackets had a defensive rebounding percentage of 71.8, 179th in Division I (KenPom). Pastner said the effectiveness of Tech’s staple 1-3-1 zone has been affected by the increasing reliance on the 3-point shot, which can stretch the defense by requiring defenders to challenge more 3-pointers and open more gaps for offensive rebounding at the basket.
Tech’s defense also was impacted in having Howard at the back of the zone, as he is not as much of a shot blocker as his predecessors Ben Lammers, James Banks and Wright.
“We’ve had to adjust some things going into this season to hopefully make it a little bit better to protect ourselves based on maybe not having that elite rim protector that we’re used to having,” Pastner said.
Different type of schedule
The Jackets will not play an exhibition game this season, as Pastner chose to play two private scrimmages rather than one private scrimmage and one exhibition.
He said the decision – along with scheduling Division II Clayton State to start the regular season – stemmed from a desire to try to start the season better. The Jackets typically have improved over the course of the season but often have tripped up early. Last year, Tech lost its season opener at home to Miami (Ohio). The year before that, the Jackets lost at home to Georgia State and Mercer to begin the season.
“I just felt, based on our scheduling, that was the best thing for our team, to try to help us be the best we can to start better,” Pastner said.
Tech’s two private scrimmages were against Vanderbilt (an 80-76 win in Nashville, Tenn.) and Tulane (an 86-86 tie, a game at Tech that was not taken to overtime because of the Green Wave’s travel circumstances).
“We scored the ball in both games, shot the ball really well, and hopefully that’s a strength of ours,” Pastner said.
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