Georgia Tech’s first stop on its coming five-game, 5,600-mile road stretch is at famous Madison Square Garden in New York City at noon Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets (5-3) face Penn State at the 19,500-seat venue as part of the Holiday Festival, which also includes St. John’s versus Fordham at 3:30 p.m. and a women’s basketball game featuring St. John’s and Villanova at 6 p.m.
Tech will be looking for its third win streak of the season and is coming off a 70-49 win over Alabama A&M at McCamish Pavilion on Saturday. But the Jackets haven’t won outside of Atlanta this season, losing games at Cincinnati and Georgia, respectively.
Damon Stoudamire’s team has had the week off from games to focus on academics and final exams. The first-year coach said, however, he has no plans on easing up when it comes time to practice.
“We’re not at a point in this program to where you can take days off like that. You gotta keep on pushing, you gotta keep on grinding,” he said Saturday. “I think at times a couple guys be looking for me to take my foot off the gas, but I’m not gonna do it. I’m gonna bleed all the BS out of each guy to get this to where we need it to be. If that means practicing hard before a game, I’m all right with that. At the end of the day I want to create great habits.”
After Saturday’s trip to the Big Apple, the Jackets will return home briefly before departing for Honolulu, where they will compete in the Diamond Head Classic from Dec. 21-24. Tech is scheduled to go against Massachusetts (5-2) first and then either Hawaii (7-1), Nevada (8-1), Old Dominion (3-6), Portland (6-5), Temple (6-3) or TCU (7-1).
When Tech returns to Atlanta, the team will have a few days to recalibrate before going back on the road to resume ACC play at Florida State on Jan. 3.
Stoudamire said playing the four neutral-site games leading into the resumption of conference play may not have a traditional look, but he’s hopeful the competition and circumstances will be beneficial in the long run.
“I think it’s really good though because I definitely didn’t know my team or know enough about ‘em,” he added. “Going into (this) week and finals, we’ll practice, we’ll figure some things out, then we got a critical, four-game stretch here coming up before Christmas.
“We can’t neglect what the name of our school is. We got finals this week, and guys gotta jump in that classroom and do to the best of their ability to finish out the semester strong. We’ll get out of here on Friday and go to New York and get ready for Penn State.”
Penn State heads into the matchup at 5-5 and is coming off an 83-80 win over Ohio State at home Saturday. That victory broke a five-game losing streak for the Nittany Lions who had begun the season 5-0.
Kanye Clary (16.5 points per game) is leading three players who are scoring in double figures. Ace Baldwin (14 ppg) and Qudus Wahab (10.4) also are major scoring threats, while Wahab is pulling in nearly nine rebounds per game.
Under the direction of coach Mike Rhoades, who has been a head coach at Randolph-Macon College, Rice and Virginia Commonwealth, Penn State is the Big Ten’s best team in turnovers forced and one of that conference’s best units in steals per game (8.6). The Lions are taking 24.3 3-pointers per game, but making only 30.9% of those shots.
“They’ll pose a challenge for us,” Stoudamire said. “They play a little different than maybe Penn State has played in the past. Coach Rhoades does a good job, and he comes out of that (Marquette coach) Shaka Smart family. It’ll be multiple changing defenses, so you gotta be ready for everything when you play against Penn State.”
Tech is 1-3 all-time against Penn State in four matchups that have come since 1998. The Jackets’ lone win was in 2006.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast live by Big Ten Network.
Jackets at MSG
Tech is no stranger to Madison Square Garden, one of the nation’s more prominent sports venues.
The Jackets last visited the facility in the 2017 NIT, when they lost to TCU in the championship game of that tournament. In its history, Tech is 18-8 all-time at Madison Square Garden.
Tech reached the championship game of two NITs at MSG, losing to North Carolina in 1971 and TCU in 2017. The Jackets did win a preseason NIT at the Garden, knocking off top-ranked Connecticut in the semifinals and No. 25 Texas Tech in the championship game in November 2003.
Tech captured one ECAC Holiday Festival crown at the venue, defeating Temple and St. John’s in 1993. St. John’s has been Tech’s most frequent opponent (four times) at the Garden.
Stoudamire at MSG
Stoudamire also is no stranger to Madison Square Garden.
Not only did Stoudamire spend the past two seasons with the Boston Celtics in the NBA, coaching in four games at MSG as a Celtics assistant, the former point guard played 13 years with four NBA teams. Some memorable nights at the Garden for Stoudamire included a 30-point, five-assist outing for Toronto in a win over the New York Knicks on Dec. 27, 1997.
On a March 30 game in 2004, Stoudamire had 20 points and four assists for Portland in a 92-91 loss.
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