Georgia Tech begins its fifth week, and second month, of the season riding high. Now the Yellow Jackets must make sure they don’t squander away all the momentum from a remarkable week inside McCamish Pavilion.
Coach Damon Stoudamire’s squad heads up the road Tuesday to face rival Georgia looking for a third straight win. Tech put itself in that position by knocking off No. 21 Mississippi State and No. 7 Duke, respectively, last week at home, wins that raised eyebrows around town and around the college basketball landscape.
The Jackets have to find a way to play at the same level that led to those wins, but do so this time around in a hostile environment.
“(The Duke win) was Saturday, this is Monday, it’s on to the next one,” Stoudamire said. “We gotta get ready. We gotta make sure we don’t have any hangover going into Georgia (on Tuesday).”
Tech’s first road trip of the season did not go so well.
On Nov. 22, the Jackets were blasted by the Bearcats of Cincinnati in a 35-point loss in which UC outscored Tech 49-22 in the second half. The silver lining in the aftermath of that defeat was the Jackets’ ability to flush the poor performance and turn over a new leaf.
Stoudamire, after Saturday’s win over Duke, expressed how thankful he was to his players for making that choice – and to not steer the ship in other direction.
“They could have rolled over and they could have laid dead. They could have. But instead they chose to roll their sleeves up and go harder. They chose to allow us to coach ‘em harder. They chose to believe,” he said. “The guys that I inserted into the lineup hadn’t been playing major minutes. The guys that I took out of the lineup were playing major minutes. Even though the guys that came out of the lineup were coming out the lineup, they’ve still been really good. What we have now is a connectivity that spells team.”
Tech’s recent success is partly due to Stoudamire’s decision to turn toward the youth movement of freshmen duo Nait George and Baye Ndongo. Both started in the victories over MSU and Duke and both played a major hand in leading the Jackets to those wins.
George, a 6-foot-3 point guard, had 11 points and four rebounds in 31 minutes against Mississippi State and did a admirable job of facilitating the offense. He was arguably even better Saturday when he had nine assists, many of which went to Ndongo, in the takedown of Duke.
Ndongo, a 6-9 forward, played 26 minutes against the Blue Devils and had 21 points, five rebounds, four blocks, two assists and a steal. The Senegal native had Tech’s last field goal, a soaring, one-handed dunk from the baseline, and had the game-winning shot block as time was expiring.
Because of the play of George and Ndongo, Tech veterans such as Kyle Sturdivant and Deebo Coleman are now coming off the bench. Senior guard Lance Terry remains out with injury and sophomore Amaree Abram, a transfer from Ole Miss who started the first four games of the season, hasn’t seen the floor the last two times out.
There doesn’t appear to be any dissention, however, inside the locker room.
“I think it’s been great,” Sturdivant said about the team’s buy-in. “Everyone is taking heed to what all the coaches are saying and trying to implement it as best as we can. And I think we’re trying to grow in every aspect that they want us to grow in.”
Tech will face a Georgia team that is on a three-game winning streak that includes a 68-66 victory at Florida State on Wednesday. The Bulldogs (5-3) have losses to Oregon, Miami and Providence.
Coach Mike White’s team has been led by Jabri Abdur-Rahim (13.1 ppg) and Noah Thomasson (12.4 ppg) in the scoring column and Russel Tchewa (6.1 rpg) on the boards. Georgia averages a little less than 25 free throw attempts per game and are currently the worst shooting team in the SEC at 40.4 percent.
Tuesday’s meeting will be the 199th between the two programs in a series that dates to 1906. Tech has won 107 of the previous 198 matchups and two in a row (after having lost five straight before then). The Jackets are 31-54 in Athens.
Tipoff on Tuesday at Stegeman Coliseum is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the annual clash will be televised live by the SEC Network.
“It’s gonna be intense,” Sturdivant said. “(I told the team) ‘It’s gonna be something like you never experienced before. You need to come out here and play harder than you think you played last game.’ "
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