A little more than a week ago, Georgia Tech was licking its wounds from a 35-point loss at Cincinnati. On Saturday, the Yellow Jackets suddenly have the opportunity to do something they haven’t done since January 2017: win consecutive games against ranked opponents.
“I think they’re a great test for us. It’s almost like getting a midterm exam before the final,” Tech guard Kyle Sturdivant said. “You kinda get to see what you do know, what you don’t know from the whole semester and what you gotta work on.”
Tech (3-2) hosts No. 7 Duke at 2:15 p.m. Saturday at McCamish Pavilion in the ACC opener for both teams. The Jackets are fresh off a 67-59 victory over No. 21 Mississippi State, a victory in which they never trailed while getting a major lift from freshman point guard Naithan George.
Coach Damon Stoudamire’s team also had its best defensive effort of the season that night by holding the Bulldogs to 30.8% shooting from the floor. No Tech opponent previously had shot less than 40% against the Jackets this season.
Tech also collected 12 more offensive rebounds in the win Tuesday and now ranks second in the ACC with 14.8 offensive rebounds per game. That’s an impressive feat considering Stoudamire’s roster isn’t the tallest or most physically imposing bunch around.
“Playing against a physical team like Mississippi State really helps (moving forward) as well. The guys responded to the challenge, undefeated team coming in. Physical team. And there was a lot of great things that we did,” Stoudamire said. “I was impressed with the guys, and I told ‘em as much. We pretty much led wire to wire. That’s hard to do. I challenged them.
“But the challenge (now) is at midnight Tuesday, once it hit, you gotta get ready for the next game. So now it’s locking ‘em back in to try to do the same thing we did Tuesday night on Saturday afternoon.”
Duke (5-2) will play the second of a pair of road games that started with a visit to Arkansas on Wednesday. The Blue Devils dropped that matchup 80-75 after shooting only 27.3% on 3-pointers and missing 10 free throws.
But the preseason ACC favorites, who also have a home loss to No. 12 Arizona, are still expected to be the best team in the league – if not one of the best in the country – for second-year coach Jon Scheyer. Senior point guard Jeremy Roach, sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor and the 2022-23 ACC rookie of the year, center Kyle Filipowski, all returned from a team that won the 2023 ACC tournament. Duke also added five-star prospect and guard Jared McCain, one of four Duke freshmen who had been ranked among the top 30 recruits in the 2023 signing class.
Tech has beaten Duke only 24 times in 101 previous meetings and is 1-16 in the past 17 matchups. Ten months ago at McCamish Pavilion the Blue Devils walloped Tech to the tune of an 86-43 score.
The Jackets have beaten Duke four times since 2000 and in each season in which they did so, they went on to make the NCAA tournament. Tech also travels to Duke on Jan. 13.
“The challenge for us and Duke is that they’re coming off of a loss. So they’ll be locked in, they’ll be ready to play and they’ll try to clean some things up. You know come Saturday afternoon they’ll have a sense of urgency about their game,” Stoudamire said. “It’s easy to lock kids in when you’re playing against Duke. I’ll just say that. That’s a known brand. They have known players. So it’s a little different. Antennas go up quick for players, for coaches, for fans.”
Saturday’s game marks the earliest ACC opener for Tech since Dec. 2, 2001, when the Jackets lost at North Carolina. The Jackets step away from league play after Saturday, starting with a trip to Georgia on Tuesday, for six consecutive nonconference games before resuming the conference slate Jan. 3 at Florida State.
Saturday’s result will determine whether Stoudamire’s team spends the next month 1-0 or 0-1 in the ACC standings.
“It’s a matter of can we keep building? Are we gonna be content? Are we gonna allow our complacencies to come in because you can’t have complacency. That’s the thing I’ve been fighting these guys on since I got here. I can’t stand complacency,” he said. “When you get comfortable, get uncomfortable. That’s how I’ve always been, and that’s the mentality I’m trying give these kids. As we’ve been working out the last couple days, I’ve been trying to make them uncomfortable.”
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