This is what you all have been waiting for…the Nerd Bowl is here. On Tuesday evening, the Yellow Jackets will play host to the Northwestern Wildcats. The last time Tech played the Wildcats was in 2014, and Tech fought for a 66-58 victory led by Chuck Mitchell’s 13 points. On the very end of the bench for the Yellow Jackets was a guy from Texas named Ben Lammers. The Laminator only played 2 minutes, accumulating 1 rebound and 1 shot attempt…which fell short. Tadric Jackson, who was also on the team, played a whopping 5 minutes and scored 0 points. Safe to say things will be different this go around.

Northwestern is coming off a great season, accumulating a school high 24 wins and receiving the first bid to the NCAA Tournament in school history. In the Big Dance, the Wildcats knocked off our friend Bryce Drew and the Vanderbilt Commodores in round 1. In the second round they lost a thriller to the eventual runners-up, Gonzaga Bulldogs. Leading the culture change and winning way is 5th year Head Coach, Chris Collins. Chris is the son of NBA Coach, Doug Collins (the guy who couldn’t win with Michael Jordan). Chris Collins played at *sadly says* Duke University. After playing one season professionally in Finland, he decided to take up coaching. Collins started coaching as an assistant in the WNBA, then moved onto Seton Hall for 2 years, and eventually back to his alma mater Duke, before making the jump to the head man at Northwestern.

The Northwestern Wildcats are 4-2 so far this season with losses coming against a solid Creighton team and an under the radar all-senior led Texas Tech team. Leading the Wildcats is the 6’3” senior point guard out of Greensburg, Indiana #30, Bryant McIntosh. He has the most assists in Northwestern history and led the team in points last season at 14.8 points per game. The Wildcats run their offense through him, and you will see an endless amount of pick and pops to get him or a spot-up shooter open for a three.

One of those spot-up shooters is 6’5 senior, #20, Scottie Lindsey. To put it in the most formal way possible, this guy gets buckets. He has 8 three point attempts in each of the last 2 games and has a season high of three-point attempts at 11. He averages 17.8 points per game this year with a season high of 26. He will get his shots up, it just comes down to limiting his open looks. If he hits a tough contested jumper, give him props and move onto the next play.

Next in the arsenal for Coach Collins might be a familiar name to Jacket fans. Standing 6’7” out of South Holland, Illinois is #4, Victor Law. Coming out of high school, some including me thought Law was Tech bound. We now know how it played out and Law is making the best of his decision. Law is a long elite defender and is built like Coach Pastner’s former player at Memphis and current Denver Nugget, Will Barton. He was named to the All-Big 10 defensive team and his wingspan is ridiculous. He is no slouch offensively as he has already busted out a 30-point game against Creighton and is averaging a respectable 13.2 points per game this year. Vic Law is a player every team needs on their team, and I am still a little bitter about losing out on him…. good ol’ Brian Gregory.
A duo of 6’8” upperclassmen hold down the front court for the Wildcats, #5 Derek Pardon and #44 Gavin Skelly. Pardon is more of the down low on the block guy, and Skelly stretches out the floor and expands to the three-point line. Last year Pardon lead the Big 10 in field goal percentage at 61.7% during conference play. To go along, Shelly has reached 14 points twice this year already and is shooting 54% from three.

Prediction: Northwestern comes out in a zone, most likely 2-3, to offset the size of their big men and to force the Jackets to knock down the three-point shot. They will likely focus on taking away Lammers and make someone else beat them. I’m expecting that if they do turn to the zone, Tadric will have a big game in the paint from the low block or high post. When he gets the ball close to the basket, he is very hard to guard. Though, this game might come down to if Curtis Haywood II can keep his silky shooting going, along with Tad, Alston, Jose and one of Moses, Evan, or AD hitting the open jumper. Defensively, I am looking forward to seeing how Alvarado handles McIntosh and if he can speed him up causing a few turnovers that we know McIntosh has in him. I think we put it all together in this one, and grind it out against a solid team without Okogie. Tech by 4.

ATLANTA, GA – Tech fans, this one will be short. It’s as tough to write about this game as as it is to continue reading or hearing about it.

We lost. We lost in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams. There should be no confusion about the outcome. Georgia Tech was outplayed and outcoached, according to head coach Paul Johnson.

There’s not much else to say. There’s not enough lipstick to disguise the pig today.

Was there a silver lining? No, not from today’s thrashing.

So how did we arrive here this year? That part is unclear.

What is clear is that no one’s expectations were met – not the players nor coaches. Said Johnson, “This [season] was disappointing to me. This season we had a chance – ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’ – you can’t play that game but we had a chance for this to be a much better year than it turned out.”

The odds of backing into a bowl game are slim to none. Said Johnson of his team’s prospects, “I don’t think there’s any uncertainty.”

The season ended with a thud, and I will take the opportunity to end this article the same way.

 

 

P.S. Go Jackets.

Coming off a 78-68 win against Texas-Rio Grande Valley, Tech is ready to battle the Mean Green from the University of North Texas. The Mean Green are in Conference USA (C-USA) with a record of 3-2 overall this season and 0-1 on the road. They lost by 20 to Nebraska and by 12 to Texas-Rio Grande Valley. North Texas does have a win against Bethune-Cookman, who Tech only beat by 3. At the head of the snake is first year head coach Grant McCasland. On March 13th, 2017, he was hired after leading Arkansas State to a 20-win season and having an 80% career winning percentage. McCasland was a three-year letterman at Baylor University where he was an assistant coach with Scott Drew before taking the Arkansas State head job.

The Mean Green are led by sophomore #3, Roosevelt Smart. He is a 6’3” 185-pound guard from Chicago, Illinois. Smart is a transfer from New Mexico Junior College, was ranked 79th for JUCO prospects, and a 3 star according to ESPN. He was originally committed to play for Coach McCasland at Arkansas State, but after McCausland switched jobs to North Texas, Smart followed him to the Mean Green and it has paid off. In the last game against Rogers State, Smart put up 26 points in 28 minutes, going 6-12 from the three-point line and not missing from the charity stripe (4-4). Smart has a nice high release and reminds me a little bit of Adam Smith from a few years ago for Tech. He has no problem putting shots up, and continues to knock down his opportunity at the line.

Running the Mean Green Machine (my trademark is pending), is another 6’3” guard #0, Ryan Woolridge. He is a transfer from University of San Diego and was a two-time winner of C-USA player of the week last year. This year, Woolridge rarely comes out of the game and does a little of everything for his team. He can set up his teammates, like he did last game against Rogers State racking up 9 assists. Woolridge can also call his own number as evidenced by a season high of 21 points to go with a couple 18-point game outings. The only downfall of his play right now is he can get reckless with the ball, along with some poor decision making that is often seen in underclassmen. If we can speed him up, like I think Alvarado can, we should be able to get a lot of chances in transition.

To round out the guard play is yet another sophomore, #1 A.J. Lawson. 6’5”. Lawson was named to the Conference USA all-freshman team last year, while leading the team in scoring at 11.4 points per game. He also can get up on the boards and is another player Coach Pastner would “love to give a big kiss on the cheek” for his guard rebounding skills. He got multiple double-doubles last year and worked for one the last game against Rogers State (10 points and 11 rebounds). He is a big, tough, physical guard who will be a problem for us if we do not box out or over rotate in the zone.

In the post, Georgia Tech should have a Thanksgiving feast with Lammers getting all the stuffing and blocks of meats he wants (pun intended). The Mean Green have a big 6’10” big man from Russia, Mark Tikhonenko, but he is not ready to contribute yet, so they’ll turn to 6’9” senior #50, Shane Temara. Temara’s game is simple: get rebounds, make your put back lay-ups, and set screens for Smart to come off from to get up his shot.

Outside of Roosevelt Smart, Ryan Woolridge, and A.J. Lawson the Mean Green rely on role players such as previously mentioned, Shane Temara, along with a pair of juniors: 6’1” guard, #2 Jorden Duffy and 6’7” forward #5, Allante Holston. Both are solid upperclassmen players and can do a plethora of things for North Texas. Duffy is more of the shooter of the two and Holston is the slasher. Both men can run the floor, with ease, and play in your face defense. I have a feeling Coach McCasland will turn to these two tonight, along with the formidable trio for North Texas.

Prediction: They try to play zone against us, due to their small ball line-up and lack of big men. But Ben Lammers continues his dominance and gets another double-double. Jose Alvarado racks up the steals again and pushes the ball in transition for easy lay ups and dunks (quick S/O to that alley-oop to Moses Wright, I saw a glimpse of the future, and man did I get excited). Also, I am very intrigued to see if Haywood can follow up his solid performance from last game, and even add onto it by finishing a few of those lay-ups that went in and out. Similarly, it'll be interesting to see if Evan Cole can contribute offensively off the bench again. The biggest question for me is if we will play zone given Smart’s shooting ability or take advantage of our size mismatch. I got my prediction right on the dot last game (humble brag) by saying Tech by 10. So this game, even though I want to say 12, Tech by 8.