I think I am beginning to see what the team is being taught and beginning to do on the court. Coach's background is built around the basketball 101 fundamentals of the screen, involving 2 or more players, being the player with the ball, the screener, and the other three being in place to take advantage of the screen, either shooting or rebounding. That takes a team effort to pull off, plus individual fundamental basketball skills. There are 28 different types of screens, and I have been able to observe attempts at 4 or 5 being tried, including the high screen, pick and pop, UCLA screen, and the ghost screen. A good tutorial of the 28 screens and how to defend them can be found at
https://hoopstudent.com/basketball-screens/ .
Our current team, consisting of 9 guards and 7 forwards of various levels of all-star fame from 6 countries and learning basketball from over 20 high schools or colleges not including AAU team coaches, may never have been exposed to being taught the simple to complex art of screening that it appears that Coach Stoudamire mentions and is beginning to teach. Also I see this segment of offensive patterns from other college teams and most pro teams, and especially high school AAU teams. I am pretty certain the coaches are also teaching defense of the screen, and all 16 players are getting practice in both the offense and defense of team play in practice involving the screen. I see progress being made, as well as individual skills to avoid fundamental mistakes. I think we will sneak up on several more teams this year as the team buys into and learns the coaches' intent. That is where individual and team attitude comes in and we are making progress there.
Clemson will be a challenge as they try to do the same style of offense as Tech starting three seniors, a junior, and a sophmore, but I believe we are practiced for them. Littlejohn is a tough arena to play with the down fans in your face. Believe it or not, 56 years ago our Georgia Tech freshman team of 1968-69 played the first game in the new Littlejohn Coliseum and they had new uniforms. I scored the first two points in and we beat their freshman team 81-67.
For the UVA game on Jan 20, The Georgia Tech men''s basketball letterwinners will be honored for the 39th consecutive year since 1985 when Coach Cremins began the annual Letterwinners game. I will not be able to make it this year because I am still recovering from cancer and my wife has cancer surgery that week. Go Jackets!