2/4 MBB @ Clemson

[305jacket]

That was an exhausting game! It reminded me of the end of "Rocky." In his post game TV interview, I expected Nait George to bust out with, "Adriannnnn! Adriannnn!"

McCollum took a big hit and if it is a concussion, that would be his second in just a couple of months. That would be bad and I will echo the thought that could be his season. Hope not.

We need some returns from the "Boot Brigade," especially Mustaf.

Souare is a smart player and alert. He has a been a vital "glue guy"

Powell's emergence has been key. It is a big development considering he has another year of eligibility.

The team has found a defensive identity and that is how they are winning. I really want to get Mustaf back because I think he would fit quite nicely into how this team plays defense.

Going into this last weekend 3-7 in conference and facing two quad 1 games, it was looking like 3-9 was likely. To come out 5-7 instead changes the complexion of the season. Going .500 in conference (we'll need to go 5-3 the rest of the way to get there) seems possible and a viable goal.

To get there, the team has to move beyond the habit of perplexing let-downs against weaker opponents..

Agreed we need a goal of .500 in the conference.
Ideally we should be targeting the 7 seed in the ACC tourney (avoids that 1st day of tournament play which is important for rest and avoids #1 Duke). Currently we are #11th.
If we can get healthy for the stretch run, our schedule gives us slightly more favors than before. Its possible considering what we saw last night.

 

[YlJacket]

Terry looked wasted.

Terry played incredibly hard on the defensive end. That will gas you a lot quicker than the offensive side. Even then Clemson made him the focus of their defense making him work really hard just to get the ball much less do anything with it. I have no doubt he hasn't bothered to wake up yet.

 

[YlJacket]

Quite amazing his development since that BC game in early Jan. Going to be real interesting to see how this continues for him.

Nobody's talking about how his FT shooting percentage skyrocketed this game. He was 3-6 from the line, 50%, brought his season percentage from 21% to 29%. We don't win without this!!!!

The funny thing (at least to me) about his horrid FT shooting % is that his stroke on the line is not that bad. He actually looks good shooting the FT from a technical/visual perspective. Kind of stroke that should have a lot higher %

 

[57jacket]

Terry played incredibly hard on the defensive end. That will gas you a lot quicker than the offensive side. Even then Clemson made him the focus of their defense making him work really hard just to get the ball much less do anything with it. I have no doubt he hasn't bothered to wake up yet.

Agree. Good post. He is our best offensive player and they took him out of the game. Kudos to the other 5 for carrying us.

 

[stingray]

Agree. Good post. He is our best offensive player and they took him out of the game. Kudos to the other 5 for carrying us.

I like Terry they were really physical with him.He is 6'0 not 6'3 and got his shot blocked a lot last night around the rim.We will need him to handle the ball more this weekend against UVA because they're gonna trap George a lot.Terry & George have to continue to learn take the open shot when it is available.

 

[Tommy_Taylor_1972]

Agreed we need a goal of .500 in the conference.
Ideally we should be targeting the 7 seed in the ACC tourney (avoids that 1st day of tournament play which is important for rest and avoids #1 Duke). Currently we are #11th.
If we can get healthy for the stretch run, our schedule gives us slightly more favors than before. Its possible considering what we saw last night.

The ACC tournament format changed this year https://www.playoffstatus.com/accbasketball/accbasketballplayoffschedule.html
How many teams make the tournament?

• Fifteenth of the 18 conference teams make the 3-day tournament.

As of today, Tech is at 11, ahead of Syracuse, Notre Dame, Cal, and Virginia. and below the 15 line are NC State (16), Boston College (17), and Miami (18)

 

[orientalnc]

The ACC tournament format changed this year https://www.playoffstatus.com/accbasketball/accbasketballplayoffschedule.html
How many teams make the tournament?

• Fifteenth of the 18 conference teams make the 3-day tournament.

As of today, Tech is at 11, ahead of Syracuse, Notre Dame, Cal, and Virginia. and below the 15 line are NC State (16), Boston College (17), and Miami (18)

Three days???

 

[AUFC]

Agreed we need a goal of .500 in the conference.
Ideally we should be targeting the 7 seed in the ACC tourney (avoids that 1st day of tournament play which is important for rest and avoids #1 Duke). Currently we are #11th.
If we can get healthy for the stretch run, our schedule gives us slightly more favors than before. Its possible considering what we saw last night.

Going to be really tough without McCollum. We are down to 5 players because Mutombo and Sutton really should not be getting power conference minutes. George/Terry/Powell/Ndongo/Souare is a decent ACC 5 but we are really not much better than any of our remaining opponents if you swap any one of those guys out for Mutombo/Sutton.

CDS is really going to have to show his coaching prowess here and scheme strategies for both sides of the ball that allow Mutombo/Sutton to be productive. His play design for Souare's game tying dunk yesterday (which I disagreed with at the time b/c I wanted to end the game win or lose with a 3; glad I was wrong and it all worked out) was evidence that he can create scoring opportunities for guys with lesser skillsets on the offensive end.

 

[YlJacket]

Beyond Soiree/team energy on the offensive boards/Powell comments which I agree with, there are a couple of comments to add to the lovefest this morning

The amount of energy spent overall on defense - especially by Terry - but also Powell picking up Clemson wings 3/4 court and staying in front of them allowing us to play him at the 3 with no defensive disaster is huge. Beyond that throw in the legit rim protection that both Soiree and Ndongo provided without fouling "too much" - right on the border line. To pick up the phrase used by others this was just "want to" more than Clemson.

In the last several games we are seeing the return of Ndongo to the levels of explosion/energy he had last year. He still doesn't have the offensive skill set / ability to shoot that you want but damn he can rim run/operate off the short roll and go get the basketball. Whatever he did during the offseason needs to be banned

Against LV, I was complimenting George for looking for shots but really keeping the ball moving and the offense continuing to flow. We played with only Terry as a legit wing, Clemson went way out of their way to take him out of the game and George changed his approach to really be a score first PG. For this game he had to and Clemson was betting he couldn't do it. He unleashed a little step back jump shot from 12 - 15 feet that I don't recall seeing a lot but was absolutely deadly. You can like Boeheim's commentary or not (I actually did) but his multiple comments that George is an entirely different player from the start of the year are spot on and incredibly complimentary. I didn't think it was possible at the start of the year but I now believe George may gain a real spot in the pantheon of GT PGs. No small feat by any stretch.

At the start of the year CDS kept harping about the need for this team to gel around defense - that that was what this team needed to hang its hat on - and while I wish he had instilled this gritty defense at the start of the year, it sure is fun to watch now. You can see the results of the "hard coaching" he talks about in practice. Not to be Debbie Downer on this morning but that is the one thing I hope CDS really works on - that he not have the same propensity for slow starts that plagued Pastner. Teams can't be continually trying to dig out of deep holes and still go dancing.

But for today just enjoying the win through my sleep deprived morning haze.

 

[YlJacket]

Going to be really tough without McCollum. We are down to 5 players because Mutombo and Sutton really should not be getting power conference minutes. George/Terry/Powell/Ndongo/Souare is a decent ACC 5 but we are really not much better than any of our remaining opponents if you swap any one of those guys out for Mutombo/Sutton.

I loved the comment in the Duke report - one more injury and GT is a threat to make the Final 4.

 

[MISSOURIJACKET]

Three days???

It’s 5 days. March 11-15

 

[AUFC]

One fun stat: we pulled an offensive rebound last night on 44.4% of rebounding opportunities. That is nearly 4 percentage points higher than our previous best of 40.6% in the first game against West Georgia. And the stat gets even crazier: we had 3 offensive rebounds total in the entire first half. We pulled 21 more offensive rebounds in the remaining 35 minutes of game time. That REALLY illuminates how much more we wanted this win than Clemson.

 

[GT33]

I

It’s 5 days. March 11-15

I think what he was trying to says is the ACC Tourney will be 3 days for us, Mar 12-14.

No game on the 11th, win on the 12th and 13th, then lose on the 14th. To do that we’d have to be a 7th thru 9th seed. We probably won’t catch Carolina, but all we have to do is edge out pitt or fake tech plus get another win so the pack of fsu/cal/nd/cuse is staring at our 5 hole.

 

[jbix80]

Terry played incredibly hard on the defensive end. That will gas you a lot quicker than the offensive side. Even then Clemson made him the focus of their defense making him work really hard just to get the ball much less do anything with it. I have no doubt he hasn't bothered to wake up yet.

Agree completely

 

[alagold]

A lot of respect from the Duke Basketball Report.

ACC Roundup - All Hail The Yellow Jackets

What Georgia Tech has done in its last two games is phenomenal.

www.dukebasketballreport.com

I've been watching for 60 yrs.Few games come to mind that were more surprising. Ky in '55?

 

[spdrama]

Going to be really tough without McCollum. We are down to 5 players because Mutombo and Sutton really should not be getting power conference minutes. George/Terry/Powell/Ndongo/Souare is a decent ACC 5 but we are really not much better than any of our remaining opponents if you swap any one of those guys out for Mutombo/Sutton.

CDS is really going to have to show his coaching prowess here and scheme strategies for both sides of the ball that allow Mutombo/Sutton to be productive. His play design for Souare's game tying dunk yesterday (which I disagreed with at the time b/c I wanted to end the game win or lose with a 3; glad I was wrong and it all worked out) was evidence that he can create scoring opportunities for guys with lesser skillsets on the offensive end.

Quite a few CDS detractors around here don’t have enough class to congratulate this team on what is sure to become an iconic win. I don’t consider any of them as a true fan of this team if all they do is call for heads to be chopped off after losses and disappear after great victories as if winning disappoints them.

As a believer, I say CDS has already shown his coaching prowess which does not have to be defended by himself or anyone else. But he ain’t Houdini. If McCollum is out & none of the Boot Three are returning yet, neither Sutton nor Mutombo can be counted on for more than a few minutes and neither fill the ball handler need. Next up is walk-on, Emmer Nichols, who CDS said, in recent presser, he “trusted” and has been ready to turn to if necessary. But Nichols is a wing/SF so winning without Reeves, Mustaph, McCollum & O’Brien against any conference foe, home or away, will be extremely difficult. We need to look toward the remaining conference schedule by taking just one game at a time. Getting ahead of ourselves seeing teams with poor records on our schedule and projecting Tournament seedings might be wishful thinking. But that’s about it. Would bet there is no such “targeting” by any GT players or coaches. Good news about McCollum, Mustaph & Reeves is all I am hoping for right now.

 

[orientalnc]

Quite a few CDS detractors around here don’t have enough class to congratulate this team on what is sure to become an iconic win. I don’t consider any of them as a true fan of this team if all they do is call for heads to be chopped off after losses and disappear after great victories as if winning disappoints them.

As a believer, I say CDS has already shown his coaching prowess which does not have to be defended by himself or anyone else. But he ain’t Houdini. If McCollum is out & none of the Boot Three are returning yet, neither Sutton nor Mutombo can be counted on for more than a few minutes and neither fill the ball handler need. Next up is walk-on, Emmer Nichols, who CDS said, in recent presser, he “trusted” and has been ready to turn to if necessary. But Nichols is a wing/SF so winning without Reeves, Mustaph, McCollum & O’Brien against any conference foe, home or away, will be extremely difficult. We need to look toward the remaining conference schedule by taking just one game at a time. Getting ahead of ourselves seeing teams with poor records on our schedule and projecting Tournament seedings might be wishful thinking. But that’s about it. Would bet there is no such “targeting” by any GT players or coaches. Good news about McCollum, Mustaph & Reeves is all I am hoping for right now.

I understand your point and sympathize with the sentiment. But, I know there are Swarm members that genuinely believe CDS is not the right coach for GT and want to say that to anyone who will listen. I do not think that eliminates them as true fans. They may be wrong, and I agree with you that they are indeed wrong, but their desire for a new coach is just that. Nothing more.

 

[stingray]

I loved the comment in the Duke report - one more injury and GT is a threat to make the Final 4.

I think we should play O'Brien & Mustaf asap if they

Quite a few CDS detractors around here don’t have enough class to congratulate this team on what is sure to become an iconic win. I don’t consider any of them as a true fan of this team if all they do is call for heads to be chopped off after losses and disappear after great victories as if winning disappoints them.

As a believer, I say CDS has already shown his coaching prowess which does not have to be defended by himself or anyone else. But he ain’t Houdini. If McCollum is out & none of the Boot Three are returning yet, neither Sutton nor Mutombo can be counted on for more than a few minutes and neither fill the ball handler need. Next up is walk-on, Emmer Nichols, who CDS said, in recent presser, he “trusted” and has been ready to turn to if necessary. But Nichols is a wing/SF so winning without Reeves, Mustaph, McCollum & O’Brien against any conference foe, home or away, will be extremely difficult. We need to look toward the remaining conference schedule by taking just one game at a time. Getting ahead of ourselves seeing teams with poor records on our schedule and projecting Tournament seedings might be wishful thinking. But that’s about it. Would bet there is no such “targeting” by any GT players or coaches. Good news about McCollum, Mustaph & Reeves is all I am hoping for right now.

I would not waste the medical redshirt on Reeves this late in the season.We do need O'Brien & Mustaf back asap.I wonder why it took over half this season for us look like any semblance of a decent basketball program?

 

[spdrama]

I understand your point and sympathize with the sentiment. But, I know there are Swarm members that genuinely believe CDS is not the right coach for GT and want to say that to anyone who will listen. I do not think that eliminates them as true fans. They may be wrong, and I agree with you that they are indeed wrong, but their desire for a new coach is just that. Nothing more.

I agree with you, but where are they when the team beats Louisville, Clemson away (twice), Duke, North Carolina, Mississippi State or at Wake Forest for their only home loss all season? They don’t have to sing the praises of CDS, but not a peep or a nod to the players. That is a tell to me they are disappointed the team won. Rooting for losses to hasten a CDS departure is not a GT fan in my book.

 

[spdrama]

Reeves is out of boot and shooting baskets. Maybe we get him back for Virginia Saturday. Would be nice.