2018-2019 GT hoops schedule

mstranahan

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OOC: No excuse for us to lose to Lamar, ECU, UT-RGV, FAMU, Prairie View, Gardner Webb, Kennesaw or SC-Upstate. Plus we have one pay-for-pummel to add still. I know we have lost to some of these (or similar) in the past, but that is inexcusable. That should mean 9 wins in the bag. Remaining four games (Tennessee, St John's, Northwestern & UGA) will be tough and will hinge on how much we miss Josh & Ben vs how much the youngsters have grown in the offseason. My gut tells me we go 10-3 OOC

ACC Road: Extremely tough set of games this season (Clemson, FSU, Notre Dame, VPI, Duke, Miami, NCSU, Syracuse, UVA). I think it's possible we steal one or two, but more likely we go 0-for-the road

ACC Home: More favorable schedule than the road. I break them down into three groups. Should win (BC, Wake, Pitt) Very likely loss (UNC, Clemson, Notre Dame, VPI) and Tossup / Winnable (FSU & Louisville). My best guess is 4-5 or 5-4 in at home

Adding it up, I think we go 14-14 or 15-13 and likely miss NIT
 
MikeJackets1967

MikeJackets1967

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orientalnc said:
I wish that strength Koolaid was available here in NC. It is hard for me to focus on the things that might have to happen for us to be 9-9 in the ACC this season. I am not sure who we can beat on the road. Maybe we can steal one game, but I would not surprised if we lost all nine. At home, we are almost certain to lose to UNC, VT, ND, FSU, Duke, and maybe Miami.

We might have a shot at 11-1 in the OOC schedule, but that will mean we have to beat all three teams that are very similar to us in "on paper" strength (Northwestern, St John's, and uga), then not screw up against any of the rest. And we have shown the ability to lose some of those games.

Putting the poor quality NC Koolaid back in the fridge, I predict we will win 5-6 games in the ACC and 8-9 games OOC. I will be happy if I am wrong (I hope) and would love to hear some logical arguments against my prediction.
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I always have my Georgia Tech Gold and White glasses on;):cool:
 

YlJacket

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Too many questions and unknowns at this point to have any idea what the results will be.
Alvarado and Haywood should be recovered from injury but still need to see it.
What systems are we going to run on both O and D given that our offensive playmaker (JO) and defensive playmaker (Lammers) are both gone.
Who is actually going to play - did Cole or Wright rise to the top or get minutes by them simply having to go to someone?
Will DeVoe be able to come in and play as an ACC starter as a freshman? We have been unbelievably lucky with that over the last couple of years.
Can AD stay on the court for more than 20 min?

We have more raw talent this year than past years but it is young and unproven. We need both projects and newcomers to play well. Way too many questions to have any real opinion. But hopefully this is the last transition year for CJPs program. He needs to answer these questions and transition to the get old stay old model.
 
AE 87

AE 87

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When I look at our roster, it seems to me that we're going to be looking for AD, Ves, Cole, and Wright to cover the 4 and 5 in some combination. I think Alvardo, Devoe, and Haywood will be our primary 1-3 with Alston and Philips supporting 1 and 2 and Cole and Wright supporting 3.

I don't think that's a horrible line-up. We saw all of these guys but Devoe and Philips having some success even against ACC foes last year. If game-planning/prep from two years ago wasn't more Hardy and @Jumpman than we hope, I wouldn't be surprised if we do better than expected in ACC play this year.
 
orientalnc

orientalnc

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Reality check (probability of positive impact over last season):

AD scored 2 or fewer points in eleven games last year. He had four or more fouls in ten ACC games. On the up side, when he wasn't a non-factor he played pretty well. He scored double figures in six ACC games. (50%)

Jose had a couple of stinky games in ACC play last year, but he should be our go to guy if he has fully recovered from the elbow injury. (90%)

CGB was playing well until his injury. When he tried to come back after the injury, it did not go as well. Assuming he is recovered, he should be a key player for us. (80%)

Cole and Wright are still very unproven. Maybe they will make the next step up, but that is something we will have to see. (40% for both)

Alston can be an important player for us if he can be more consistent. He's a better shooter than given credit for, but often seems reluctant to pull the trigger. (60%)

Phillips could be a surprise for us. He's as good a shooter as JO and plays with a lot of energy. (80%)

Ves is a huge mystery. Is he healthy? Is he sufficiently capable if healthy? Neither question has an answer that makes me feel optimistic. (20%)

Moore, Devoe, and Sjolund cannot possibly make up for the loss of our three starters, so there is no use in attempting a probability. It's zero.

We should be OK at 1-3, but I do not see how 4-5 get filled with quality players. That will be our true test this year. We lost too much that will be almost impossible to make up. And, we came up short a lot last year with those three guys leading our team.
 

lv20gt

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So when it comes to Okogie and Jackson we can't really replace them, but we are effectively gaining Devoe, Phillips, Alvarado, and Haywood when you also factor in injuries. IMO we won't have as much potential for one guy carrying us on his back, but we'll have more consistency, better ball handling, and better 3 point shooting. When you also factor in Moore, we have a good bit more depth as well. What really stings is that no matter what there will always have been the alternative of having the same group plus Okogie coming back.

Losing Ben hurts, but there are two things. The first is that he wasn't fully 100% last year, and while he still made an impact, especially on defense, it won't be as hard to replace what we actually got from him last year vs what his potential was if fully healthy. The second thing is that we saw last year that he didn't really mesh that well with Gueye. We tried letting Ben do his thing and AD float around and it didn't work. Ben got his, but Gueye was a non factor. Then we went to AD doing his thing down low and his production increased, but Ben's decreased. All in all both cases were similar results in total. So instead of just looking at is as lsong Ben, look at it as losing the 80% Ben we had last year while playing those games with AD in the post. In that perspective it's a lot easier to be more optimistic about replacing him on that end. The downside to that is that we can't rely on Gueye to play 35 min a game like we could with Ben. Defensively it's going to be a tough pill to swallow not having him back there, but I think between Gueye and Wright we'll still have some pretty good rim protection in there. Gueye actually blocked shots at a similar rate as Lammers last year, and I think Moses really has a chance to develop on that end.


If we go something like

Jose/Phillips
Devoe/Phillips/Alston
Haywood/More/Sjolund
Wright/Cole
Gueye/Wright

I think we could have a pretty competitive team. It's going to look a lot different, and that's hard to project how it will turn out. We may very well see a more uptempo style to take advantage of a big increase in ball handling plus the rim running ability of Gueye and Wright, and looking to get early looks from 3 from Haywood and Devoe. Sometimes you can't replace a guy through talent but you can compensate for his loss through change in scheme. That's my hope at least.
 
orientalnc

orientalnc

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lv20gt said:
So when it comes to Okogie and Jackson we can't really replace them, but we are effectively gaining Devoe, Phillips, Alvarado, and Haywood when you also factor in injuries. IMO we won't have as much potential for one guy carrying us on his back, but we'll have more consistency, better ball handling, and better 3 point shooting. When you also factor in Moore, we have a good bit more depth as well. What really stings is that no matter what there will always have been the alternative of having the same group plus Okogie coming back.

Losing Ben hurts, but there are two things. The first is that he wasn't fully 100% last year, and while he still made an impact, especially on defense, it won't be as hard to replace what we actually got from him last year vs what his potential was if fully healthy. The second thing is that we saw last year that he didn't really mesh that well with Gueye. We tried letting Ben do his thing and AD float around and it didn't work. Ben got his, but Gueye was a non factor. Then we went to AD doing his thing down low and his production increased, but Ben's decreased. All in all both cases were similar results in total. So instead of just looking at is as lsong Ben, look at it as losing the 80% Ben we had last year while playing those games with AD in the post. In that perspective it's a lot easier to be more optimistic about replacing him on that end. The downside to that is that we can't rely on Gueye to play 35 min a game like we could with Ben. Defensively it's going to be a tough pill to swallow not having him back there, but I think between Gueye and Wright we'll still have some pretty good rim protection in there. Gueye actually blocked shots at a similar rate as Lammers last year, and I think Moses really has a chance to develop on that end.


If we go something like

Jose/Phillips
Devoe/Phillips/Alston
Haywood/More/Sjolund
Wright/Cole
Gueye/Wright

I think we could have a pretty competitive team. It's going to look a lot different, and that's hard to project how it will turn out. We may very well see a more uptempo style to take advantage of a big increase in ball handling plus the rim running ability of Gueye and Wright, and looking to get early looks from 3 from Haywood and Devoe. Sometimes you can't replace a guy through talent but you can compensate for his loss through change in scheme. That's my hope at least.
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I basically agree with you. While replacing Jackson and JO will be impossible as individual players, we should be able to play three guys at the 1-3 spots who can play ACC level basketball. Maybe not all the time, but at least not be an embarrassment. AD and Wright (or Cole) are loaded with so many question marks versus Lammers and whichever teammate was at the 4. What makes me worry even more is that Wright and Cole play more like a 3 than a 4, thereby leaving poor AD as the only guy who sees his role primarily has an inside banger. And AD's body and tendencies do not bode well for banging. If Wright has to slide inside in a smallball lineup I wonder where our inside play will come from.

I wish Banks would apply for a waiver. It would make everything so much simpler if he were eligible.
 

lv20gt

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orientalnc said:
What makes me worry even more is that Wright and Cole play more like a 3 than a 4, thereby leaving poor AD as the only guy who sees his role primarily has an inside banger. And AD's body and tendencies do not bode well for banging. If Wright has to slide inside in a smallball lineup I wonder where our inside play will come from.
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Offensively I agree with you. Defensively I think Wright plays well inside. He held his own against Duke's bigs. With a year of extra bulk on him, it actually wouldn't surprise me if he defended the 5 letting AD use his length to disrupt passing lanes like he did last year and hopefully keeping him out of foul trouble. Offensively we will have to be a primarily outside shooting and driving team though.
 

MiracleWhips

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lv20gt said:
Offensively I agree with you. Defensively I think Wright plays well inside. He held his own against Duke's bigs. With a year of extra bulk on him, it actually wouldn't surprise me if he defended the 5 letting AD use his length to disrupt passing lanes like he did last year and hopefully keeping him out of foul trouble. Offensively we will have to be a primarily outside shooting and driving team though.
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Wright had 13 blocks last year, I think he will be a serviceable rim protector with that 7' 2" wingspan.
 

MiracleWhips

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orientalnc said:
I basically agree with you. While replacing Jackson and JO will be impossible as individual players, we should be able to play three guys at the 1-3 spots who can play ACC level basketball. Maybe not all the time, but at least not be an embarrassment. AD and Wright (or Cole) are loaded with so many question marks versus Lammers and whichever teammate was at the 4. What makes me worry even more is that Wright and Cole play more like a 3 than a 4, thereby leaving poor AD as the only guy who sees his role primarily has an inside banger. And AD's body and tendencies do not bode well for banging. If Wright has to slide inside in a smallball lineup I wonder where our inside play will come from.

I wish Banks would apply for a waiver. It would make everything so much simpler if he were eligible.
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I agree with you but I feel like if we went small we should be able to run a 5 out offense and actually be able to utilize the athleticism that we have on our roster. One on one off the dribble and cuts!
 
joehamiltonfan14

joehamiltonfan14

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Methinks we have wayyy overscheduled for this year. Arkansas, Tennessee, St John’s, Georgia, and Norhwestern in addition to a tough ACC gauntlet.
 
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