Battle of ATL

[AUFC]

They didn't help themselves with tip off time other than keep GT fans away. Football was over at 6:45, how did they expect anyone would get there by 7?

Damn, they should have started at noon or 8-9 pm.

Worth noting that State had a home kickoff at 1pm also. I’m guessing a good chunk of fans weren’t about the doubleheader and chose the football game over the basketball game. Would have been nice to have held the game on Friday night or a non-home football Saturday.

 

[Connell62]

Smith reminds me a LOT of Jordan Usher when he first transferred here from USC. That is, Usher and Smith have a big advantage with their athleticism and explosiveness. Smith just easily glides by defenders, and he's a really good rebounder for his size. Remember how everyone thought Usher played out of control at times because he was just getting by on his athleticism? Well, Smith is kind of at the same stage...once he puts it together and lets the game come to him he's going to be a really good player. There are some "wow" plays mixed in with some "wtf" plays...the goal is to get him to play consistently with a lot more "wow" plays and very few "wtf" plays.

IMO, Smith will be a MUCH MUCH better player in the second half of this season. There's quite a few guys on the roster we'll say that about.

This is spot on. He’s going to be a good player for us. Excellent rebounder and he can get by his guy almost at will, he just has to finish, and he needs to be a lockdown defender.

I agree with others that I don’t know if having him and Kyle on the court together is the best approach. He’ll be fine, just keep getting better with each game.

 

[Root4GT]

Smith is an excellent rebounder for a guard. For someone his height he is a great rebounder. Hopefully he will begin to better harness his immense physical skills. He is fearless.

 

[Steverc]

Kelly only drives to his right. Teams are going to see that and force him left.

 

[majorQ9]

They didn't help themselves with tip off time other than keep GT fans away. Football was over at 6:45, how did they expect anyone would get there by 7?

Damn, they should have started at noon or 8-9 pm.

Counterpoint: it was safe to leave football once Pyron got hurt

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

Does anybody have any highlights or replay of the game online? I missed part of the second half and want to re-watch it. All I have seen is the final play.

 

[RhoChi]

It feels like for 20 years GT has struggled with short shots, but 5/18 at the rim is oof.

View attachment 13511

Smith seems supremely confident that he can drive against larger players and finish. I am skeptical.

I absolutely loved the huge smile on Jalon Moore’s face after he nailed the two late free throws. Should give him confidence going forward.

With 11:49 left in the game, the lineup of Kelly/Maxwell/Coleman/Moore/Howard saw their first action together for either game. Over the next 6:55 they outscored GSU 14-5, with 0 turnovers. GSU was called for 6 fouls in that stretch, and Tech was called for 2. When Maxwell fouled at that point (4:54 remaining) Pastner substituted Terry for Maxwell, and that lineup finished the game with the scoring 10-10.

Fun game to attend, and will second an earlier comment that the GSU students did a great job.

I will say for the close shots being so low percentage. The tech players love to try putback shots without having good possession of the ball. So most of the time their “shots” end up being more like tips and bumps towards the general area of the rim. Not a lot of quality shots. I wish there was a way to separate the actual shots from the low quality attempts at putback to see the actual percentage when we have an actual shot on the basket.

 

[GT33]

Counterpoint: it was safe to leave football once Pyron got hurt

I don’t leave games until the clock is at 0:00. We were supposed to have a ride standing by on the south side of North Ave to take us from football to basketball so we could make tip-off. Damn hurricane jacked my flight up and I ended up stuck in Florida. Trying to figure out how to watch Bally was interesting as was getting ESPN+ to work. The more technology we get, the more annoying it is. In some respects it was easier back in the day getting an AM radio signal.

 

[alagold]

After thinking about it--winning the game was the big positive.Our SR CTR having a terrible game is the big negative and of real concern.We need a scorer inside and his poor TOs/Asst ratio compounds the weak play.

 

[jbix80]

Did you all see Georgia State blew a 20 point lead to lose on a buzzer beater beyond half court? Missed the front end of a 1 & 1 before the buzzer beater. Tough home loss.

 

[majorQ9]