Ga Tech Clark College exhibition game

[Ramble1885]

I’m starting to have PTSD flashbacks from the Hewitt days when we couldn’t inbound the ball

More recent too… That time we beat Duke under Pastner was way more stressful than it needed to be.

 

[New Old Guy]

Tech wins handily, 91-75, but Clark Atlanta was no pushover. Now on to Georgia Southern, which will likely be a real contest for us.

 

[Hjacket]

Is Gapare hurt? He hasn't played this half.

Yes. Twisted ankle or leg cramp. Warmed up for second half but did not play. Kid looks like the real deal.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

Tech wins handily, 91-75, but Clark Atlanta was no pushover. Now on to Georgia Southern, which will likely be a real contest for us.

Looking forward to in person comments. Too many fouls , three guys fouled out. And Sturdivant with four.

 

[YlJacket]

Box score is a weird look at the game. GT wins all the shooting stats and has 3X assists of Clark. But has 18 turnovers and gives up 20 offensive rebounds. Good win but there’s some things buried in the stats that cause questions

 

[AUFC]

Is Gapare hurt? He hasn't played this half.

Twisted his ankle on a defensive play under the basket but looked okay on the bench afterward. Maybe precautionary more than anything.

In my extremely basketball uneducated opinion:

Bad: Miles Kelly and Deebo Coleman had rough games on the offensive end. Ebe Dowuona is Rodney Howard-level stone hands and a black hole on offense aside from setting screens. Really hope Ndongo can take some of his minutes when he gets healthy.

Good: The new guys were awesome. Wacey Reeves is a fantastic athlete and I was really impressed with Gapare's minutes when he played - I did not expect that. Gapare is really long and will affect some shots on the defensive end. Amaree Abram has great court vision and might be our most important player. 2 of the guys in the bad section we know aren't bad players and just had an off night.

Ugly: Injuries. Ndongo and Claude with casts on their arms. Lance Terry also out but possibly a healthy scratch? Gapare hurt during the game and Abram jammed a finger but it didn't seem to affect him much. We also turned the ball over way, way too much but most were dead ball turnovers.

Other impressions: we shoot a lot of 3s. And they were mostly clean looks (granted it's Clark Atlanta defense). Gonna be really fun in the Thrillerdome sinking 3 of those in a row for some 9-0 runs.

 

[swarmer]

So we are going to Jack a lot of 3s?

57 shots; 35 from deep?

 

[bucknellbison31]

I was really impressed by Wacie and Amaree. Not only because they were our best offensive players (which they were), but because of their attitude/energy. When something went wrong, those two were quick to encourage the team or give a high five. Little things like that are important to see from transfers. I was also really impressed by Sacko — he's much more refined skill-wise than I expected.

I'm not worried about Miles. He seemed very disinterested, which I suppose isn't surprising given the opponent. He'll rise to the occasion when it matters, he always does.

Maybe my biggest takeaway though: If Carter Murphy is playing real minutes for us this year, we're in deep trouble. I'm sure he's a nice kid, but he's not a good enough player for this level.

 

[gte447f]

Clark Atlanta pressed us full court for most of the second half and we did not handle it well most of the time, hence the high turnover numbers. The refs were egregiously one sided for some unknown reason, which explains the ridiculous number of fouls called on us and free throws taken by them.

Abrams and Sturdivant both looked good at point guard. Abrams shot 4-4 from 3. Sturdivant had 11 assists to 2 turnovers. Sturdivant didn’t get much time in the 1st half and looked a little shaky, but he came on strong in the 2nd half and was our best option for breaking their relentless full court press. When he got free of the press he really pushed the tempo and ran some impressive fast breaks, a couple culminating with nice ally oops for dunks.

 

[swarmer]

Clark Atlanta pressed us full court for most of the second half and we did not handle it well most of the time, hence the high turnover numbers. The refs were egregiously one sided for some unknown reason, which explains the ridiculous number of fouls called on us and free throws taken by them.

Abrams and Sturdivant both looked good at point guard. Abrams shot 4-4 from 3. Sturdivant had 11 assists to 2 turnovers. Sturdivant didn’t get much time in the 1st half and looked a little shaky, but he came on strong in the 2nd half and was our best option for breaking their relentless full court press. When he got free of the press he really pushed the tempo and ran some impressive fast breaks, a couple culminating with nice ally oops for dunks.

Somewhat contradictory that we struggled with the press, and had 20 TOs, but out PGs looked good.

 

[bke1984]

I’m starting to have PTSD flashbacks from the Hewitt days when we couldn’t inbound the ball

I swear if we revert to that **** I’m going to lose my mind

 

[bke1984]

The refs were egregiously one sided for some unknown reason, which explains the ridiculous number of fouls called on us and free throws taken by them.

This could easily be our staff telling the refs to call it this way to simulate an ACC contest with Ted Valentine officiating

 

[gte447f]

Somewhat contradictory that we struggled with the press, and had 20 TOs, but out PGs looked good.

Good point. Let me try again. Abrams looked best in the 1st half. He looked good shooting the ball and made 4 out of 4 from 3. I was pleasantly surprised by his stroke and hope it was an indication of more to come.

We did struggle mightily against their full court press in the second half, but to my eye Sturdivant was the bright spot. He did indeed have 11 assists to only 2 turnovers while the team as a whole had 18 or 20 turnovers. Often times we turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. We also were forced to inbound the ball to multiple different players. However, when we were able to get it to Sturdivant he seemed to be best at breaking the press.

 

[OG-T]

A lot players willing to take the shot, and 3 players injured who will likely not be shy - potentially, a lot of firepower.
Crazy that Clark had 15 more shots from the Field, and 20 more FT attempts than Tech.

 

[Steverc]

It may be a long season. CA got it down to 6 points half way through the second half. For a much smaller team, it seemed to be getting a lot of rebounds. It was far more aggressive and was able to draw a lot of fouls. When we broke the press, it often resulted in an easy basket. I don't think the press was a good strategy even though it resulted in a lot of turnovers and a 10 second count. If CA could shoot better, both 3 pointers and free throws, the result would have been different. It is hard to compare this team to last year's team because the players are unrecognizable to me at this point. I was left with a generally uninspired feeling after the game.

 

[gameface]

I was at the game and have several observations. Tech seemed to run more defensive drills and passing drills during warmups than shooting drills which I guess is an emphasis. I was surprised by Kelly's and Deebo's poor shooting. They looked better than their stats to me. They seemed to make timely shoots.

Most of our threes were open shots which is a testament to the system. The refs were allowing a lot of body contact by the CA defense and a lot of hand swiping which I find hard to believe there weren't more fouls.

Dowouna just seemed out of it. He missed his assignment twice in a row on brinngng in the basketball after a made shot and seemed to drop passes and be the victim of hand swipes also.

I think we will go two deep at each position with most players able to play two positions.

Point: Abram looked smoother handling the ball and a better scorer while Kyle was more effective as a distributor; not saying he cannot shoot just that he did not look for the shots.

Two: Miles was doing more ball handling including more driving for the basket. He ran into several hand swipes which I would have liked to see on film. My guess is Terry will also play the two.

SF: I think both Reeves and Deebo will play here and both will be effective as the season progresses. Impressed by Reeves smooth game and driving ability.

Four: Gapare is smooth and can drive and hit the three. Socko also showed some skills. He played the five tonight due to injuries and was very good on defense, though it was against a smaller line up. He blocked a shot and caught the the ball after. After making several dunks his outside shooting showed up also.

Center: My guess is both Ndongo and Claude will play here when they are healthy. Can't see Dowouna getting much minutes unless the first two are injured.

Admittedly my comments are through gold colored glasses but these are my insights.

 

[Home Park Jacket]

The good: Abram can shoot. Sacko can hustle. Gapare has a lot of potential. Reeves can play. Clark cheerleaders were entertaining.
The bad: Deebo and Miles have not improved. I was hoping that Miles had improved to all-ACC but I didn't see it. I just thought we were sloppy.

 

[gte447f]

Speaking of the cheerleaders, since when do we allow the opposing team to bring cheerleaders? I assume this was a one-off courtesy extended to Clark Atlanta because this was a friendly in-town exhibition. Please tell me this won’t be happening for regular games?

 

[orientalnc]

I did not see the game, so take these comments for what they are worth. Not much.

Sloppy was expected last night. Especially going as deep into the roster as we did. It is crazy that we commented so many fouls and turnovers, so that definitedly needs to be addressed. I need to see the team play before commenting about players, but I am not surprised that Reeves and Abram can play.

 

[gameface]

One more comment I have is that Kelly was playing the two most of the night and was trying to penetrate/distribute more than I saw last year.