So… we won. Will it be a turning point or a blip on the radar?

[Root4GT]

Just a random comment. Everyone keeps saying we’re such a young team…but we lose Kelly and Sturdivant next year, who led us in scoring (along with the fresh PG) last night. There will be some shoes that need filling next year. I know we’ve got 2 good recruits coming in, but building from where we’ve been without massive NIL $ will take some time. I expect us to get better next year, but still not sure we’ll be tournament ready then.

No guarantee Kelly leaves. He isn't playing in the NBA next year. He make a good chunk of money from NIL that would be near what he made playing overseas. A lot depends on how he views CDS being able to help his game to become a pro.

 

[stinger78]

Did we finally find our starting 5?

 

[lv20gt]

We are actually very consistent. Here are the margins for our wins and losses.

For clarification, the consistency I'm talking about is in level of play of our team. If our level of play was relatively consistent you'd expect the outcomes/margins to be more sensitive to the change in quality of the opponent as a general trend.

 

[stinger78]

RJ initiated contact and then bounced off. Ebe is allowed to be there. It was a good no call.

This is what I saw, too. They were both moving and RJ made contact first. The TV guy tried to make an issue of our hands not being up, but TV didn’t call it. He must have gotten an in the ear to shut up cause he dropping it pretty quick.

 

[Root4GT]

For clarification, the consistency I'm talking about is in level of play of our team. If our level of play was relatively consistent you'd expect the outcomes/margins to be more sensitive to the change in quality of the opponent as a general trend.

Shockingly we have a different view. Only 4 games decided either way by double digits. Basically we can compete with all teams but looking at the margins of our victories we could have easily lost most of those games. A few times we simply get blown out when we played poorly. We do not blow anyone out.

Often it has come down to how well Kelly shoots and how well we hit FTs which is often a function of who is taking the FTs.

To win we need nearly everyone to have an extremely good game. That lots of guys stepped up last night without Ndongo was a good sign!

 

[GT33]

@jojatk The Pistons don't win the title in '90 (?) without him

 

[57jacket]

After watching the replay, I was impressed with Claude's play. While not a jumper, he is strong, and has good hands, and a soft shot.

 

[Eli]

Just a random comment. Everyone keeps saying we’re such a young team…but we lose Kelly and Sturdivant next year, who led us in scoring (along with the fresh PG) last night. There will be some shoes that need filling next year. I know we’ve got 2 good recruits coming in, but building from where we’ve been without massive NIL $ will take some time. I expect us to get better next year, but still not sure we’ll be tournament ready then.

Kelly has zero shot at playing in the NBA next year. Everyone is enamored by him but he isn’t even one of our 4 best players imo. Baye, George, Reeves, Sturdivent then Kelly. He makes so many costly errors late in games and Damon in a lot of his post games is rightfully frustrated with his performance late in games.

 

[GT33]

After watching the replay, I was impressed with Claude's play. While not a jumper, he is strong, and has good hands, and a soft shot.

The kid just plays hard all the time. Graceful he's not, but damn last night he sure was clutch.

 

[TechPhi97]

What a win that was. Gives us a lot of momentum. But… can we capitalize on it? Y’all remember the Miami win last year and the losing streak that followed.

To answer the original question: it's totally possible. In Paul Hewitt's second season, 2001-2002, we started 0-7 in the ACC. We then went 7-2 to finish the ACC schedule, after having won our first conference game on Jan 30, 2002. This was the freshman year for Elder, McHenry, Luke, Ish and Ed Nelson, and they ended up getting 31% of the starts and 44% of the minutes that year. 72% of minutes were played by guys that were Freshmen or Sophomores. We had Tony Akins running point as a Senior, but other than that it was a bunch of underclassmen. All that to say that it's totally possible for us to turn the season around. I distinctly remember the team looking pretty disjointed until mid-season and then something really came together as they achieved some sort of chemistry. It was after Elder was inserted into the starting lineup that we started seeing more improvement, IMHO.

The team to date has seen freshman start 36.2% of games but only play 29.2% of minutes. HOWEVER, 80% of starts and 65% of minutes have gone to players that are new to the team - Hewitt's teams rarely dealt with transfers like this. Compared to the 2001-2002 team, we have more experience. It may be harder to do with a freshman point guard vs. Tony Akins, but I'm honestly not sure I want to bet against Nait right now - he's average over 14 points per game in the last six games.

Anyway, definitely possible by sort of improbable. I think it will be worth watching!

 

[pittkesh99]

Ever since Georgia Tech joined the ACC, every year we had a winning record against Duke+UNC (2-1 this year), we have both made the ACC title game and the NCAA Tourney (2021, 2010, 1996, 1985)…So never say never!

 

[TechPhi97]

Just a random comment. Everyone keeps saying we’re such a young team…but we lose Kelly and Sturdivant next year, who led us in scoring (along with the fresh PG) last night. There will be some shoes that need filling next year. I know we’ve got 2 good recruits coming in, but building from where we’ve been without massive NIL $ will take some time. I expect us to get better next year, but still not sure we’ll be tournament ready then.

Right now, our Seniors make up 22% of minutes played and 21% of our points. Given the 3 incoming freshman and the return of Terry, it really feels like we will more than make up for the loss of Kelly and Sturdivant (23 points per game). Terry alone could bring 10-12 points per game, and then you can expect Mustaf to be in the 5-8 ppg range. Sutton won't have to contribute that much to replace the remaining production, not to mention improvement from some of our returning players.

 

[lv20gt]

Right now, our Seniors make up 22% of minutes played and 21% of our points. Given the 3 incoming freshman and the return of Terry, it really feels like we will more than make up for the loss of Kelly and Sturdivant (23 points per game). Terry alone could bring 10-12 points per game, and then you can expect Mustaf to be in the 5-8 ppg range. Sutton won't have to contribute that much to replace the remaining production, not to mention improvement from some of our returning players.

If all we lose is Kelly, Kyle, and Claude (or if it's just them and like Abram and Dowuona) then I agree for the most part. Three things to consider though are....

1. In the off season CDS talked about needing Kelly to play at an all american level. He didn't and our offense struggled. While i think we can replace his production, I don't think we can have an offense that needs AA level play from any individual next year. I don't think we need an individual to play at that level for success but we might have to adjust the approach to deal with it.

2. When talking about replacing ppg, you have to keep in mind the minutes played/available. Kyle and Sturdivant average about 23 ppg, in about 51 minutes. If we go by what Terry did last year where he averaged 10.1 points in 29.6 minutes, that would means we'd need about 13 points in about 21.5 minutes to offset. That is a very high bar for any player, let alone a freshman (and if that was being met they need to be playing more). Possible that together Terry+Mustaf/Sutton can give us what Kelly and Sturdy are, but more likely I would expect Terry/the freshmen to give us less, but for it to be made up for by improvements from the returning players, specifically George.

3. Opportunity is often one of the biggest factors in immediate impact. Right now we have opportunity down low, and, if everyone returns, a fairly crowded back court. With George, Reeves, Coleman, and Terry returning, in your scenario, it will be harder for say Mustaf to make a big impact right away than if he were a center (even if he plays a lot it would be at the cost of other production going to the bench). I wouldn't be surprised if Sutton actually make the bigger impact next year if he can play along side Ndongo and give us enough rebounding and defense to along with 3 other guards/wings. Of course, it's also possible that we lose 2 or even 3 of Coleman, Kelly, and Terry could leave, leaving a big opportunity for Mustaf right away.

 

[Peacone36]

Haha blip. Couple fellas get it, others don’t. Well get there eventually. I’d bet money we fall at Louisville after this type of victory.

 

[78pike]

I wish I could say I saw this as indicative of a turnaround at this moment. Let me say I am still excited about our head coach and what I think he brings to Georgia Tech and I do see good things on the horizon. And that game last night was as much of a team win as I've seen in a while where nearly every person wearing a GT uniform contributed something positive to the outcome. Everybody worked! Nobody took possessions off. They made UNC work for every point. Perhaps later in the season we can look back and point to this game as one where it finally clicked in the heads of every player that if they work hard on every possession that they can win games.

This was the first time I've seen this team in person, though I've watched some of the games on TV, and I came away with a few thoughts about our personnel (and many others have said most of these things so there aren't any revelations):

• Nait George has ice water running through his veins. There's no moment too big for him. He has talent and I think he wants to be the leader on the floor. Watching him mature as a player right in front of our eyes at this level is such a pleasure. Crunch time against the #3 team in the country and coach puts the ball in his hands and he delivers. Two possessions in a row to end the game it was pretty clear we wanted the ball in his hands to create something. He missed the shot in the first possession but does that deter him? Does it make him timid? Not even a little bit. Last offensive possession and coach puts the ball right back in his hands and he shows that he learned something from the previous possession and hits the runner off the backboard with his left hand. If you are a GT fan and you're not enjoying Nait George you're not really a GT fan (I'm sure that everyone here IS a GT fan and IS enjoying watching Nait so I'm very much preaching to the choir!!!)
• Miles Kelly is such an enigma. Single-handedly he starts off punching UNC in the face with 7 points in the opening minutes of the game, finishes the first half with 15, and then disappears on the offensive end. I think he only took 4 shots in the second half. That could absolutely be by design so please don't take what I'm saying as being down on Miles. What I'm saying is he CLEARLY has the ability to play good basketball at this level. He's also not a leader on the court and most people aren't so again, that's not a criticism, just a recognition that he's a guy we just need to play to his abilities more consistently in order to win.
• Our bigs, other than Ndongo, are really not very skilled around the offensive basket. If someone can teach Ty in the next few games not to put the ball on the floor every time he gets it in the paint that would be great, though I suspect that as a senior that habit is probably ingrained by now. I say that partially with tongue in cheek because Ty was a HUMONGOUS part of that win last night on both ends of the court. Nine huge points and still came up big on the defensive end with 3 fouls. With Ndongo out he did not shy away from the work. I absolutely agree with Wasp on every word of his description of Gapare. The dude played his tail off and we needed every one of those 6 points. Duwuona's contribution to the game doesn't really show up in any of the stats and he got in a bit of foul trouble but he absolutely made the defensive play of the game at the end switching off the pick to stay right on RJ Davis and make that a VERY tough shot. Did he foul RJ? Meh. The last few possessions the officials seemed to let most of the contact go.
• Last night Kyle Sturdivant reminded me of that guy you sometimes see who is a terrific 6th man and you wonder "why isn't he starting" and then he gets a few starts and you go "oh, that's why he's not starting" and when he comes off the bench again he's terrific again. He's not "instant offense" so I'm not comparing him to The Microwave (OK let's see who is old enough and remembers enough NBA history to get that reference - I suspect there will be quite a few people here who know immediately who I'm talking about). He's not perfect and he's not as sure-handed as you'd like in a ball-handler. But he's another guy that doesn't seem to shy away from having the ball in big moments. He doesn't always deliver and he makes some really frustrating turnovers but when he's shooting well he's so dangerous.

The difference in the game last night was UNCs shooting was terrible. Everywhere. I think on their shots from the floor our defense had something to say about how poorly they shot. But shooting 53% from the FT line? You could not have convinced me prior to the game that we'd be 15-17 and they'd be 9-17 from the stripe. That's how you win and lose games. You take advantage of the mistakes the other team makes. Our guys did exactly that. I really hope our players learned that the only way they will win is by working hard every single time up and down the court.

Vinnie Johnson.

 

[spdrama]

Haha blip. Couple fellas get it, others don’t. Well get there eventually. I’d bet money we fall at Louisville after this type of victory.

Glad I missed that parlay. Minus 9 over Clemson with $ line on Louisville.

 

[684Bee]

What a win that was. Gives us a lot of momentum. But… can we capitalize on it? Y’all remember the Miami win last year and the losing streak that followed.

It’s about finding the best mix of guys at the right times. We beat UNC without Ndongo. It’s interesting what can happen sometimes when you have the right chemistry of guys on the floor.

 

[jojatk]

Vinnie Johnson.

Love that at least you and @GT33 knew who I was talking about

 

[GT33]

Love that at least you and @GT33 knew who I was talking about

Just an old bastard that loves GT sports and when Salley went to the Pistons I became an NBA & Pistons fan.

 

[Root4GT]

Love that at least you and @GT33 knew who I was talking about

You like microwaves