Article Tech hosts Gardner-Webb Monday night

Tech hosts Gardner-Webb Monday night

Georgia Tech freshman forward Khalid Moore (photo courtesy of ramblinwreck.com)

Finals week has concluded and it is time to get back to business on the court for Coach Pastner’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Coach’s crew will get back into the swing of things on Monday evening against Big South opponent Gardner-Webb.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs out of Boiling Springs, NC come into Monday night’s game with a 7-5 record and winners of 5 in a row. Two of those wins are a against non-D1 opponents, while the other three are against teams that rate 328 or worse in KenPom.

Gardner-Webb is led by sixth year head coach Tim Craft. This is Coach Craft’s first stint as a Division 1 coach and he has compiled a record of 95-83. He was an assistant coach at the program under Rick Scruggs in the early 2000’s as well. He has served as an assistant at Auburn and East Carolina (not ECU). He is the program’s third head coach since they joined D-1 in 2002-03, and he was preceded by current Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann.

Gardner-Webb is led by two dynamic scoring guards, senior David Efianayi and freshman Jose Perez. Efianayi owns over 1,300 career points and is currently on pace to set a career high for triples made in a season. He is averaging 17.2 points per game and shooting 42% from three on the season. In his last three contests however, he is only connecting at a 31% clip. He has scored in double figures every game this season and has had 20 or more five times.

Perez, a 6’5 wing out of the Bronx, is also averaging 17.2 points per game. He has been named the Big South freshman of the week twice and recorded Gardner-Webb’s first triple double in nearly 20 years earlier this season. He had exactly one scholarship offer out of high school that I could find. Over his last five games, Perez is averaging 18.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.8 steals and shooting 53% from behind the arc. Regardless of competition, that is really impressive.

A couple of additional players that should be mentioned are Nate Johnson and DJ Laster. Johnson, a 6’4 RS sophomore guard, is averaging 11.3 points per game. He has kind of burst onto the scene this year. He is shooting 42.6% from three and has an effective field goal percentage of 63% on the season.

Laster, an undersized forward, also averages double figures at 11.6 points per game, he is also good for about 5 rebounds. He is the only player on the roster taller than 6’6 that plays more than 12 minutes per game.

Gardner-Webb is an interesting team. While their numbers have certainly been impacted by the level of competition they have played, they have also played VCU, VPI and Furman. They are currently 291st in the country in tempo (KenPom) while being a top 50 team in points per game at 82.2. They do not have one particular player who dominates on the glass, but they are a very good rebounding team, ranking 23rd in nation in total rebounds.

This game will again give Georgia Tech an opportunity to flex their perimeter defense muscles as the Bulldogs rank 27th in triples made and 29th in the country at 39%

Make no mistake, Craft will have this team ready to play and Georgia Tech has a long history of playing poorly after finals week. During his time in Boiling Springs his program is 1-3 against the ACC. The win was on a neutral court against Clemson in 2014-15.  He also owns a win at Purdue (same season) and a win at Nebraska in 2016. This year they lost to Furman on the road by only two points in overtime.

To make a long story short, this is not a team the Yellow Jackets can afford to take lightly.

 

 

[ramblinjacket]

Feel free

Then we would lose twice. Once for the crappy article I produce and then on the court.

 

[kg01]

almost looked like me and some friends playing at SAC

There were multiple times on offense that 2 games stood basically in the same spot waiting for the guy to pass him the ball. Neither moved. They just threw one of them the ball and whoever didn't catch it just trailed off to a defender.

I mean ...

We don't have Brian Gregory's players anymore. Thats what happened.

Spoiler

 

[kg01]

Then we would lose twice. Once for the crappy article I produce and then on the court.

Trust me, we lost more than twice tonight.

 

[lv20gt]

We don't have Brian Gregory's players anymore. Thats what happened.

We never had many brian gregory players at all. He left us with... Gueye and Ogbonda as our upperclassmen this year.

 

[joehamiltonfan14]

Once again, we’re not even in ACC play and the tourney is a long shot. When will this end?

 

[THWG16]

Sad situation , I really thought we were onto something after the NIT run

 

[tbglover]

Once again, we’re not even in ACC play and the tourney is a long shot. When will this end?

We knew once Okogie decided to stay in the draft that the tournament wasn't likely. Hopefully it ends 2 years from now.
And to think that there were fans who preferred going to the NIT 2 years ago cause it'll get the players more experience

 

[THWG16]

I don’t care who goes pro or what happens GT should never lose to Gardner Webb !!!!!! We should beat them with our reserves

 

[A Love Supreme]

Psh. You mean we don’t have players who know how to lose by less than 7? There is no era that will make me miss the BG era

Yeah I know it wasn't great but Josh Okogie and Ben Lammers were really good. I'm pretty sure we would have won tonight if Okogie or Lammers were playing. But Okogie decided to go to the League. I'm not mad with that. He made the right decision. So far, CJP players haven't been that great. I know it's still early but I'm not feeling very confident. I guess we'll see at the end of the season.

 

[awbuzz]

Sad situation , I really thought we were onto something after the NIT run

And then a cold slap of reality slapped us around.

 

[AUFC]

Aren’t we like 5th in the nation in defensive fg%? What the hell was that?

Didn’t anticipate going 0-3 this week when I woke up this morning.

 

[Peacone36]

Yeah I know it wasn't great but Josh Okogie and Ben Lammers were really good. I'm pretty sure we would have won tonight if Okogie or Lammers were playing. But Okogie decided to go to the League. I'm not mad with that. He made the right decision. So far, CJP players haven't been that great. I know it's still early but I'm not feeling very confident. I guess we'll see at the end of the season.

I argue but it would just be splitting hairs. Regardless of the players under either coach, we don’t dance. What’s the sense of arguing who sucked less

 

[GT_B]

I mean pastner was a lazy hire. They wanted him out of memphis, he didn’t want to stay and deal with the mess there. he’s getting paid really low compared to most P5 coaches I believe. So it’s a trade off, it’s what we could afford at the time.

He’s a good dude, and I wish he could be successful here, but I think his “recruiting reputation” was only built on Memphis bringing in kids from Memphis, which it would do with anyone there. It’s now really showing.

I think his staff now at this point is sub par and it shows with recruiting and X and O standpoint. Going to be 2 rough seasons back to back in the next 2 and don’t know if he last past end of next year.

McCamish is going to be a ghost town permanently soon.

 

[AE 87]

I mean pastner was a lazy hire. They wanted him out of memphis, he didn’t want to stay and deal with the mess there. he’s getting paid really low compared to most P5 coaches I believe. So it’s a trade off, it’s what we could afford at the time.

He’s a good dude, and I wish he could be successful here, but I think his “recruiting reputation” was only built on Memphis bringing in kids from Memphis, which it would do with anyone there. It’s now really showing.

I think his staff now at this point is sub par and it shows with recruiting and X and O standpoint. Going to be 2 rough seasons back to back in the next 2 and don’t know if he last past end of next year.

McCamish is going to be a ghost town permanently soon.

It's not fair to say he was a lazy hire. I suspect MBob worked his azz off to get turned down by 10 guys before we accepted the check from Memphis.

Seriously, though, I still wonder about the off-season assistant hires. One guy was never an assistant before and the other guy didn't come from even a tournament mid-major.

When we're not recruiting class loads of ACC talent, we need top notch coaching. I suspect TStan was saving money for the CPJ replacement staff.

 

[YlJacket]

I actually expect TStan was acting more like a CEO and letting CJP hire who he wanted rather than Bobolink who pretty much hired the staff for him

 

[Ramblingon]

Imagine this game with Banks not eligible.

 

[ESPNjacket]

It seemed like they got every loose ball. This team has to play hard at all times to be competitive. The coaches need to figure out how to fix that.

I don't understand Alston getting 36 minutes. He was at a distinct talent disadvantage in this game. In ACC play he looks like he is tied to the floor.

 

[senoiajacket]

Out hustled, out shot, out coached, out played. Embarrassed on our own court. I am not even sure that we had better athletes.

Banks was awful on defense and the only reason he had success on offense was that he was 3” taller than anyone else on the floor.

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

Just got back from the game a little while ago.

McCamish is a really nice place to watch a basketball game. The GT on the court doesn't look bad in person. Crowd was sparse as expected.

Really stinks that this is my one chance to go to a game...and GT played like crap. I think that was perhaps the worst defensive game in the Pastner Era. Really sloppy, really lacking energy. Haywood bailed us out with some good shooting, and then we blew it at the end of the first half with more bad defense. We put ourselves in a hole, and then couldn't make a big shot when we needed it.

It is becoming painfully clear that this team is mostly made up of role-players. Nobody seems to want to step up and be "the guy." Alvarado has the potential, I think, but he just doesn't take over. Haywood could, too, but can be very passive and did not score one more point after his 4 3s in the first half. He disappeared. Banks played well on offense, cleaning up like he should have, but his defense left a lot to be desired. Their big guy played a heck of a game and really out-played Banks. Gueye can't seem to get in a rhythm, nor Cole or Phillips. Its a shame--they are all talented. Wright is easily the most frustrating player on the court. Oh, man, he frustrates me. Dribbling on the perimeter, taking bad shots, leaving his man on defense, not playing aggressive...I just can't watch when he is out there. Alston....plays hard. His shot was off tonight, as was Devoes.

I know people don't want to hear this, but a lot of credit should go to Gardner-Webb. They played with energy, passed well, and shot well. They wanted it more and executed when they needed to.

This was a really disappointing loss and perhaps my expectations were too high for this team. I am hoping that this is just a result of the long break, and I hope that this might light a fire under this team....but like many of us, I fear we are in for another mediocre to bad year. Prove me wrong, Coach Pastner. Prove me wrong, Jackets.

 

[jeffgt14]

Heh sounds like we played exactly how we have looked all season only this time the other team didn't play like trash and now we're finally mad? I've seen bottom third mid major schools with players that look like they have more offensive skill set than we do.

I didn't watch but I probably should have. I'm sure I would've been more entertained than watching the Panthers hand another team a win for the 6th time in a row. Sports suck.