March 13, 2003
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech, which has the No. 5 seed, will face No. 4 seed NC State in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at approximately 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.
Tech, 14-13 overall and 7-9 in conference play enters its 24th ACC Tournament on a two-game winning streak, having defeated Virginia, 90-73, on the road Mar. 5 and Clemson, 66-56, at home last Saturday to complete the regular season.
Tech’s victory over Clemson Saturday clinched the No. 5 seed in the tournament and guaranteed the Yellow Jackets of at least a .500 record pending any post-season invitation. The Jackets outright fifth-place finish in the conference is their best in three years under head coach Paul Hewitt, having finished in a tie for fifth in 2001 and 2002.
The winner of the Tech-NC State game advances to a 1:30 p.m. semi-final game Saturday against either No. 1 seed Wake Forest, No. 8 Clemson or No. 9 Florida State. The Wolfpack enters the game with a 16-11 overall record and a 9-7 league mark.
Clemson and Florida State open the conference tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday n ight. The winner advances to face Wake Forest at 12 noon Friday. The other half of the bracket has No. 2 Maryland facing No. 7 North Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday, and No. 3 Duke meets No. 6 Virginia at approximately 9:30 p.m. The winners of those two games meet in a 4 p.m. semi-final Saturday. The championship game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
All games Friday and Saturday will be televised over the Raycom/JP Sports ACC Network (WATL, Ch. 36 in Atlanta) throughout the ACC region, and either ESPN or ESPN2 outside the ACC area. Radio coverage of all tournament games can be heard in the Atlanta area on WQXI-AM (790).
Georgia Tech’s starting lineup includes 6-3 freshman Jarrett Jack at the point, 6-4 junior Marvin Lewis and 6-4 sophomore B.J. Elder on the wings, and 7-1 sophomore Luke Schenscher and 6-10 freshman Chris Bosh in the frontcourt. Bosh and Jack are the only Tech players to start every game this season.
This lineup has started the last two games against Virginia and Clemson and 12 games altogether this season, and Tech is 8-4 in those games. Ed Nelson, Tech’s 6-8 sophomore forward, started the seven games prior to that in place of Schenscher, but has played well in a reserve role in the last two games (8.0 ppg, 6.5 ppg).
Tech has three players ranked among the ACCs top 16 in scoring, led by Bosh, a second-team all-ACC performer, who ranks eighth in the ACC in scoring at 15.4 points per game, leads the ACC in field goal percentage (56.4) and blocked shots (2.11 per game) and is second in rebounding (8.9). Bosh, who has 11 double-doubles this season, averaged 16.5 points and was 12-of-19 from the floor in Techs last two games.
Elder and Lewis form one of the leagues top three-point shooting tandems. Elder, who scored 20 points Saturday against Clemson, ranks ninth in the conference at 15.2 points a game overall, seventh in overall field goal percentage at 46.3 percent, and sixth in the league in three-point percentage (39.3). Lewis, who scored 19 against Virginia, ranks 16th in the ACC overall at 12.6 points per game and is seventh in three-point percentage (38.4).
Jack, Tech’s fourth-leading scorer at 9.7 points along with 5.9 assists (fourth in the ACC), has given the Jackets another scoring threat of late, averaging 12.9 points over his last 11 games and 11.4 against the league. He scored a career-best 21 Mar. 5 at Virginia. Schenscher averages 4.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game, while hitting 47.6 percent of his shots.
Nelson, the ACCs seventh-leading rebounder at 7.0 per game along with 8.4 points a game, has averaged 13.0 points and 7.3 rebounds in Techs last four games. Tech also gets reserve help from Ismail Muhammad, a 6-6 sophomore forward averaging 5.5 points and 3.7 rebounds, and Anthony McHenry, a 6-7 sophomore averaging 1.9 points and 1.5 rebounds, both of whom provide excellent defense on the wing.
Theodis Tarver (1.9 ppg, 1.6 rpg), a 6-9 freshman, and Robert Brooks (0.8 ppg, 1.1 rpg), a 6-8 junior, have given the Jackets a lift in the last week with key minutes off the bench in the post, while Jim Nystr?m, a 6-4 freshman from Sweden, has averaged 1.2 points in limited play as a backcourt reserve.
TECH IN THE ACC TOURNAMENT
oGeorgia Tech carries a 16-20 all-time record into this ACC Tournament, but has lost in the first round five of six years since 1996. Tech is 4-9 in ACC Tournament games played in Greensboro, N.C.
oTech is 1-2 in tournament games under Paul Hewitt. The Yellow Jackets lost in the first round of last years tournament in Charlotte, 92-83, to Wake Forest, but advanced to the semi-finals at the Georgia Dome in 2001, Paul Hewitts first season at Tech.
oTech is the No. 5 seed for the fifth time, and has a 1-5 tournament record from that position. The lone win came in 2001 over Virginia at the Georgia Dome.
oTech’s 4-9 record in Greensboro is boosted by two runner-up finishes. The Yellow Jackets advanced to the finals of both the 1986 and 1996 tournaments, losing 68-67 to Duke in 1986 and 75-74 to Wake Forest in 1996. Tech has lost in the first round in each of the other seven tournaments in Greensboro in which it has played.
oTech has won three ACC Tournament titles, in 1985 in Atlanta, 1990 in Charlotte, and 1993 in Charlotte, all under head coach Bobby Cremins.
oTech has an 8-13 record in quarterfinal games, 5-3 in semi-final games and 3-2 in championship games.
BOSH, ELDER EARN ALL-ACC HONORS
Georgia Tech freshman Chris Bosh has been named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference second team, and sophomore B.J. Elder was named to the third team, announced by the Associated Press on Monday. It is the first time since 1996 that Tech has had more than one honoree.
Bosh, a 6-10 forward from Lancaster, Texas, is the only freshman player named to this years first and second team. He leads Tech and ranks eighth in the ACC in scoring at 15.4 points per game. He leads the ACC in field goal percentage (56.4) and blocked shots (2.11 per game), and ranks second in rebounding (8.9 per game). A McDonalds All-America as a high school senior last year, Bosh also has been named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team and All-Rookie team.
Elder, an ACC All-Freshman choice a year ago, has averaged 15.2 points a game while ranking seventh in the conference in field goal percentage (46.2). The 6-4 guard is sixth in three-point percentage (.393) and ninth in three-point field goals per game.
TECH SERIES VS. NC STATE
oNC State leads the overall series, 42-31, having won 10 of the last 14 meetings between the two teams. Prior to that, Tech had won seven in a row.
oGeorgia Tech and NC State have split their regular-season meetings each of the past four years, each team winning at home. The trend continued this year when Tech won, 85-61, in Atlanta on Jan. 11, and the Wolfpack took a 63-57 decision in Raleigh on Feb. 12.
oTech and NC State are 2-2 in ACC Tournament games, the last meeting occurring in 1997 in a 60-46 Wolfpack victory in Greensboro. The Jackets won first-round games in 1996 in Greensboro (88-73) and 1990 in Charlotte (76-67).
oThe last six meetings between the two teams have been decided by an average of 14 points. The six meetings before that were decided by an average of 4.2 points.
oTech’s 85 points vs. NC State on Jan. 11 were the most the Jackets have scored against the Wolfpack since the 1995-96 season. Dating back to the 1996-97 season (the last 13 games of the series before Jan. 11), Tech had averaged just 59.9 points a game against the Wolfpack.
oJan. 11, 2003: Tech registered the first of its three 20-point conference wins this season with an 85-61 decision on Jan. 11 in Atlanta. B.J. Elder led five Tech players in double digits with 24 points, and Tech shot 57.7 percent from the floor, a three-year high. Marvin Lewis scored 15 points, followed by Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack and Ed Nelson with 11 each. The Wolfpack shot just 40 percent from the floor, and Elder helped hold NC State sophomore Julius Hodge to just nine points.
oFeb. 12, 2003: Levi Watkins scored 18 points off the bench to lead NC State, and the Wolfpack held off a second-half Tech rally to win 63-57. Tech again did a good defensive job on Statelr Jack, Techs fourth-leadins leading scorer Julius Hodge (1-7 FG, 9 points), but it was Hodge who made the games key basket with 1:15 left on a drive in the lane to give his team a 61-57 lead, forcing Tech to foul the Wolfpack during the games final minute. Chris Bosh led Tech with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Techs 57 points were a season low and just four more than it 53 in the second half of the Jan. 11 meeting in Atlanta.
TECH REVERSES OFFENSIVE WOES
Georgia Tech’s biggest problem over its five-game losing streak late this season was scoring. The Yellow Jackets averaged just 62.4 points per game over the stretch, nearly 12 points under their seasonal average, and shot 40.3 percent from the floor and 32.0 percent from three-point range.
Tech did a much better job of getting the ball inside in its last three games, however, and the result was a 50-percent shooting mark against North Carolina and 54.7 percent against Virginia. It is the first time Tech has shot 50 percent in consecutive games since late in the 2000-01 season (vs. Wake Forest and NC State). Tech’s 90 points at Virginia matched its best for a conference game this year and was its highest score in an ACC road game since Jan. 24, 2001 at Clemson.
Tech scored 118 of its 222 points in the three games in the paint, including 52 against the Cavaliers (best since Techs season opener), and got 27 points from the bench against the Tar Heels, the best effort for the Jackets reserves since Dec. 1. The Jackets averaged 11.9 points from its bench in those three games.
GOING FOR 500
If Georgia Tech makes a three-point basket in its first-round ACC Tournament game against NC State, it will be the 500th consecutive game in which the Yellow Jackets have connected from behind the arc.
Tech owns the fourth-longest active streak in the nation for consecutive games with at least one three-point field goal, a streak which has reached 499 games. The last team to hold the Jackets without a three-point field goal was Virginia in the 1987 ACC Tournament. Tech had a close call Wednesday night against Duke, playing the first 32 minutes without one and making just two three-pointers in the game. UNLV, Vanderbilt and Princeton are the only schools to have at least one three-pointer in every game since the shot was instituted for all Division I for the 1986-87 season.
