Feb. 10, 2018
Complete Game Notes | Coach Pastner audio from Friday
Radio Broadcast: Georgia Tech IMG Radio Network (680 AM/93.7 FM) | Satellite Radio: Sirius 81, XM 81, Internet 81 | TV Broadcast: ESPN | Watch online
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech looks to shake off two straight road losses when it returns home for a nationally televised game against No. 9/8 Duke at 6 p.m. Sunday evening at McCamish Pavilion. It is the only scheduled meeting between the two teams during the regular season.
The Yellow Jackets (11-13, 4-7 ACC) have lost their last two games, 80-72 in overtime at Boston College last Sunday and 77-54 at Louisville Thursday night. Tech is 10-5 at home this season, including ACC wins over No. 15 Miami, No. 25 Notre Dame and Syracuse.
The Blue Devils (19-5, 7-4 ACC) have lost three of their last four games, including a pair of road losses in the last week to St. John’s (81-77) and North Carolina (82-78) following an 88-66 victory over Notre Dame at home.
Sunday’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN and streamed live on the ESPN app. Radio coverage is provided by the Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network and can be heard in Atlanta on flagship station 680 the Fan (680 AM/93.7 FM). The game can also be heard nationally on SiriusXM satellite radio (Sirius ch. 81, XM ch. 81, Internet ch. 81).
THE STARTING LINEUP
• Beginning with last Sunday’s game at Boston College, Georgia Tech is playing five of seven games on the road. Following Sunday night’s game against Duke, the Yellow Jackets travel to Wake Forest Wednesday, and after a home game against Virginia Tech next Saturday, visit No. 2 Virginia on Feb. 21 and No. 16 Clemson on Feb. 24. Tech then finishes the regular season at home against NC State and Wake Forest.
• Head coach Josh Pastner needs one win to reach 200 for his head coaching career. In nine-plus seasons, Pastner has a record of 199-102.
• Sophomore guard Josh Okogie has more career points (891) at this point in his sophomore season than any Tech player since Matt Harpring, who finished his sophomore year with 1,021 (1994-96). Harpring finished his career No. 2 on Tech’s all-time list with 2,225 points. Four players in Tech history have reached 1,000 career points during their sophomore seasons.
• In eight games against top-25 opponents Georgia Tech has hosted at McCamish Pavilion, Okogie has averaged 20.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. He has shot 49 percent (50-of-102) from the floor, 38.1 percent (8-of-21) from three-point range and 79.4 percent (58-of-73) from the free throw line.
• Tech has a chance to have three 1,000-point scorers on its roster by the end of the regular season. Tadric Jackson already has passed the threshold (1,015), while Ben Lammers sits at 952 and Josh Okogie has 891 and is averaging 18.4 points a contest.
• Center Ben Lammers ranks 31st nationally according to KenPom in percentage of available minutes played (90.5), and No. 1 among centers. Point guard Jose Alvarado ranks 45th overall (89.3) and fifth among freshmen nationally.
• Alvarado has not come out of the game once in Tech’s last four games against Clemson, Syracuse, Boston College (45 minutes/OT) and Louisville.
• Five Atlantic Coast Conference teams are currently ranked in the Associated Press and coaches polls – Virginia (2/2), Duke (9/8), Clemson (16/15), North Carolina (21/22), and Miami (25/25), while Florida State, Louisville and NC State are receiving votes. The Jackets have already faced UCLA (No. 21 in preseason) and Northwestern (No. 20 in preseason), as well as Tennessee (now No. 15/14).
SERIES VS. DUKE
• Georgia Tech and Duke have met only once each of the past three seasons, including a 110-57 win over the Jackets last January in Durham, in which Tech surrendered an all-time series high in points and margin of defeat.
• Duke has won 34 of the last 37 games in the series, including the last 10 in a row.
• The Blue Devils won 11 of the last 13 meetings at Alexander Memorial Coliseum and posted a 21-13 lead over Tech in games played on the Jackets’ former home court, as well as a 27-15 mark in games played in Atlanta. Duke has won on both of its visits to McCamish Pavilion.
• Duke leads the overall series 71-23, and is 59-19 against Tech since the Jackets joined the ACC.
• Tech’s best stretch of the series occurred between 1982 and 1989, with 10 wins in 17 meetings. Tech has never won more than two in a row.
• Tech is 19-57 against Duke teams coached by Mike Krzyzewski, 12-21 in games played in Atlanta.
• Tech is 3-7 against the Blue Devils in ACC Tournament encounters. Tech defeated Duke on the way to each of its three tournament titles, including semifinal victories in 1985 and 1990 and a first-round triumph in 1993. The Blue Devils have defeated Tech three times in championship games (1986, 2005, 2010).
TEAM NOTES
• Head coach Josh Pastner‘s Georgia Tech teams are 5-7 against top-25 teams (5-3 at home), including a 2-4 mark this season (2-2 at home).
• In the last two seasons (since head coach Josh Pastner arrived), no team has more wins at home over AP Top 15 teams as an unranked opponent than Georgia Tech (Tech and Colorado with four each, Syracuse with three).
• Georgia Tech has started the same lineup for the past 12 games, with Abdoulaye Gueye playing the “4” position. The Yellow Jackets have used six different starting lineups this season.
• Tech has had its full roster to practice only for seven games this season. Injuries or other absences have forced Tech players to miss 40 games cumulatively this season. Tech does not have its full rotation for the rest of the season with freshman Curtis Haywood II sidelined for the remainder of the season with a stress reaction in his right leg.
• Jose Alvarado and Ben Lammers have started every game this season. Lammers has started Tech’s last 61 consecutive games.
• Tech’s playing rotation this season features four freshmen and a first-year graduate transfer who have combined to start 54 games and log 44 percent of the Yellow Jackets’ total minutes.
• Tech committed a season-high 20 turnovers at Louisville, eclipsing the 19 the Jackets recorded against Bethune-Cookman in the second game of the season. Louisville’s 15 steals also were a high against the Jackets this season.
• Tech hit 7-of-13 three-point field goals at Louisville, matching its best effort, percentage-wise, of the season (7-for-13 against Yale on Jan. 6). The Jackets have made more threes in only one game (10 vs. Grambling State).
• Tech outrebounded Louisville, 36-32, just the fourth time in ACC play the Jackets have been on the plus side on the boards. Tech got 10 offensive rebounds but was able to convert them only into six points. The Cardinals had just five offensive boards but got baskets on four of them.
• Tech surrendered a season-high 12 three-point field goals on 20 attempts (60 percent also a season high against the Jackets). Tech led the ACC in three-point defense through its first seven conference games (27.6 pct.), but has allowed 46.3 percent (38-for-82) in its last four games.
• Tech has given up double-digits in three-point field goals six times and lost four of those games this season.
PLAYER NOTES
• Josh Okogie has scored in double figures in his last six games (19.5 ppg) after having a 25-game streak of double-digit games snapped against Virginia (nine points). The sophomore guard has scored in double figures 47 times in 53 career games. He has scored 30 or more three times (two vs. ACC), 20 or more 16 times (nine times in an ACC game).
• Okogie posted his second double-double of the season against Louisville (25 points, 10 rebounds) and the fifth of his career. He is averaging 7.3 rebounds per game in ACC play, third best among league guards, and 6.5 for the season. Okogie has snared 52 rebounds in his last six games (8.6).
• Okogie has 29 assists in his last nine games, a 3.2 average, and has matched his career high of five twice (second meeting vs. Notre Dame and at Florida State) in that stretch.
• Despite missing eight games, Okogie leads the Jackets in free throw attempts with 108, an average of 6.8 per game that leads the ACC. He averaged 6.5 as a freshman, which ranked third in the ACC.
• Ben Lammers surpassed 700 career rebounds against Syracuse and now has 722, moving into 13th place on Georgia Tech’s all-time list with four boards at Louisville. He needs 18 to catch Jim Wood (740 from 1974-77) for 12th place.
• Lammers blocked no shots at Louisville, just the second time this season and the fifth time since the beginning of last season he did not block a shot. The 6-10 senior has 239 blocks, good for sole possession of fourth place in Tech history and needing four to catch John Salley (243 from 1982-86) for third place.
• Lammers also is drifting ever closer to 1,000 points for his career. With 952 career points, and needs five games at his current 11.3 per game rate to reach 1,000.
• Jose Alvarado has hit at least one three-point field goal in 10 consecutive games (22-of-50). He is hitting 40 percent of his threes in ACC games, 37.4 percent for the season.
• Alvarado scored 11 points at Louisville for his 16th double-digit game this season. He ranks fifth among ACC freshmen at 12.6 points per game.
• Abdoulaye Gueye has averaged 9.1 points (53.5 percent FG) and 6.4 rebounds in 12 games since sitting out the Coppin State game with an ankle injury. He has scored in double figures six times during that stretch, and also has blocked 19 shots. Gueye tied his career high with nine rebounds at Louisville.
• Gueye has scored 109 points in the 12 games since sitting out Coppin State on Dec. 27. He had scored 70 points in 39 career games prior to Coppin State.
• Alvarado has not left the floor for Tech’s last four games. The freshman point guard played his seventh “complete game” of the season (six 40-minute regulation games and one 45-minute overtime game) against Louisville, just as he had for Boston College, Syracuse and Clemson before that. The freshman point guard averages 39.3 minutes per ACC game, fourth-most in the conference, and ranks fourth among freshman nationally at 35.9 minutes per game overall. Since the beginning of ACC play, Alvarado has sat out just 15 minutes total in 12 games.
• Lammers is averaging 36.4 minutes this season, sixth-most in the ACC (37.8 mpg vs. the ACC), and ranks No. 1 among centers nationally in average minutes played and percentage of possible minutes.
• Tech, Syracuse and Boston College each have three players ranked among the ACC’s top 12 in average minutes per ACC game. Okogie is Tech’s third player among those 12, averaging 36.4 minutes per ACC game.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL
Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its second year under head coach Josh Pastner. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, won three ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993), played in the NCAA Tournament 16 times and played in two Final Fours (1990, 2004). Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball on social media by liking their Facebook Page, or following on Twitter (@GTMBB) and Instagram.
For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com. Tickets for men’s basketball can be purchased here.
