Inside The Chart – ACC Tournament

By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets

Tuesday at the ACC Tournament is a day of fresh starts, of putting tumultuous regular seasons behind and embracing the clean slate of the postseason.  Georgia Tech (12-19, 5-15 ACC) certainly didn’t expect to be here, but the Yellow Jackets come to Brooklyn reinvigorated following an 82-78 overtime win over Boston College.  They come in with their offensive confidence revived following a season-high 56 percent shooting against the Eagles.  And they come in as the defending ACC Tournament champions – you may remember it a bit – which gives them a blueprint of what it takes to be successful.

Josh Pastner knows anything is possible in the postseason.  No seeds are sacred.  Parity and unpredictability rule.  Tech would love nothing more than to be agent of chaos in Brooklyn.  But in order to make a run, the Jackets need to attack Tuesday first.

“It’s all about the first game,” Pastner said.

That first game pits Georgia Tech against Louisville (12-18, 6-14 ACC), a team that has changed dramatically since they faced them Jan. 2 in Atlanta.  The Cardinals edged the Yellow Jackets 67-64 as part of a 4-0 start to ACC play.  They’ve since dropped 14 of their last 16 and lost head coach Chris Mack along the way.

What can Georgia Tech do to exact a revenge two months in the making? Enjoy the final notes, quotes and anecdotes from my chart before the Jackets tip off at the Barclays Center (7 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports):

The most fearsome player Georgia Tech may face Tuesday?  He only logged 1:14 of playing time against the Jackets and didn’t record a single rebound or field goal attempt.

Even in a season of tumult for Louisville, the Cardinals have gotten a late flash of promise from 6-8, 260-pound forward Sydney Curry.  The junior college transfer scored 24 points and 14 rebounds in Louisville’s regular season finale against Virginia, and he’s averaged 23.3 points on 69.8-percent field goal shooting over his last three games.

Sydney Curry

• First 23 games:  4.8 ppg, 3.4 rpg
• Last 3 games:  23.3 ppg, 10.7 rpg

Interim coach Mike Pegues has tweaked his offense down the stretch, putting a greater emphasis on paint touches and playing inside-out.  Curry has often been the beneficiary.

“His whole body is a muscle,” Pastner said.  “They are trying to throw the ball to him literally every time.”

It may not be every play, but it’s close: Curry has scored or assisted on 37 percent of Louisville’s field goals over the last three games, a remarkably high average.  Expect the Cardinals to set him up on cross-screens and duck-ins, where the lefty becomes nearly immovable down low.  They also pair him with 6-11 Malik Williams, a redshirt senior “stretch-five” who scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds against Tech in Atlanta.  Williams played capably in the high post against Georgia Tech’s zone and showed a knack for finding the open man.

Louisville has willing three-point shooters, but the Cardinals have only made 24 percent of their attempts over the last seven games.  Given Boston College and Clemson’s success penetrating and passing to their bigs, Tech should probably expect more of the same Tuesday.  Can the Yellow Jackets wall up, avoid foul trouble, and withstand what figures to be another paint assault from the Cardinals?  Tech’s defense around screens and its defense on dribble-drives will also be key in denying Curry clean touches.

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He bounded off the floor smiling, and why wouldn’t he?  Jordan Usher, Georgia Tech’s charismatic senior forward, just recorded a career high in his final game at McCamish Pavilion, finishing with 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists against Boston College.

That performance was not only poetic, it was historic.  In the last decade, only one other Jacket had at least 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists in a game:  Josh Okogie had 35 points, 14 rebounds and five assists against Florida State on January 25, 2017.

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Michael Devoe got his long-deserved leveling-up Monday, earning a spot on the All-ACC third team after consecutive seasons receivinghonorable mention.  If the reigning ACC Tournament MVP wants to unleash one last scoring avalanche, he may have picked a good opening opponent:  Devoe’s 23 points against Louisville were the second most he scored in an ACC game this year.

Devoe will have to ward off Jarrod West, a pesky guard who ranks fourth among active NCAA players in steals (292).  West routinely picked up Devoe in the backcourt in January; Devoe got his points, but Ward tried to sap his legs all night.  Among the keys Pastner has prescribed for his offense Tuesday: avoid live-ball turnovers and cut with force to create opportunities on the back side of plays.  Can Tech also put the squeeze on a fragile Louisville team with a strong start?  Even including their listless shooting day in South Bend, the Yellow Jackets have made 48 percent of their first half field goals over the last six games.

Georgia Tech hopes Tuesday’s game marks the start of a long, productive week in Brooklyn.

No matter the outcome, it’ll mark the end of the road for Josh Pastner.

For the first time in his 13-year head coaching career, Pastner will face an opposing coach who’s younger than him.  Louisville interim coach Mike Pegues, who replaced Chris Mack in late January, was born 109 days after Pastner in January of 1978.  Wake Forest assistant Brooks Savage assumed head coaching duties when Wake Forest played Tech in January, but technically the win went to Steve Forbes, who missed the game due to illness.

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One last great moment in opposing team roster research:  Louisville guard Mason Faulkner, a former Kentucky Mr. Basketball, went to a high school located in Horse Cave, Ky.

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Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well.  Whether you’re in your car, your house, or your horse cave, join us for pregame coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports.  See you in Brooklyn.  Let’s stay a while.

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