By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
That bald eagle screech you hear in movies and television commercials? It turns out your ears have been deceiving you.
When bald eagles vocalize, their cry actually sounds like a tweet or squawk. In other words, not a sound you’d associate with a noble, brooding bird of prey. To ratchet up the menace factor for them, production companies instead use an amalgam of several different hawk cries. America’s national bird often gets beak-synced.
What does that have to do with Georgia Tech’s next opponent, the Boston College Eagles (6-7, 1-2 ACC), other than the fact BC uses a bald eagle as its mascot? Nothing really – except, perhaps, that Georgia Tech (6-8, 0-4 ACC) will try to prove that its own record isn’t all it’s cracked to be either.
With both teams coming off narrow losses, expect an intense atmosphere at Conte Forum Wednesday night. Enjoy the top five notes from my chart as the Yellow Jackets look for an ACC victory cry in Chestnut Hill (9 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports):
Jordan Usher scored 13 points (5-7 FG) with six rebounds when Tech last visited Conte Forum two years ago. (photo by Danny Karnik)
It applies to every ACC game. But only on select occasions does it get the vaunted Josh Pastner Public Proclamation™.
“It’s a guard’s game,” Pastner said of Wednesday’s matchup.
As Georgia Tech’s head coach sees it, the backcourts will likely dictate the run of play in Chestnut Hill. With head coach Earl Grant running the show after a successful stint at the College of Charleston, Boston College’s top three scorers this year are all guards. Six-foot-3 Makai Ashton-Langford (12.4 ppg) reads screens well and has a gliding, finesse floor game that Pastner compares favorably to former Eagle Jerome Robinson. His younger brother, 6-5 sophomore Demarr Langford (11.4 ppg) gives him a quick, rangy complement, while junior college transfer Jaeden Zackery (10.8 ppg) is a selective sniper who has made 51 percent of his threes. Boston College also counts on 6-2 Brevin Galloway (7.3 ppg), who followed Grant from Charleston, for scoring punch and defense off the bench. Most of the Eagles’ ending action involves a ball screen.
The Jackets allowed 62 points and five three-pointers in regulation to Notre Dame. Prior to that they allowed 69 points against a Duke team that averaged an ACC-high 85.3 per game. They missed out on some timely stops in both, but Pastner believed their defense was good enough to win. Among the keys for Tech Wednesday: deny fly–bys to BC’s guards, either off screens or pump fakes, and play with physicality in the post.
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From the Department of Symmetry: Georgia Tech has shot a nearly identical field goal percentage – down to the tenth of a percentage point – in its last two trips to Conte Forum.
- 2017-18 – 50.9% (29 of 57)
- 2019-20 – 50.9% (27 of 53)
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How else can Georgia Tech get out of its offensive quicksand in the second half? Stop a mystifying drought from three-point range dating back to the Wisconsin game:
Georgia Tech 3pt.% – Last 8 games
- 1st Half: 43.4% (33 of 76)
- 2nd Half: 19.2% (15 of 78)
Boston College borrows a lot of Clemson-style defensive principles, a product of Grant’s time as an assistant to Brad Brownell. Look for the Eagles to help hard from the weak side, dig liberally in their man-to-man, and shrink the floor in the halfcourt. They also play a 1-1-3 zone that’s styled somewhat after Georgia Tech’s matchup zone.
“I think we’ve influenced a lot of people with our zone,” Pastner said on his radio show.
Pastner has talked to his players this week about playing with “burst and energy,” which could be critical given the relative dearth of second chances against BC – the Eagles rank 11th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage (21.9 pct.). Pay attention to Jordan Meka, who has quietly grabbed eight offensive rebounds since moving into the starting lineup three games ago.
Jordan Meka has eight offensive rebounds over Tech’s last three games, all starts for the sophomore. (photo by Danny Karnik)
The Jackets will go from playing the ACC’s thirstiest three-point shooting team to its least.
After breathlessly chasing Notre Dame around the arc last week, Tech now faces a BC team that shoots an ACC-low 30.1% of its field goal attempts from three-point range (#326 NCAA). That’s not to say the Eagles won’t launch – Ashton-Langford made 4 of 6 threes in their last game against Pittsburgh and could feel frisky again – but keep track of Georgia Tech’s two-point defense against BC.
Boston College’s record when…
- >45% 2pt. FG: 6-2
- <45% 2pt. FG: 0-5
The Eagles also help their cause by getting to the glass: they come in as the second-best offensive rebounding team by percentage in the ACC.
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Six-foot-9 forward James Karnik is a native of Surrey, British Columbia, meaning the Eagles have a player who went from B.C. to BC.
His frontcourt mate is 7-foot junior Quinten Post, meaning the Eagles have a Post player who’s a post player.
Post teamed with Deivon Smith for a year at Mississippi State before both rerouted to the transfer portal in the offseason. An Amsterdam native, he played in the youth system of Alba Berlin, the same club in Germany where former Yellow Jacket Ben Lammers now stars. Karnik and Post were both factors in BC’s blowout win over Notre Dame December 3, combining for 30 points and 19 rebounds. Also look for Boston College to get 6-9 T.J. Bickerstaff re-engaged: the Atlanta native and Drexel transfer averages 9.0 points per game, but has only mustered 4.7 points on 28-percent shooting over his last four.
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Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well. Join us for pregame coverage starting at 8:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports. See you in Boston.
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