By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
The calendar has turned to March, and all Josh Pastner sees is opportunity.
Georgia Tech’s head coach bills himself as an eternal optimist – or “internal optimist,” as he occasionally malaprops it on his radio show – and that positivity guided him as he gathered his team for practice Monday.
Yes, Georgia Tech (11-18, 4-14) was walloped by Notre Dame Saturday. Yes, the Yellow Jackets have endured a grueling stretch of games. But with two regular season games remaining, starting with a rematch against Clemson (14-15, 6-12 ACC) at Littlejohn Coliseum Wednesday, Georgia Tech can still mathematically jump to 10th place in the ACC ahead of the conference tournament in Brooklyn.
They’ll need to win out and get some help. But as Pastner explained to his players, a better seed means a better draw. A better draw could mean a deeper run through the brackets. And with the ACC so wide-open, and with March so full of possibility and unpredictability, why not mix it up a little?
“We’ve got a lot to play for. It’s not all doom-and-gloom,” Pastner said.
That message led to a high-energy practice as Georgia Tech began its prep for Clemson, a team they beat 69-64 at McCamish Pavilion last month. Enjoy the top notes, quotes and anecdotes from my chart as the Jackets pack up for their road finale (7 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports):
Michael Devoe has bounced back from single-digit games with 20-point efforts three times this season. (photo by Danny Karnik)
Clemson may play again Wednesday without leading scorer P.J. Hall (15.5 ppg), who has missed the last two games after re-aggravating a foot injury. The 6-10 sophomore scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Tech in Atlanta, showing a variety of artisanal post moves from the elbow and block. It’s unclear whether he and 6-8 Hunter Tyson (10.4 ppg), who has missed the last six games with a broken clavicle, will be available Wednesday.
Clemson entered last week in the doldrums of a six-game losing streak, a situation made bleaker by Hall’s injury. Yet the Tigers have won their first two full games without Hall, upsetting Wake Forest 80-69 and knocking off Boston College 70-60. Their offensive efficiency ratings in those games were two of their six highest in ACC play.
So why have the Tigers looked reborn offensively? For one, they’ve put more playmaking trust in guards Chase Hunter and Al-Amir Dawes. Hunter, a long-armed, athletic junior, has scored 44 points on 17-of-21 shooting over his last two games. Dawes (11.6 ppg) drilled six three-pointers against Tech at McCamish and made the Jackets pay for laying underneath screens. The Tigers have also incorporated more Princeton-style passing and cutting in the halfcourt with freshman forwards Ben Middlebrooks and Ian Schiefflein, rather than pounding it ceaselessly into the post with Hall.
Georgia Tech hassled Clemson into a 25.3-percent turnover rate last month, the Tigers’ worst percentage in their last 20 games. The Jackets’ zone was especially sharp in that game, their energy and hand activity leading to bad-angle passes and reluctant decision-making from Clemson’s guards. Not coincidentally, it led to a bounty of transition points: Georgia Tech has outscored Clemson plus-33 in fast break points in its last three meetings (45-12). Can Tech find some of those transition baskets after getting shut out in fast break points for the first time all season against Notre Dame?
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Every leading scorer is entitled to the occasional off shooting night. Michael Devoe hasn’t been immune – but he’s also shown an impressive ability to bounce back. The senior mustered just seven points against Notre Dame, the fourth time this year that Devoe was held to single-digit points.
He’s averaging 21.7 points in the following game.
- Georgia State: 8 pts. – Next game: 23 pts. vs. Louisville
- North Carolina: 2 pts. – Next game: 22 pts. vs. Wake Forest
- Clemson: 3 pts. – Next game: 20 pts. vs. Miami
Clemson did a good job loading the ball side against Devoe, though Pastner praised his passing and decision-making in the second half. He and Tech will face a Clemson team that’s played more zone defense in its last two games, a tactic owing partly to its thin frontcourt. Look for the Tigers to use a token three-quarters-court press that sags back into a 1-2-2 zone, which threw off Wake Forest last week. Tech will once again play without Deivon Smith, who had his best game of the season against Clemson (16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists). Which guard can replicate Smith’s rebounding and quick first step on cuts?
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Jordan Usher has made his last 12 free throws but only one of his last 11 three-pointers. The senior could have a cure for the latter: he’s a career 45-percent three-point shooter against Clemson.
Jordan Usher has connected on 45 percent of his three-point tries against Clemson in his career. (photo by Anthony McClellan)
A trend you may have missed: Georgia Tech has had a pattern of holding its opponent’s leading scorer without a point (or very close to it) in the first half of games:
| Opponent | Date | 1st half | 2nd half |
| Dane Goodwin (ND) | 8-Jan | 0 pts. | 14 pts. |
| Makai Ashton-Langford (BC) | 12-Jan | 2 pts. | 2 pts. |
| P.J. Hall (CL) | 5-Feb | 2 pts. | 16 pts. |
| Kameron McGusty (MIA) | 9-Feb | 0 pts. | 17 pts. |
| Buddy Boeheim (SU) | 21-Feb | 0 pts. | 15 pts. |
Most of those players found their touch in the second half, though it’s worth noting that Georgia Tech’s largest halftime deficit in those games was 2 points.
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Clemson reserve forward Naz Bohannon had nine points and eight rebounds against Tech and gives the Tigers a burly, Draymond Green-esque target on rolls and slips. His hometown also has an obscure connection to Georgia Tech basketball history: the 6-6 grad transfer from Youngstown State is a native of Lorain, Ohio, 30 miles west of Cleveland. The Yellow Jackets actually played the Lorain Lions Club on Christmas Day 1926 as part of a nine-games-in-10-days barnstorming tour through the Midwest to begin the season. Tech didn’t play another Christmas Day game until the Diamond Head Classic in 2019.
Ninety-five years later, Bohannon will try to reclaim some glory for his hometown: Georgia Tech narrowly beat the Lorain Lions Club that day, 26-25. And since you were wondering, yes, the Lorain Lions Club still exists (though to our knowledge it no longer schedules non-conference games against ACC teams).
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Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well. Join us for pregame coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports. See you at Clemson.
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