By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
January 14 is a sacred date on Damon Stoudamire’s calendar.
Someone just needed to tell him first.
When prompted, Georgia Tech’s head coach can instantly recall his career highs in scoring in both college and the pros. As a senior at Arizona, Stoudamire poured in 45 points in an overtime win over Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. Then, a decade later, he exploded for an NBA career-high 54 points for the Portland Trail Blazers against the New Orleans Hornets.
But unbeknownst to Stoudamire – at least until last year – was that he poured in those career highs on the exact same date, 10 years apart. Both games took place on January 14.
Damon Stoudamire – Career highs
Team Points Date Opponent
NBA 54 Jan. 14, 2005 New Orleans NCAA 45 Jan. 14, 1995 Stanford
Can that point scoring karma now transfer over to his players on January 14? He’ll find out Wednesday when Georgia Tech (10-7, 1-3 ACC) returns home to face Pittsburgh (7-9, 0-3 ACC) at McCamish Pavilion. The Yellow Jackets may need it to offset some historically bad mojo on this date – strangely, Tech has dropped its last six ACC games played on January 14.
Enjoy the top notes from my chart as the Jackets look for a sharper start and stronger finish against the Panthers (7:00 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network).
Lamar Washington posted a double-double on points and assists at Miami. (photo by Kevin Ortiz)
Lamar Washington came up short in his hunt for his first career triple-double, though the senior found a nifty consolation prize against Miami.
Tech’s point guard finished with 21 points, a season-high 12 assists and 6 rebounds in a scrappy effort against the Hurricanes. He’s only the second player in a Division I matchup this year, and the only player from a power conference, who has put up those numbers.
21+ points, 12+ assists, 6+ rebounds – NCAA this year
Player Team Opponent Stats
Josiah Davis Cal St.-Northridge Cal Poly 23 points, 15 assists, 8 rebs.
Lamar Washington Georgia Tech Miami 21 points, 12 assists, 6 rebs.
Washington also became the first Yellow Jacket since Marcus Georges-Hunt in 2016 to make double-digit free throws against an ACC opponent without a miss (10 of 10).
Georgia Tech had hoped to change the script from its midweek loss to Syracuse.
They instead found themselves sitting through an unsatisfying sequel.
For a second straight game, the Yellow Jackets trailed by 14 points at halftime; rallied to within five with three minutes to play; but fell by 10 thanks to a late flurry of free throws. They now face a Pittsburgh team that will also be looking for a better start after falling behind 19-4 in an eventual loss to Syracuse on Saturday. 6-10 Cameron Corhen leads the Panthers in scoring (13.1 ppg) and rebounding (8.3 rpg) and can both finish and facilitate out of pick-and-rolls, while guard Brandin Cummings (12.9 ppg) exploded for 29 points against Syracuse and is a fearless, downhill driver á la Miami’s Tre Donaldson. Along with transfer Damarco Minor and freshman Omari Witherspoon, the Panthers run a fair amount of guard-on-guard screens to hunt for mismatches and create attack angles.
Though winless in conference play, Pittsburgh led Miami by 10 at halftime when they met in Coral Gables two weeks ago. Among the keys for Tech: Prevent Pitt from catching confidence early, make their guards see bodies on dribble penetration, and stay disciplined through entire possessions. Pay attention to the tempo tug-of-war as well – Pittsburgh plays at the slowest pace in the ACC, while Georgia Tech plays at the second fastest. Also, if the game plays tight in the second half, can three-pointers be a differentiator?
3pt.% – ACC only
Team 2nd Half
Georgia Tech 38.7% (12 of 31)
Pittsburgh 10.9% (4 of 37)
Chas Kelley III is shooting 46% from three-point range. (photo credit: Danny Karnik)
Before Saturday’s game, Miami’s players warmed up in black long-sleeved shirts that read “4 Strong” in honor of teammate Marcus Allen, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in December and will miss the remainder of the year. Allen and Peyton Marshall were teammates last year at Missouri and lived next to each other in adjoining townhouses.
Rebounding was a bold, underlined, all-caps concern against Miami, which ranked sixth nationally in Offensive Rebounding Percentage (40.3%) and 11th in rebounding margin (+10.7).
Yet even with leading rebounder Mo Sylla limited to two-and-a-half minutes, the Jackets held the Hurricanes to a season-low OR% (25.0%) and outrebounded them +1.
Miami – OR%
Season: 40.3% (#6 NCAA)
vs. GT: 25.0%
That’s a favorable trend heading into Pittsburgh, which has a +9.4 rebounding margin in its wins but has lamented giving up too many boards to opponents. Look for a Panthers team that shoots gaps, switches 1 through 4, and will likely play with an edge as it fights to overcome an 0-3 ACC start (beware of 6-6 freshman Roman Siulepa, a crash-and-bang rebounder who had six offensive rebounds against Syracuse). As Damon Stoudamire said on his radio show, “We can’t allow them to play harder than us.”
Baye Ndongo is averaging 7.0 rebounds per game in ACC play. (photo credit: Danny Karnik)
There were 20 conference games last year in which a player scored 40 or more points.
Three of those players will square off on Wednesday.
Pitt swingman Barry Dunning Jr. scored a school record-tying 46 points for South Alabama against Texas State. Lamar Washington hung 40 for Pacific against Washington State. Kam Craft dropped 40 for Miami (Ohio) against Toledo.
Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well. Join us for pregame coverage starting with the “Ramblin’ Wreck Tipoff Show” at 6:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network. See you at McCamish.
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