By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech has turned dejection into determination once before in ACC play. Two weeks ago, the Yellow Jackets rebounded from a rough loss to No. 13 Virginia with a gutty win over No. 12 Miami at McCamish Pavilion.
Georgia Tech (8-8, 1-5 ACC) may need to tap into that resolve again Saturday after an overtime loss at Notre Dame made for a somber flight home to Atlanta. Next up is one of the surprise teams in the ACC, the Pittsburgh Panthers (11-6, 4-2 ACC), which had its best conference start in nine years snapped by consecutive losses to Clemson and Duke.
Pitt led by at least eight points in the second half in each of those losses, but there isn’t much smoke and mirrors to the Panthers’ record: they’ve played the toughest strength of schedule so far in the ACC.
As you get ready for tip-off, enjoy the top five notes from my chart as Tech looks for a sixth straight home win over Pitt (3 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports):
At Notre Dame, Deivon Smith became the first Tech player since Iman Shumpert to post a double-double with at least seven assists. (photo by Danny Karnik)
Of the eight Pitt players who logged floor time in Tech’s 68-62 win last February, 6-4 Jamarius Burton is the only Panther who’s still currently playing.
Don’t let the lack of holdovers give you the wrong impression. Pittsburgh already has four Quad 1 wins, and Burton is the ACC’s second-leading scorer in conference play (20.5 ppg). That included 28 against Clemson and a 31-point heater in a win over North Carolina.
A sturdy, attack-minded point guard, Burton reads pick-and-roll coverages well and has a knack for off-balance, one-legged runners, especially when driving to his right. The Panthers re-tooled their perimeter in the offseason – the transfer portal figured prominently – and now have a fleet of hard-nosed, experienced guards who all possess heat check potential. Burton, Colgate transfer Nelly Cummings (10.8 ppg) and senior Nike Sibande are each skilled at scoring off isolations in the midrange.
The spacing they create has also allowed Pitt to shoot threes more freely: after finishing 14th in the ACC in three-point field goals last year, the Panthers currently rank fourth (8.6/g), with 6-3 Greg Elliott and 6-7, 235-pound Blake Hinson the main targets off skip passes. Look for Hinson (16.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg), who’s also the Panthers’ top rebounder, to lurk physically along the baseline.
Georgia Tech’s mixing defenses and hard digs forced Burton into tentative drives and hesitant passes when they met last season. Burton dished out a team-high seven assists, but he also went 1 of 11 from the field and finished with his second-worst offensive rating of the season. Can Tech shut off transition and make Pitt score against its set defense Saturday? That slowly wore the Panthers down in the second half against Duke. The Jackets will also need to rebound well out of their area – Pitt ranks third in the ACC in offensive rebounding percentage (31.9 pcy.).
*****
Before his double-double against Notre Dame, Ja’von Franklin spotted a familiar face courtside. One of his classmates at Parkview Magnet High School in Little Rock, Ark., now works as a videographer in the Notre Dame athletic department. The two caught up briefly after Tech’s pregame warmup.
A stomach bug has made Franklin questionable for Saturday, but his work switching on pick-and-rolls could once again come under the lens. Pitt loves to screen and re-screen for Burton, both at the top and on re-directs to the wing. If the Yellow Jackets switch, as they did for most of the second half against Notre Dame, Franklin, Jalon Moore and Rodney Howard may all find themselves trying to stay in front of Burton. Joining him on pick-and-rolls is 6-11 Federiko Federiko, a lanky, light-on-his feet “5” man who scores on lobs, stickbacks and drop-off passes.
Fun fact: Burton and Moore’s mothers narrowly missed each other as college teammates. Burton’s Mom Kim played at Alabama A&M from 1990-92. Two years later, Jalon’s Mom Walidah started her playing career for the Bulldogs.
*****
In the last two games, Georgia Tech has shot 11 of 12 from the field before the first media timeout of the first half … and 3 of 13 before the first media timeout of the second half.
They’ll face a Pitt team that plays exclusively man-to-man and loves to sit on skip passes. Tech can’t get overheated or let the Panthers’ aggressiveness coerce them into careless turnovers.
Tech has shot 11-of-12 from the floor before the first media timeout in its last two games. (photo by Ross Obley)
Deivon Smith must have felt like he was on a high wire in South Bend. The junior played the final 17:16 with four fouls, an admirable show of restraint for someone who had to front the post on switches, deny dribble-drives on the perimeter and attack downhill on offense.
That discipline resulted in a career high-tying 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for Smith. It also resulted in a stat line not seen at Tech in a while: Smith posted the first point-rebound double-double with at least seven assists since Iman Shumpert’s triple-double against Virginia Tech in 2011.
10+ Points, 10+ Rebounds, 7+ Assists
| Deivon Smith | vs. Notre Dame | 1/10/2023 | 16p/10r/7a |
| Iman Shumpert | vs. Virginia Tech | 1/25/2011 | 22p/12r/11a |
Kyle Sturdivant joined Smith with a career-high 18 points against the Irish. He and Smith combined to shoot 4-of-7 from three-point range against Notre Dame; they had only made one three-pointer combined in their first five ACC games. And if Tech needs to trade firepower with Pitt, keep an eye on Lance Terry – he’s made 13 of 28 three-pointers (46.4 pct.) at McCamish this year.
*****
Jackets Obscura alert:
Pittsburgh features Nate Santos, a 6-7 forward from Geneva, Ill., who’s averaging 1.9 points per game.
That’s the same hometown as Allan Tison, a 6-7 forward who averaged 1.4 points per game in his lone varsity season at Georgia Tech in 1969-70.
Yet in spite of that modest scoring average, Tison holds a unique spot in Georgia Tech history: he remains the last Yellow Jacket to wear the number 50. It remains the longest that a non-retired number has gone without being worn by a Tech player.
*****
Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well. Join us for pregame coverage starting at 2:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports. See you at McCamish.
*****
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 in South Bend.
-AD-
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL
Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team has completed six seasons under head coach Josh Pastner, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 2021 and making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, won four ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993, 2021), played in the NCAA Tournament 17 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.
