By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
He didn’t get a win, but Josh Pastner at least got a celebrity sighting on his trip to Syracuse.
As he recounted on his radio show Monday, Pastner was working out on a stair climber at the team hotel Tuesday when he saw a raven-haired, menacing-looking man lifting weights nearby.
Wait, is that…? Yep, it was actor Danny Trejo, who happened to star in one of Pastner’s all-time favorite movies, the 1995 film Heat. Trejo was in Syracuse shooting a movie for Hulu.
“He’s pumping this iron, and he’s going crazy. He’s looking at me, and I’m staring at him, and I said, ‘Hey, are you that actor?’ And he said yes,” Pastner explained.
With the matter of identity settled, Pastner began peppering him with questions about Heat – working with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, whether they shut down the highway for a certain scene. Trejo graciously answered all of them. Pastner even invited him to attend Georgia Tech’s game against Syracuse that night, but Trejo said he had a dinner commitment.
“The amount of elite actors and actresses in that movie is incredible,” Pastner gushed.
For now, Pastner’s focus is on stopping the elite shooters of Virginia Tech (16-11, 8-8 ACC), Georgia Tech’s next opponent at McCamish Pavilion. The Hokies used a clinical first half to beat the Yellow Jackets in Blacksburg Feb. 2, part of a six-game win streak that was snapped Saturday against North Carolina.
With another short turnaround, Pastner’s hours as he prepares for the Hokies may resemble another of Trejo’s film credits – From Dusk Till Dawn. A tough loss can sap wills as much as it can legs, but Georgia Tech (11-16, 4-12 ACC) heads home with its resilience unshaken. They’ll now look to knock off the Hokies in the sequel of their regular season series.
As you get ready for tip-off, enjoy the top notes from my chart before Wednesday’s tip-off at McCamish (9 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network from Legends Sports):
Matt Harpring was the last Tech player to accumulate the averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals that Jordan Usher has produced this season. (photo by Anthony McClellan)
Just call them “Danny Trey-jo.”
Virginia Tech ranks fifth nationally in three-point percentage, connecting on 39.9 percent of their attempts from deep. Georgia Tech felt the brunt of that in Blacksburg – the Hokies buried seven of their first 13 and 40 percent overall in an 81-66 win. Unlike Syracuse, which leads the nation in the percentage of its field goals that come off the dribble, most of Virginia Tech’s shots come off rotations and ball reversals.
The Hokies, though, are in the midst of their chilliest three-point stretch of the season – they’ve only made 24.6 percent over their last three games, including a season-worst 5-for-20 performance against North Carolina. Tech has to make sure players like Hunter Cattoor (44.0%), Nahiem Alleyne (36.8%) and Storm Murphy (35.9%) don’t get rolling early.
*****
Even though Georgia Tech allowed its third worst efficiency rating of the season against Virginia Tech, Josh Pastner didn’t think his team’s perimeter defense was necessarily poor. The Hokies, he said, simply made some tough shots. More damaging was the play of forwards Keve Aluma (24 points, 7 rebounds) and Justyn Mutts (10 points, 8 rebounds), who operated skillfully from the high post and short corners. The 6-9 Aluma screens physically and likes to back down defenders from the long post; the 6-7 Mutts is a blue-collar, hard driver who posted a triple-double against Syracuse two weeks ago. Both overpowered the Jackets when they went to a smaller lineup.
“They were playing volleyball down there,” Pastner noted.
Could that change with the continued emergence of Rodney Howard, who’s coming off his third straight game with a career high in points? Tech will need to wall up physically against Aluma, who went to the free throw line an ACC-high 9 times in Blacksburg.
*****
It wasn’t quite a celebrity sighting, but as they filtered into the Syracuse practice facility Sunday, Georgia Tech’s coaches spotted a piece of paper taped to the weight room window overlooking the court. On it was a picture of associate head coach Eric Reveno, pointing intently during a Georgia Tech practice, with the caption “Which way? This way.”
Reveno figured out the rib pretty quickly. It was put there by Ryan Cabiles, his first strength and conditioning coach at the University of Portland. Cabiles now serves in that same capacity at Syracuse.
Michael Devoe’s 30 points at Virginai Tech on Feb. 2 were a career high against an ACC team for the senior. (photo by Keith Lucas)
As noted on Tuesday, Jordan Usher and NC State’s Dereon Seabron are the only power-conference players to average at least 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game.
That combination is not only rare in the country, but in Georgia Tech basketball history. The last Tech player to average at least 14 points, 6 rebounds and 2.5 assists in a season? You have to go all the way back to Matt Harpring’s senior season in 1997-98.
Foul trouble limited Usher in his first meeting with Virginia Tech. Can the senior be a counterpoint to Mutts’ athleticism and use his defensive rebounding to spark Georgia Tech’s transition offense? The Yellow Jackets have averaged 12.0 fast break points per game in ACC play. They only mustered five against the Hokies, their second-fewest in a game next to Duke.
*****
Michael Devoe scored 30 points, an ACC career high for the senior, in the first matchup in Blacksburg. He did while mostly being guarded by Virginia Tech’s Hunter Cattoor, like Devoe an Orlando, Fla., native. Cattoor tried to body up Devoe on dribble-drives, but time and again he managed to free himself for scoops, pull-ups and stepbacks. The extra effort may have sapped Cattoor’s legs – a 49-percent three-point shooter coming in, he only went 1 of 8 against the Jackets.
Incidentally, Hunter Cattoor may be the only player in the country whose name doubles as a synonym for high-fashion camouflage.
*****
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 at McCamish.
.
-AD-
