Dec. 21, 2005
ATLANTA – For the third time in two seasons, Georgia Tech will face a team coached by a former Paul Hewitt assistant when the Yellow Jackets host Jacksonville at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The game will not be televised, but can be heard over the Georgia Tech/ISP Radio Network, in Atlanta on WQXI-AM (790), WTSH-FM (107.1) and WREK-FM (91.1). The Tech broadcast can also be heard on XM Satellite Radio (Ch. 191, 192 or 193).
Tech (4-3) has not played since Dec. 10, partly due to fall semester finals, when it defeated Tennessee State, 82-72. The Dolphins are 1-6 following a 101-58 loss to Florida on Sunday.
Jacksonville coach Cliff Warren was on the Tech staff the last five seasons, helping the Yellow Jackets to three NCAA Tournaments and one NIT berth. The Jackets faced another former assistant coach, Dean Keener, last season in a 72-47 victory over James Madison. Hewitt also faced a former Siena assistant, LeMoyne head coach Steve Evans, last year in an exhibition game.
Hewitt, who used the same starting lineup for Tech’s first five games, said Tuesday he will make another change to his starting lineup for Thursday’s game, inserting freshman Paco Diaw at the point in place of Zam Fredrick. In the Dec. 10 game with Tennessee State, Theodis Tarver made his first start of the season at center in place of Ra’Sean Dickey.
They join leading scorer Anthony Morrow and defensive whiz Mario West on the perimeter, and leading rebounder Jeremis Smith at power forward in Tech’s starting five.
Morrow, a 6-5 sophomore from Charlotte, N.C., who is Tech’s top returning scorer from last season, leads the Jackets and ranks sixth in the ACC in scoring at 17.0 points a game. He has shot 45.2 percent from three-point range (2nd in the ACC) and is second in the conference in three-point field goals (2.71 per game). He is one of four Tech players averaging in double digits, including Smith (13.9), Dickey (11.9) and Fredrick (10.1).
Smith, a 6-6 sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas, has transformed himself into a force in the paint over Tech’s last four games, averaging 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds over that stretch. Fully recovered from a dislocated kneecap that sidelined him for 17 games last year, Smith ranks second in the ACC in rebounding at 9.1 per game and leads the team with 16 steals (4th in ACC).
West, an 6-4 junior from Douglas, Ga., with high energy and excellent defensive skills (2.1 steals per game, 7th in ACC) who is averaging 7.9 points a game and making a team-high 57.6 percent of his shots from the floor.
Diaw, a 6-6 freshman from Dakar, Senegal, played 13 minutes off the bench against Tennessee State, energizing Tech offensively with four assists while playing good defense. Tarver, a 6-9 senior from Monroe, La., scored four points with two rebounds in 22 minutes while making his first start since his freshman year.
Off the bench in the backcourt, Tech will go to the 6-0 sophomore Fredrick, a former South Carolina Mr. Basketball from St. Matthews, S.C., who has averaged 10.1 points and 3.4 assists per game, and 6-5 freshman D’Andre Bell of Los Angeles, Calif, who has averaged 1.9 points and 1.0 rebounds.
Tech will play without freshman Lewis Clinch, a 6-3 guard from Cordele, Ga., who will be sidelined 4-6 weeks with a stress fracture in the fibula of his left leg. He had averaged 7.5 points off the bench for the Jackets.
In the frontcourt, Dickey, a 6-9 sophomore from Clio, S.C., is shooting 57.1 percent from the floor and taking 6.1 rebounds per game. He had eight points and seven rebounds off the bench against Tennessee State. Freshman Alade Aminu, a 6-9 player with good offensive skills and shot-blocking capabilities, has averaged 1.9 points and 1.7 rebounds.
Series vs. Jacksonville
> Georgia Tech and Jacksonville are meeting for the first time since 1985, and the Dolphins own a 5-3 advantage in the series which was first played in 1967. The Dolphins have won two of three games played at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, including an 86-81 JU win in its most recent visit on Feb. 26, 1970.
> The last two meetings both occurred in the Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville. Tech won the most recent meeting, 72-53, in 1985, and JU took a 64-41 decision in 1980. The other six meetings all took place between 1967 and 1970.
> Dolphins’ head coach Cliff Warren was on the Georgia Tech staff under Paul Hewitt the last five years, and served under Hewitt at Siena before that. Hewitt is 1-0 in encounters with his former Tech assistant coaches, having defeated James Madison (Dean Keener) last year.
Coach Hewitt Says …
[On Jacksonville head coach Cliff Warren, his former assistant] – “They’re a little shorthanded right now, but they play extremely hard. They play fast. They’re excellent in baseline out-of-bounds situations. I can tell that the players like playing for him. I said when he got the job that their players would be the people most happy with the decision to hire him. You can see it in how they play.”
[On objectives during the long layoff] — “We’re trying to work with some things, to change the personality of this team just a little bit. The goal is we need to become a more consistent basketball team. We’ve had some stretches of terrific basketball. But we haven’t been as consistent as we need to be. Even going back to Michigan State, which was our best offensive performance of the season, we had some stretches that were not good.”
[On Theodis Tarver, who will start his second game Thursday in place of Dickey] – “We feel that Theo helps establish the defensive presence that we like. If we’re going to win game, we’ve got to guard people. I like what Theo brings to the court defensively. He’s going to be in the passing lanes. He’s going to contest shots.”
[On Lewis Clinch’s injury, a stress fracture of the left fibula] — “He hurt it just after Michigan State. The day after the Georgia game it really got sore. We took an X-ray and an MRI, and the injury didn’t show up. But sometimes these injuries take a few days to show up. It’s a 6-to-8 week healing process (from the time of the injury), then he’ll have to get back in shape. Right now he can’t do anything.”
[On Paco Diaw, who will make his first start against Jacksonville] — “He’s longer, more active defensively. I just like the way the ball was moving when he was in the game against Tennessee State. He did a nice job feeding the post. But his size is the thing that can bother some people. He gets a lot of deflection. He gets us back the personality we want, defense, disruption. And hopefully that carries over to the rest of the 40 minutes.”
[On Mario West and Jeremis Smith as leaders] — “I like how Mario West has handled himself around this team, off the court and in the locker room. He’s a young man who plays extremely hard and earns everything he gets. He deserves everything he gets because of the effort he puts out. He provides a great example for our players. Jeremis, despite being only a sophomore, is probably our best player and most versatile player. Anytime your best player is your hardest-working guy, it makes life easier if you’re a coach. You know when he’s out there, he’s going to give you everything he’s got, in practice and in games. Does he have things to learn? Absolutely.”
[On the Yellow Jackets’ maturing into a good basketball team] — “This group gets along extremely well, and that’s one of the reasons they are going to be a good basketball team. They’re getting to the point where they respect each other enough where they can talk. I don’t have to be the bad guy all the time. They have an awful lot of respect for each other.”
[On handling rough play in last two games] — “[Jeremis] had been intentionally fouled earlier in the game, and I told him that we didn’t need him to pick up any intentional foul or get into a fight. He knows how important he is to us. He plays extremely hard and plays an emotional game. One of the things I talked to him and to Anthony Morrow about this year is that you can’t allow your emotions to take away your focus and your concentration. They both understand what they have to do to provide leadership. When you run up against a guy who plays as hard as Jeremis does, it can get on your nerves.”
Smith Takes Over the Paint
Perhaps making up for lost time, sophomore Jeremis Smith has posted career highs in points for four straight games, and recorded double-doubles in three of them. Smith has averaged 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds against Michigan State, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee State, hitting 23 of 42 shots from the floor (54.8 pct.), getting eight steals and averaging 10.3 trips to the foul line.
The 6-6 forward had 19 points and 14 rebounds at Georgia, making 5 of 12 shots from the floor and getting three steals. His only negative, if you can call it that, was hitting just 9 of 21 free throws. The 21 attempts was one off the Tech single-game record set by Kenny Anderson in 1990, also against Georgia. He followed that with 22 points (6-8 FG, 10-10 FT), 11 boards and eight assists against Tennessee State, falling short of recording Tech’s first triple-double since 1989.
Smith scored 14 points and took 10 rebounds at Michigan State, then followed that with 17 points and nine boards against Virginia.
His 72 points in the last four games exceeds his scoring total for all of last season in 14 games, and his 60 free throw attempts this season is more than twice the next highest total for a Tech player.
Morrow Fills It Up from the Outside
As Jeremis Smith has gone to work inside, Anthony Morrow has heated up from the outside, going 14-for-29 (48.3 pct.) from three-point range in the last four games and hitting 42.4 percent from the floor overall. He has averaged 20.3 points per game over that stretch.
The 6-5 sophomore guard scored a career-best 28 points Dec. 7 at Georgia, draining 4 of 7 threes and 8 of 9 free throws. He began the stretch with 23 points (7-for-11 on threes) at Michigan State, followed that with 13 points (6-6 FT) against Virginia and scored 17 against Tennessee State.
He is drawing attention from defenses as well. After shooting just one free throw in the first four games of the season, Morrow is 17-for-19 from the line in the last three games.
He has shot 45.2 percent from three-point range, which ranks second in the ACC, and he is second in the conference in threes per game (2.71). His 42 attempts exceeds the combined total (40) of Zam Fredrick and Lewis Clinch, who rank second and third on the team in attempts.
Elsewhere on the Stat Sheet
> Jeremis Smith and Anthony Morrow scored a total of nine points against Illinois-Chicago. Since then, they have averaged 38.3 points per game combined.
> Tech has placed at least four players in double figures in scoring in four of its seven games. Two of the exceptions have been Illinois-Chicago and Georgia, who defeated the Jackets by a combined 38 points. Four Tech players are averaging in double figures for the season.
> Tech shot better than 50 percent at Michigan State (47.6 percent from three-point range), the only time the Jackets have shot 50 percent in a game this year, and lost. Tech followed that up by shooting 40 percent (1-for-7 from three) against Virginia and won.
> Tech is shooting 33.0 percent from three-point range, including 14-of-30 (46.7 percent) in two losses to Michigan State and Georgia. The Jackets have exceeded 40 percent from behind the arc in four of seven games, but shot just 7-of-40 in the other three games.
> Tech has recorded more assists than turnovers only twice (Michigan State, Tennessee State).
> Since attempting just six free throws in its loss at Michigan State, Tech has averaged 30 attempts and made 70 percent of them in the last three games.
> Opponents have made just 29.2 percent of their threes against Tech.
> Tech committed a season-low 13 turnovers against Georgia, but also forced a season-low seven.
> Zam Fredrick has 18 assists and 15 turnovers in his last four games after posting six and 13 in the first three games. He has reached double figures in four of seven games.
> Ra’Sean Dickey’s 24 points at Michigan State were the most by a Tech center since Alvin Jones scored 26 in back-to-back games against Clemson and Florida State in 2001.
> Lewis Clinch reached double figures off the bench in each of the first two games, but has scored a total of 18 points (9-for-30 FG) in the last four games. A sign of better things, however, was his 4-of-8 shooting last time out against Georgia. He missed the Tennessee State game with a left leg strain.
> Mario West, a career 36.7-percent shooter, is 57.6 percent this season and scored a career-high 16 points against Tennessee State. He is second on the team in steals (15) and assists (19).
> Backup center Theodis Tarver started the Tennessee State game, his first start since his freshman year, when he was in the lineup for all three NIT games.
> Paco Diaw received his most extended playing time of the season against Tennessee State, getting four assists and two rebounds in 13 minutes.
