Nov. 16, 2010
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech returns to campus this week to play a pair of home games against Albany and Niagara in the regional round of the Legends Classic at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Both games tip off at 7:30 p.m. and are the back end of double-headers with the Tech women’s team, which is hosting Kennesaw State Wednesday and Prairie View A&M Friday (both at 5 p.m.).
The Yellow Jackets are 1-1 following an 80-63 loss Monday night at Kennesaw State, which was the first of three games in five days for Tech this week. The Jackets, who won their season opener last Friday night at home, 52-39 over Charleston Southern, return two starters and eight letterwinners from a team that won three games in the ACC Tournament to reach the championship game, then won their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament. Tech has been picked to finish ninth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Great Danes, who were 7-25 last season and 2-14 in the America East Conference, have lost their first two games to Cornell (65-61) and American (57-44), both at home. Niagara, 18-15 last year and 9-9 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, opens its season against Milwaukee Wednesday night.
The Jackets are beginning their season by playing four games in an eight-day span. After Friday night’s game, they will have a week off before facing UTEP Nov. 26 in a semifinal game of the Legends Classic in Atlantic City, N.J. They will meet either Syracuse or Michigan on Nov. 27.
Tech head coach Paul Hewitt is in his 11th season at Tech, the third-longest tenure of any ACC head coach behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (30th season) and Maryland’s Gary Williams (22nd season), and has a record of 178-145.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (1-1, 0-0 ACC) vs. Albany Great Danes (0-2, 0-0 America East)
Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tipoff: 7:30 p.m. Eastern time
Site: Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Atlanta, Ga. (capacity 9,191)
Television: none
Radio: Georgia Tech/ISP Sports Network, live on flagship station WQXI-AM (790 the Zone) and WYAY-FM (106.7) – Wes Durham, play-by-play; Randy Waters, color.
Satellite Radio: XM Ch. 190
On the web: www.Ramblinwreck.com; www.twitter/com/gtathletics; www.facebook.com/gtathletics
Series History: teams have never met
Tickets: www.ramblinwreck.com/tickets or 888-TECH-TIX
Series vs. Albany, Niagara
Georgia Tech is facing Albany and Niagara for the first time each when the teams meet this week.
Albany plays in the America East Conference, and the Yellow Jackets have played only three games against current members of that conference (2-0 vs. Boston University, 1-0 vs. Maine).
Tech’s game against Niagara will be the first of two against teams from the MAAC this season. The Jackets will visit Siena, where Paul Hewitt held his first head coaching job, on Dec. 22. Tech is 8-6 against current members of the MAAC.
Final Season in the Thrillerdome
Georgia Tech is playing its 54th and final season for Georgia Tech basketball in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Following this season, the venerable building will be replaced by a new facility called the Hank McCamish Pavilion, which will be built on the same site and be ready for the 2012-13 season. The Jackets will play the 2011-12 season at an undetermined site, or sites.
The only parts of the building that will remain are the 32 support ribs and the roof.
Georgia Tech has a record of 547-188 (.743) in the building, which opened Nov. 30, 1956 with a 71-61 Tech loss to Duke. Known as the “Thrillerdome,” the Coliseum is the second-oldest arena in use in the ACC, behind Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke.
Since the 1981-82 season, Tech is 325-99 (.767) in its on-campus home, and the Jackets are 111-41 (.730) at home under head coach Paul Hewitt.
Tech is 171-13 against non-conference foes at Alexander Memorial Coliseum since the beginning of the 1981-82 season. Penn State and UIC are the only teams to beat the Jackets twice in that time frame. From 1981 through last season, the only other non-ACC teams to win at the Thrillerdome have been Penn, Tulane and IUPUI (all in the 2001-02 season), Georgia (2000), College of Charleston (1993), Louisville (1989), and Richmond (1987).
