Aug. 17, 2006
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s first appearance in the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational during Thanksgiving week and a national network television game with perennial Big East power Connecticut in February highlight the Yellow Jackets’ men’s basketball schedule announced Thursday by the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The game with Connecticut, scheduled for 1 p.m. on Feb. 11, will be played at the Georgia Dome, site of the 2007 NCAA Men’s Final Four, and be televised nationally by CBS. Tech defeated the top-ranked Huskies in the semifinals of the 2003 Preseason NIT, while UConn turned the tables on the Jackets in the national championship game later that season. It will be the first regular-season game for Tech in the Georgia Dome since 1998, and a portion of the proceeds from the game will benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Camp Twin Lakes.
“This game is for a great cause, and timing is right, and a lot of positive things will come from it,” said Tech head coach Paul Hewitt, beginning his seventh year with the Yellow Jackets. “We wanted to play a national TV game, and we wanted to play a game in the Georgia Dome. It’s the first major game after the Super Bowl, and I’d like to see us get 25,000 people there. That may be ambitious, but I hope we can.”
Tech, coming off an 11-17 campaign with seven players returning that have starting experience, meets Purdue in the first round in Maui on Nov. 20. The Jackets will face either Oklahoma or Memphis, both 2006 NCAA Tournament teams, in the second round, and could meet national runner-up or Kentucky on the third day.
“We’ll play three quality teams out there, and it will be a great test for our players, absolutely,” said Hewitt. “Based on what happened there last year, I don’t know how much it will help our strength of schedule, though.”
Hewitt’s team will have three games under its belt by the time it heads West, opening the season with home games against Elon (Nov. 10), Jackson State (Nov. 13) and Georgia State (Nov. 16). Tech is facing the Panthers for the first time since 1993.
Aside from home-and-away series against permanent ACC rivals Clemson and Wake Forest, the Yellow Jackets also face Duke, North Carolina and Florida State twice. Hewitt said, “those three will be among the better teams in the country, so our conference schedule is pretty tough.”
Tech will make trips to Miami, Virginia and Maryland for single games, while hosting Boston College, NC State and Virginia Tech.
In all, Georgia Tech has 12 national television appearances, eight on ESPN networks, three on the ACC’s national Fox Sports Net Sunday package, and the CBS game with Connecticut. Tech’s three Sunday FSN games are its ACC opener at Miami on Dec. 3, the Jan. 28 game with Virginia Tech and the regular-season finale against Boston College on Mar. 4.
CBS also will televise the Feb. 18 Tech-Duke game in Durham as a split-national broadcast, while the Jackets’ Feb. 24 game at Virginia will be regionally televised on ABC. Ten other Tech games will be televised regionally either on FSN South or the Raycom-Lincoln Financial ACC network.
Also among Tech’s non-conference games are the ACC/Big Ten Challenge game with Penn State on Nov. 28 and the annual state-rivalry game with Georgia on Dec. 22, both at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, and a Dec. 9 trip to Vanderbilt.
All told, Tech’s schedule includes eight games against 2006 NCAA Tournament teams, potentially nine depending on its third-round opponent in Maui. Tech plays 11 games against teams that played in the 2006 Postseason NIT.
2006-07 Georgia Tech Men's Basketball ScheduleAll times Eastern, subject to change
November 4 MOREHOUSE/exhibition, 6 p.m. 10 ELON, 8 p.m. 13 JACKSON STATE, 7 p.m. 16 GEORGIA STATE, 6 p.m. 20 Purdue/Maui Invitational (ESPN2), 5 p.m. 21 Oklahoma or Memphis/Maui Invitational (ESPN or ESPNU), 1:30 or 7 p.m. 22 Chaminade, DePaul, Kentucky or UCLA/Maui Inv. (ESPN), tba 28 PENN STATE/ACC-Big Ten Challenge (ESPNU), 8 p.m.
December 3 at Miami (FSN), 5:30 p.m. 9 at Vanderbilt (ESPN2), 5 p.m. 18 CENTENARY, 7 p.m. 22 GEORGIA (FSNS, FSN-FL, NESN), 7 p.m. 28 TROY, 2 p.m. 30 ST. FRANCIS, PA, 8 p.m.
January 3 WINSTON-SALEM STATE, 7 p.m. 6 at Clemson (RSN), 4 p.m. 10 DUKE (ESPN), 7 p.m. 13 FLORIDA STATE, 2 p.m. 20 at North Carolina (ESPN), 9 p.m. 24 at Maryland (RLF), 9 p.m. 28 VIRGINIA TECH (FSN), 3:30 p.m. 30 at Wake Forest (RLF), 8 p.m.
February 3 CLEMSON (RLF), 1 p.m. 6 NC STATE (RSN), 7 p.m. 11 Connecticut/at Georgia Dome (CBS), 1 p.m. 13 at Florida State (RLF), 8 p.m. 18 at Duke (CBS), 1 p.m. 21 WAKE FOREST (ESPNU), 7 p.m. 24 at Virginia (ABC), 3:30 p.m.
March 1 NORTH CAROLINA (RLF), 9 p.m. 4 BOSTON COLLEGE (FSN), 3 p.m. 8-11 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament/Tampa, Fla. (RLF/ESPN)
Home games (in ALL CAPS) at Alexander Memorial Coliseum TV designations: RLF – Raycom/Lincoln Financial ACC regional syndication network (check local listings for station); FSN – Fox Sports Net (national); FSNS – Fox Sports Net South (regional); RSN – ACC regional cable network including FSN South, Comcast SportsNet, Sun Sports, FSN Florida and New England Sports Network
