Men’s Basketball Finishes Home Slate vs. LouisvilleMen’s Basketball Finishes Home Slate vs. Louisville
Men's Basketball

Men’s Basketball Finishes Home Slate vs. Louisville

Yellow Jackets and Cardinals tip off at 2 p.m. Saturday at McCamish Pavilion

GEORGIA TECH (11-17, 3-14 ACC) vs. LOUISVILLE (4-24, 2-15 ACC)

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THE FLATS – Playing its final home game of the 2022-23 season and honoring two senior players, Georgia Tech hosts Louisville for a 2 p.m. Atlantic Coast Conference game Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.

Georgia Tech (11-17, 3-14 ACC) is looking to even its season series against the Cardinals, who won the first meeting, 68-58, on Feb. 1 in Louisville. Tech has won its last three home games, taking down Notre Dame (70-68), Virginia Tech (77-70) and Division II Florida Tech (79-56). Tech enters the weekend in 13th place in the ACC standings, a game ahead of Notre Dame and Louisville. The Jackets’ other conference win came Jan. 4 over Miami, the ACC’s current first-place team.

Louisville (4-24, 2-15 ACC) won only of six games since the teams’ first meeting, scoring an 83-73 decision at home over Clemson last Saturday. The Cardinals are 0-9 on the road this season, dropping those games by an average of nearly 16 points. The closest was an 83-95 defeat at Miami on Feb. 11.

Saturday’s game will be televised live on the ACC’s Regional Sport Networks, with live streams of the broadcast available on BallySports.com and the ESPN app. Radio coverage is on the Georgia Tech Sports Network by Legends Sports and flagship station 680 the Fan (680 AM/93.7 FM), and on satellite radio (SiriusXM channel 390, SXM app 980).

THE TIP-OFF

  • Georgia Tech finishes out the regular season next week with a pair of road games at eighth-place Syracuse and 10th-place Boston College. If the ACC Tournament started today, the Yellow Jackets would face either Florida State or Virginia Tech in the opening round.
  • Since the teams’ first meeting on Feb. 1, Georgia Tech is 3-3, Louisville is 1-5.
  • Tech’s February upswing has been led by its two transfers, center Ja’von Franklin and guard Lance Terry, who have averaged 14.0 and 11.7 points, respectively, over the last six games.
  • Tech’s leading scorer Miles Kelly has averaged 17.0 points and 4.7 rebounds over the Yellow Jackets’ last three games, hitting 46.2 percent from the floor and 42.3 percent from three-point range.
  • Since Terry returned from his hamstring injury (last five games), Tech has averaged 71.3 points per game, connected on 44.9 percent of its shots from the floor and 38.0 percent of its three-point attempts. In the four games he missed, Tech averaged 53.8 points, hit 34.5 percent of its field goals and 25.2 percent of its threes.
  • Tech has utilized the same starting lineup (Lance Terry, Kyle Sturdivant, Deebo Coleman, Miles Kelly, Ja’von Franklin) for its last six games, the longest stretch of games this season that head coach Josh Pastner has sent out the same five.
  • Tech has used 11 different starting lineups this season, and no Yellow Jacket has started every game. Nine Jackets have started at least two games, and eight of them have started a minimum of 13 times.
  • Tech continues to lead the ACC in three-point defense and is 26th nationally, allowing 30.4 percent from distance.
  • Tech ranks No. 2 in the ACC in bench scoring, its reserves contributing 19.2 points per game this season. The bench has provided 30 or more points six times this season, and has outscored its opponents’ reserves in 16 of 28 games.

FINAL HOME GAME FOR BOYD, FRANKLIN

Georgia Tech will honor two senior players – guard Coleman Boyd and center Ja’von Franklin – and four senior managers on their final home game at McCamish Pavilion Saturday.

Boyd came to Tech after an all-state high school career at Mount Bethel Christian Academy in Marietta, Ga. A four-year letterwinner, this aspiring coach has led the Yellow Jackets’ scout team in helping Tech prep for each game the last four years, appearing in 12 games during his college career. He is set to graduate this spring with his degree in business administration.

A native of Little Rock, Ark., native, Franklin made stops at a junior college, Auburn and South Alabama, overcoming a broken leg early in his college career, before arriving at Georgia Tech, where he has excelled this season battling bigger and taller post players almost every game. He has six double-doubles this season while leading the Jackets in rebound average, blocked shots and field goal percentage. He received his undergraduate degree while at Auburn and has worked on a second major during his time at South Alabama and Georgia Tech.

Seniors Rodney Howard, Kyle Sturdivant and Lance Terry each have another year of eligibility under the NCAA’s COVID-19 guidelines.

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Miles Kelly is currently on a Tech-record pace for free throw percentage (88.9 percent). (photo by Danny Karnik)

 

SERIES NOTES VS. LOUISVILLE

  • Of the four teams added in the 2013 expansion of the ACC, Tech had the longest history with Louisville, meeting 28 times prior to the Cardinals joining the conference.
  • Louisville has won 13 of the last 14 games in the series and is 11-1 against Tech since becoming a member of the ACC. Tech’s only win was a 64-58 triumph over a Cardinals’ team ranked No. 5 in the nation at home on Feb. 12, 2020.
  • The Cardinals have won the last four meetings, including a 68-58 win in the teams’ first encounter in 2022-23.
  • Tech and Louisville played the first-ever college basketball game played in the Georgia Dome in 1992, and before the largest crowd ever to witness a college game in the state of Georgia at the time (28,885). That game will be forever remembered in Tech lore after James Forrest launched a half-court heave on an inbounds play that dropped through the net at the buzzer for an 87-85 Yellow Jacket victory. The Dome was demolished in 2017 to make way for Mercedes Benz Stadium.
  • Tech coach Josh Pastner went 2-2 against Louisville during his seven-year stint as the head coach at Memphis and is now 3-10 against the Cardinals.

TEAM TRENDS

  • With Deivon Smith missing his third straight game with an ankle injury, Tech used only six players for significant minutes at Pitt (Freds Pauls Bagatskis played seven seconds late in the game). It was the first time this season the Jackets have used fewer than eight players, and the two reserves that played totaled 30:18.
  • Deebo Coleman and Ja’von Franklin each played the full 40 minutes at Pitt, giving Tech six 40-minute games this season. Lance Terry has done so three times, Coleman twice and Franklin once.
  • Four or more Yellow Jackets have reached double digits in the scoring column in 14 games this season, and Tech has won 10 of those games.
  • Tech had scored 70 points or more in four straight games (Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Florida Tech) before coming up short (68) against Pittsburgh. The Yellow Jackets are 9-2 this season when scoring 70 or more points (3-2 in the ACC), 2-15 when failing to reach 70.
  • Tech has outshot five of its last six opponents from the floor, holding them collectively to 41.5 percent overall, 29.2 percent from three-point range. The Yellow Jackets are 10-2 this season when they have a higher field goal percentage.
  • Tech has exceeded 100 points per 100 possessions (KenPom offensive efficiency rating) in each of its last five games, the Yellow Jackets’ longest such streak this season.
  • Four Tech players (Ja’von Franklin 14.0, Miles Kelly 13.5, Lance Terry 11.7 ppg, Deebo Coleman 10.7) are averaging double digits in points over the Yellow Jackets’ last six games, and a fifth (Kyle Sturdivant) is averaging 9.5.
  • Tech’s 47.3-percent clip from the floor against Pittsburgh was its highest percentage on field goals against an ACC team this season. The Jackets have shot better than that in only five games – Clayton State, North Alabama, Georgia, Alabama State and Florida Tech.
  • Tech’s six ACC games in the month of February have been decided by an average of six points.
  • Tech’s current turnover rate of 11.2 per game matches its best on record since 1992-93, equaling the rate established by the Jackets in 2015-16 and 2020-21.

PLAYER UPDATES

  • Miles Kelly has reached double figures in three straight games, averaging 17 points and hitting 18-of-39 from the floor (46.2 pct.) and 11-of-26 from three-point range (42.3 pct.). This comes after a stretch in which he scored in double digits just three times in nine games and averaged 9.8 points.
  • Kelly’s 88.9-percent rate on free throws is .002 ahead of the Tech record of 88.7 percent by Anthony Morrow in 2005-06.
  • Ja’von Franklin has averaged a double-double over the Yellow Jackets’ last six games (14.0 points and 10.7 rebounds). He has hit 61 percent of his shots from the floor (36-of-59) in that span, and also has totaled a team-high 21 assists, 15 blocked shots and eight steals.
  • Franklin is one of two players to rank in the top 15 in rebound average (13th), steal average (15th) and blocked shot average (4th) in conference games. Jesse Edwards of Syracuse is the other. At 6-7 and 214 pounds, Franklin is out-sized by nearly every ACC center.
  • Lance Terry has reached double figures in points four times in six games since his return from injury, including highs of 19 points each vs. Notre Dame and Florida Tech.
  • Jalon Moore has reached double figures in back-to-back games (15 vs. Florida Tech, 10 vs. Pitt) for the first time since NC State (1/17) and Syracuse (1/21). He averaged 4.1 points over the seven games in between.
  • Kyle Sturdivant has averaged 11.6 points over his last seven games, having reached double figures in five of them (17 at Louisville, 13 at NC State, 12 vs. Notre Dame, 10 vs. Virginia Tech, 16 at Pitt). He has made 15-of-35 from three-point range (42.9 pct.) over that stretch.
franklinJ_vt-021523_lindsay_0107Ja'von Franklin - Georgia Tech vs. Virginia Tech, February 15, 2023, McCamish Pavilion, Atklanta, Ga.

Ja’von Franklin is averaging a double-double over Tech’s last six games. (photo by Eldon Lindsay)

 

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.