Tech Hoops Closes Home Slate with MiamiTech Hoops Closes Home Slate with Miami
Men's Basketball

Tech Hoops Closes Home Slate with Miami

Yellow Jackets and Wolfpack tip off at 3 p.m. EST Saturday at McCamish Pavilion

GEORGIA TECH (15-14, 9-9 ACC) vs. MIAMI (6-23, 2-16 ACC)

 

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THE FLATS – Looking to lock down a first-round bye in next week’s Atlanta Coast Conference Tournament, Georgia Tech concludes its home schedule Tuesday night with a 7 p.m. game vs. Miami at McCamish Pavilion.

Tech (15-14, 9-9 ACC) has won six of its last eight games since the start of February after cruising past NC State, 87-62, Saturday at home and splitting two games on its last road trip with a 73-67 win at Pittsburgh. The Yellow Jackets have won their last five ACC home games, including a 60-52 win over Stanford and a 90-88 overtime win against California in mid-February, a 77-70 win over No. 21 Louisville to open the month, and a 71-64 win over Virginia Tech on Jan. 22. Tech also has won twice on the road (Pitt and its 3-OT win at Clemson) during February.

Miami (6-23, 2-16 ACC) has dropped five games in a row after its 92-73 defeat Saturday at North Carolina. The Hurricanes last won Feb. 11, with a 93-84 win over Syracuse, and also defeated Notre Dame at home, 63-57 on Feb. 1. Miami is 0-9 in true road games, and 0-13 away from their home court.

Tuesday’s game will be televised live on the ACC Network, with a live stream available on 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). The Tech broadcast is also available on Sirius XM channel 84 and the SiriusXM app.

THE TIP-OFF

  • Georgia Tech would clinch a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament and at least a No. 8 seed with a win over Miami. The Yellow Jackets are alone in 8th place in the ACC standings, one game ahead of Virginia Tech (8-10), 2 games ahead of Florida State, Pittsburgh and Virginia (all at 7-11). Tech holds a tiebreaker over Virginia Tech.
  • Mathematically, Tech can still catch Stanford (11-7) and earn the No. 7 seed since it also has a tiebreaker over the Cardinal.
  • Tech has won 6 of its last 8 games (Feb. 1 to the present), 7 of its last 10.
  • Tech is 13-5 on its home court after beginning the season 2-3, and 7-2 in ACC games, having clinched its first winning home conference record since the 2020-21 season, when the Jackets were 8-1.
  • Tech has won 5-straight ACC games at home, the first time the Jackets have accomplished that since late in the 2019-20 season, when they won their final 7 ACC home games.
  • A win over Miami would make this Tech team just the seventh in program history to win 14 or more games at home in a regular season, and the first since the 2016-17 season, when the Jackets were 17-4 (including two home games in the NIT).
  • The Jackets have their most wins overall (15) and in conference (9) since 2020-21.
  • Tech is the only ACC team to defeat both Clemson and Louisville, the teams tied for 2nd place in the standings, this season. The Jackets stopped a 10-game winning streak by Louisville, which has gone on to win 7-straight since, and stopped a 6-game win streak by Clemson, which responded by defeating Duke and North Carolina and has won 6-straight since.
  • Duncan Powell was named Lute Olson National Player of the Week honors on Monday. The 6-foot-8 junior helped the Yellow Jackets to a pair of conference wins last week, averaging 24.5 points, and 6.5 rebounds per game. Powell posted a career-high 26 points in Tuesday’s win at Pittsburgh. He also set a new personal best with six made threes. He shot 56.6% from the field, including 50% from beyond the arc.
  • Tech has had five or more players average double figures for a season just three times in its history (six in 1964-65 and five in 1985-86 and 1991-92. This year’s team is likely to become the fourth – Lance Terry (14.8 ppg), Baye Ndongo (13.3), Naithan George (12.6), Javian McCollum (12.2) and Duncan Powell (11.6).
  • The same five Yellow Jackets have averages in double-digits for ACC games only – Powell (14.6), Terry (14.3), George (14.1), Ndongo (14.1) and McCollum (12.9). If it holds, they would be the third quintet to finish an ACC regular season all averaging in double digits (1985-86, 1991-92).
  • Tech has played with just 8 scholarship players over its last 6 games, continuing to compete without forwards Kowacie Reeves, Jr. (out last 23 games with a foot injury) and Luke O’Brien (out last 18 games with a toe injury) and guard Javian McCollum (out last 6 games with a head injury). The Jackets are 4-2 in those 6 games.

SERIES NOTES VS. MIAMI

  • Georgia Tech won the teams’ only regular-season meeting in 2023-24 with an 80-76 victory in Coral Gables, and has won five of the last seven meetings.
  • Miami has 15-12 edge against the Yellow Jackets since it joined the ACC. Tech won the first two meetings against Miami after they became members of the ACC, but Hurricanes won nine of the next 11 before the Yellow Jackets captured eight of the last 14.
  • Tech is 7-7 against Miami on its own home court, including a 3-4 mark at McCamish Pavilion. The Hurricanes also defeated the Jackets twice at Philips Arena in the 2011-12 season, one during the regular season and the other in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.
  • Miami was the opponent for Tech in its last game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, a game the Yellow Jackets won 66-57 to close out the 2010-11 regular season. Tech won four of six games against the Hurricanes in the building. Miami also was the first ACC team to play Tech in McCamish Pavilion, a 62-49 Tech loss on Jan. 5, 2013.
  • Nineteen of the 30 meetings have been decided by 10 points or less.
  • Tech was 8-9 against Miami teams coached by Jim Larrañaga, and is 1-0 vs. interim coach Bill Courtney in his previous head coaching stint at Cornell (a 116-81 victory in November of 2015).
  • The teams met three times prior to Miami joining the ACC, the most recent being a December 1997 meeting that was part of the Orange Bowl Classic at Miami Arena, the Hurricanes’ home court until the team moved into the on-campus Convocation Center (now called the Watsco Center). The Yellow Jackets won that game, 69-61, over a Hurricanes’ team coached by Leonard Hamilton.

TECH BYTES

  • Tech collected 40 points from offensive rebounds to just 6 for its opponents in its two wins last week (17/2 vs. Pitt, 23/4 vs. NC State).
  • Tech held both opponents last week under 40 percent from the floor (Pitt 36.8%, NC State 37.7%) and have held six ACC foes under that mark this season.
  • Tech has exceeded 1 point per possession in 9 of its last 11 games and is 7-4 in those games. The Jackets have limited their opponents to less than 1 point per possession 4 times in that stretch, winning all 4 (Virginia Tech, Louisville, Stanford, NC State). The Yellow Jackets’ 1.26 points per possession against the Wolfpack was their second best of the year behind Notre Dame on Dec. 31 (1.34) and NC State’s 0.89 points-per-possession rate was the third-lowest allowed by Tech in ACC play this season.
  • Tech has attempted 62 more free throws than its opponents in ACC play (+3.4 per game). The Yellow Jackets have not finished a season with more FT attempts than their opponents since 2016-17, and only once since 2000.
  • Tech is No. 2 in the ACC in limiting league opponents’ trips to the free throw line, holding them to a 25.3% rate of FTA to FGA. Tech has committed 19 fewer fouls than its opponents over its last 8 games.
  • In Tech’s last 8 games, Tech’s sophomore duo of Naithan George and Baye Ndongo have accounted for nearly half (47.5%) of the Yellow Jackets’ points (281 of 591), and they have scored 102 of Tech’s 214 field goals and 55 of its 103 free throws.
  • Nine of Tech’s 18 ACC games this season have been decided by single digits, including 7 of the last 9 (71-64 win over Virginia Tech, 71-68 loss at Notre Dame, 77-70 win over Louisville, 89-86 win over Clemson, 60-52 win over Stanford, 90-88 win over Cal, 73-67 at Pittsburgh).
  • Tech has utilized 9 different starting lineups through 29 games this season, all a result of injury. Twelve different players have started a game for Tech this season, 11 different players have started an ACC game.
  • Sophomores Baye Ndongo and Naithan George are the only Yellow Jackets to have appeared in every game this season. No one else has started more than 21, and only one (Lance Terry) has started more than 11.
  • For the first time in Georgia Tech’s ACC era, two players (Baye Ndongo, Duncan Powell) posted 20+ points and 10+ rebounds in the same ACC game. Overall, since 1979-80, that has happened only one other time, vs. Georgia State on Nov. 25, 2020, a 4-overtime game in which Moses Wright (31/19), Michael Devoe (24/13) and Jose Alvarado (29/10) reached those marks in a 123-120 game.
  • Ndongo has 11 double-doubles this season and his 7 in Tech’s last 8 games after a career-high 29 points and 17 rebounds against NC State, which were 2 short of his career best. It was the 3rd game this season and 4th in his career in which he scored 20 points with 10 rebounds.
  • Ndongo has averaged 17.9 points (56.7% FG), 13.4 rebounds and nearly two blocks (15 total) over Tech’s last 8 games.
  • Powell averaged 17.3 points and 5.2 rebounds over his last 11 games, scoring double digits 10 of them and 20 or more in 4 games. The Sacramento State transfer hit 45.9% (62-of-135) from the floor, 39.4% (26-of-66) from three-point range and 76.9% (40-of-52) from the foul line in that stretch.
  • Powell has shot a team-high 38.7% on 93 3-point attempts in ACC play, ranking 9th in 3s per game, and has been to the foul line 77 times, second only to Ndongo (72.7%).
  • Naithan George scored a season-low 2 points against NC State, but operated Tech’s offense with a career-high 12 assists, beating his previous best of 11 vs. Notre Dame last season and Central Arkansas this season. It was his fourth career 10-assist game, and he has beaten his assist average of 6.4 (No. 1 in the ACC) 14 times.
  • Across Tech’s last 8 games, George has averaged 17.3 points, 7.1 assists and 4.5 boards, a stretch which includes which includes 4 straight 20-point efforts against Clemson, Virginia, Stanford and California.

 

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its second season under head coach Damon Stoudamire. 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.