Sept. 1, 2003
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech center Luke Schenscher and guard Jim Nystr?m are starting fall semester on the Flats late, but they have a very good reason. Both players represented their home countries in the 2003 World University Games men’s basketball competition in Seoul, Korea, which wrapped up Sunday.
Schenscher, a 7-1 center from Hope Forest, South Australia, led his Australian national team to a 5-3 record and a seventh-place finish in the 16-team field. The junior pivotman averaged 16.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, capping his tournament with a 29-point, 12-rebound performance in the Australians’ win over the Ukraine for seventh place. For the tournament, Schenscher made 54.3 percent of his field goal tries (including 3-of-5 from three-point range) and 65.2 percent from the foul line. He missed one game with a sprained ankle, which Australia lost to Estonia. In his last three games, Schenscher scored 22 vs. Bulgaria, 22 vs. Turkey and 29 vs. the Ukraine, hitting 29 of 46 shots (63 percent) from the floor.
Nystr?m, a 6-4 guard from Stockholm, Sweden, helped his team to a 4-4 record and 11th place in Seoul, starting six of the eight games. He averaged 14.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in eight games, shot 47.6 percent from the floor, 44.0 percent (11-of-25) from three-point range and 85.0 percent from the free throw line. Nystr?m’s high game was 23 points in a win over Japan, and he also scored 20 in a win over China. He hit double figures in six games.
Both players will be counted on for important roles on this year’s Yellow Jacket squad, which is coming off a 16-15 campaign and a quarter-final berth in the National Invitation Tournament. Schenscher started 16 of 30 games last year, averaging 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds. Nystr?m averaged 1.2 points in nine games.
Tech begins pre-season practice Oct. 18, and opens the season Nov. 18 at home against Louisiana-Lafayette in the Pre-Season NIT.
