July 7, 2010
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt participated in a successful FIBA Americas U18 championship, in which the USA team captured the Gold Medal with an 81-78 victory over Brazil last week in San Antonio, Texas. Hewitt was an assistant coach on the staff, which also included head coach Jeff Capel from Oklahoma and assistant coach Reggie Witherspoon of Buffalo.
Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States qualified for the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship, which will be held in Latvia. The victory marked the fifth (1990, 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010) U18 gold medal for the USA, the last coming in 2006, when Hewitt last served as an assistant coach for the team.
With the win, the U.S. upped its overall record to 38-2 at this event, and has also won one silver medal (2008) and one bronze medal (2002) at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship.
The USA team went 3-0 in its group this year, defeating the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mexico and Argentina, then downed Canada, 122-89 in the medal semifinals.
For more complete information on the FIBA Americas U18 Championship, go to – http://www.usabasketball.com/mens/u18/schedule.html
Tech Making Trip to the Bahamas in December
Georgia Tech and Richmond will face each other for the first time since the 1992-93 season when they meet Dec. 18 at the Atlantis Resort in Paradise Island, Bahamas. The game is part of a doubleheader in which Virginia Tech takes on Mississippi State. More details will be announced later this summer, and Tech’s entire schedule will be announced in mid-August.
This will be the fourth trip off the mainland of the United States for Tech’s basketball team since the 2006-07 team, when the Yellow Jackets played in the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Hewitt’s team also has played in the 2007 Paradise Jam in the St. Thomas, USVI, and the 2009 O’reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Georgia Tech has an all-time record of 5-4 against Richmond. The last meeting took place at the Robins Center in Richmond, a 65-60 Tech victory, in 1993.
For What It’s Worth …
Some items and records from the 2009-10 season …
Gani Lawal, with 305 rebounds last season, and Favors, with 303, became the No. 1 rebounding tandem for a single season in Georgia Tech history, totaling 608. That was 38 better than the previous best of 570, set by Malcolm Mackey (316) and Matt Geiger (274) in the 1991-92 season.
As a team, Tech missed a school record for rebounds in a season by two. The Yellow Jackets snared 1,430 rebounds last season, and the 1991-92 squad totaled 1,432. Tech’s rebound margin of plus-4.7 per game was the second highest in school history.
Tech’s 190 blocked shots, led by Derrick Favors with 74, was the second-highest total in school history.
With the additions of Gani Lawal (1,067 points) and Zachery Peacock (1,009) to the list, Georgia Tech now has 40 players who have scored 1,000 points or more in their Yellow Jacket careers. Only two players on that list, Peacock (8.3 points per game) and Jason Floyd (8.4), did not average 10 or more points for their careers.
Iman Shumpert, a junior with 629 career points, is poised to become the 41st member of the 1,000-point club.
Gani Lawal averaged 13.1 points per game to lead Georgia Tech during the 2009-10 season. That was the lowest scoring average to lead a Yellow Jacket team since the 11.1 points per game scored by Jim Wood in the 1973-74 season. It was the third lowest leading average for a season since the 1952-53 season, as far back as records exist.
Tech’s opponents attempted more three-point field goals (762) than in any previous season. But they converted on just 31.5 percent, the third lowest in the three-point era. Tech’s foes made just 38.4 percent of their field goal attempts overall, which ranks as the fifth-lowest as far as records go back.
Derrick Favors fell one field goal shy of meeting the minimum of five field goals made per game to qualify for the ACC and NCAA statistical percentage rankings. With one more field goal made, Favors would have led the ACC and the nation with his field goal percentage of 61.1.
