Jan. 26, 2004
ATLANTA –
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
With one starter out due to injury, Georgia Tech hopes to get back on the winning track Tuesday by hosting Clemson in a 7 p.m. regionally-televised game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The 14th-ranked Yellow Jackets had won three straight games before losing 76-72 at NC State Saturday. Tech is 15-3 overall, its best start since the 1985-86 season, and holds third place in the ACC standings at 3-2. A win over Clemson keeps the Jackets in third place, a loss drops them into a tie with Florida State at 3-3.
Clemson, 8-9 overall and 1-5 in the ACC, has lost four straight games since getting its only conference win against Florida State.
The game is being televised over the ACC’s regional cable network, and can be seen in Atlanta on Fox Sports Net South. The Georgia Tech/ISP Network provides the radio coverage, which can be heard in the Atlanta area on WQXI-AM (790) and WTSH-FM (107.1).
Tech also hosts Duke on Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN). The Yellow Jackets have won 11 in a row at home (9-0 this season) and 24 of their last 26 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
“We need to get better in our halfcourt offense,” said Hewitt Monday. “NC State really outhustled us the other day. Looking at the tape, however, we hurt ourselves with too many bad possessions in the first half that led to easy baskets for NC State.
“Looking at the tape, there were a lot of rebounds that they just out-contested us for. It was a 50-50 ball, and they pushed a little harder than we did.”
Senior forward Clarence Moore will sit out Tuesday night’s game, and likely Saturday’s game with Duke as well, due to a lingering turf toe injury suffered a couple of days before Tech’s game at North Carolina.
“He’s coming along and improving, but not at the pace our medical staff feels it needs to be,” said head coach Paul Hewitt. “So we’ve decided not to play him tomorrow, and more than likely he will not play Saturday.”
The 6-5 Moore, who had been rounding into form in the two games prior to the injury, jammed his right big toe in practice on Jan. 9 and has been in and out of practice since then. He had scored 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds against VCU and Georgia, making 10 of 18 shots from the floor and 4-of-8 from three-point range.
Since the injury, he has been much less effective, scoring a total of 19 points in five games despite averaging 22.6 minutes a game. He is just 6-for-19 from the floor (6-for-16 from three-point range) and has averaged 5.8 rebounds over those five games.
Hewitt has not yet decided on a replacement for Moore in the starting lineup for Tuesday night.
The biggest spark for Tech in the last three games has come from Will Bynum off the bench. The 6-0 junior guard has scored 62 points in Tech’s last three games, has broken into double figures for the season at 11.5 points a game, and also averages 3.0 assists per game and has a 1.82-1 assist-turnover ratio. He ranks sixth in the ACC in scoring average (15.8) vs. the league.
“He’s a talented player who is getting more and more comfortable with what we’re trying to do,” said Hewitt. “I knew he had the ability, but I don’t think I could have predicted the kind of outbreak he’s had.”
Four Tech players are averaging in double figures this season, led by 6-4 junior B.J. Elder at 14.7 points a game (7th in the ACC), 6-3 sophomore Jarrett Jack (13.0 ppg, 17th in the ACC), 6-4 senior Marvin Lewis (11.6 ppg, 22nd in the ACC), and 6-6 junior Isma’il Muhammad (11.6 ppg, 22nd in the ACC).
Jack, Tech’s point guard, and Luke Schenscher, Tech’s 7-1 junior center, have started every game this season. Jack is third in the ACC in assist average (6.39 per game), third in steals (2.28 per game) and sixth in assist-turnover ratio (2.09-1), while shooting 50.3 percent from the floor. Schenscher averages 8.7 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds (12th in the ACC) while hitting 53.2 percent of his shots.
Elder, who scored 14 points at NC State Saturday, ranks seventh in the ACC in scoring overall, but is averaging 11.8 points a game vs. the ACC. He has hit 32.6 percent of his three-point attempts (11th in the ACC) but has struggled overall this season at 39.7 percent.
“He’s being aggressive again,” said Hewitt. “He has practiced well. We need him to play well to reach our potential. If he continues to be aggressive, he has a way of breaking out at the right time. Against Maryland, he took the right shots and had good looks.”
Muhammad, a 6-6 defensive whiz who has started the last four games for Tech, averages 11.6 points a game, third on the team, and would lead the ACC in field goal percentage (62.7) but falls six field goals short of qualifying for the rankings.
Lewis, who has averaged 11.2 points in ACC games, is shooting 38 percent from three-point range this season (8th in the ACC) and ranks sixth in three-pointers per game (2.11).
Tech’s other primary reserves include Anthony McHenry (2.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg), a 6-7 junior playing strong forward, and Theodis Tarver, a 6-9 sophomore postman who has averaged 1.2 points and 2.8 rebounds since getting back on the court Jan. 11 after a pre-season knee injury.
Defensive pressure, both half-court and full-court, continues to be the catalyst for Tech and creates the offensive opportunities that have the Yellow Jackets averaging 80.3 points a game (third in the ACC, best in Paul Hewitt’s four years at Tech) and shooting 47.3 percent from the floor (second in the ACC).
The Jackets have allowed only five teams — Saint Louis, VCU, Georgia, North Carolina, Wake Forest — to shoot 40 percent this season, and have limited their opponents to 36.7 percent collectively and 26.8 percent from three-point range (both 1st in the ACC) while forcing 18.3 turnovers a game. Tech ranks second in those two categories vs. the league.
Tech is fourth in the ACC in scoring defense vs. all teams (62.3 points per game) and also ranks third nationally in field goal percentage defense.
Tech Series vs. Clemson
> Georgia Tech holds a slight 51-50 lead in the all-time series, but trail 23-27 since joining the ACC.
> The 101 all-time meetings are 28 more than Tech has played with any other ACC member. The home team has won 27 of the last 33 regular-season meetings.
> Tech and Clemson split their regular-season series in 2002-03. The Tigers defeated Tech on Feb. 5 by a score of 69-67 at Littlejohn Coliseum, and the Jackets avenged the defeat by a 66-56 score in Atlanta on Mar. 8 in Tech’s regular-season finale.
> Tech and Clemson have split their season series 14 times in the last 16 years. The Jackets swept the season series from the Tigers in 2000-01 for the first time since the 1985-86 season. Clemson earned a sweep in the 1996-97 season.
> The Yellow Jackets have won four of the six games between the two teams since Paul Hewitt became Tech’s head coach, with a 2-1 record each at home and at Clemson. Oliver Purnell has never faced Tech as a head coach.
> In Hewitt’s first season at Tech, the Jackets averaged 98 points in two games with Clemson, including a 111-108 win at Clemson. In 2001-02, Tech averaged 75 points per meeting, and 66.5 last year.
> Tech has an all-time record of 36-17 against the Tigers at home, including 22-12 record at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Clemson won the 2001-02 game in Atlanta, 83-76, but the Jackets won the previous four meetings in the Thrillerdome and have won 16 of 21 against the Tigers at home since 1983.
#11/13 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (15-3, 3-2 ACC)vs. Clemson (8-9, 1-5 ACC)January 27, 2004 * 7 p.m. ETAlexander Memorial Coliseum (9,191)
TV: ACC Regional Network (Fox Sports Net South in Atlanta); Mike Hogewood, pbp; Dan Bonner, color
Radio: Georgia Tech/ISP Network (flagship WQXI-AM 790); Wes Durham, pbp; Randy Waters, color
Series vs. Clemson: Tech leads, 51-50 In Atlanta: Tech is 36-18 At AMC: Tech is 22-12
Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt: 129-74 (.635), 7th season overall 63-47 (.573), 4th season at Tech 25-28 (.481) vs. the ACC 4-2 vs. Clemson (2-1 in Atlanta)
Clemson coach Oliver Purnell: 264-200 (.569), 16th season overall 8-9 (.471), 1st season at Clemson 0-0 vs. Georgia Tech
Next for Georgia Tech: Jan. 31 vs. Duke, 5 p.m. ET Next for Clemson: Jan. 31 vs. North Carolina, 12 noon ET
