Feb. 4, 2013
Complete Game Notes | Coach Gregory – ACC Teleconference | Coach Gregory with local media (video) | Buy tickets
THE FLATS – Following an important home-court victory over Virginia on Saturday, Georgia Tech turns around quickly to host defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion Florida State in a 9 p.m. regionally-televised game Tuesday at McCamish Pavilion.
Tech (12-8, 2-6 ACC) got back on the winning track Sunday with a 66-60 victory over second-place Virginia, snapping the Cavaliers’ four-game conference winning streak and improving its record at McCamish Pavilion to 10-2 at this season. The Yellow Jackets are averaging more than five points a game higher in conference play this season than they did a year ago.
Tuesday’s game can be heard over the Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network (790 AM, 106.7 FM in Atlanta), as well as satellite radio (Sirius Ch. 123, XM Ch. 190). The game is being televised on the ACC’s regional cable network, including Fox Sports South in Atlanta, and is also available online via ESPN3 outside the ACC footprint.
Florida State (12-9, 4-4 ACC) comes to Atlanta having lost four of its last six games, including a 79-60 loss to Duke at home on Saturday. The Seminoles captured road victories at Clemson and Maryland in their first two ACC games this season, and completed season sweeps of those teams with home victories.
This is Tech’s only meeting with Florida State this season, closing out the first half of the team’s 18-game ACC slate. The Yellow Jackets pay a visit to Cassell Coliseum for its second game against Virginia Tech Saturday at 1 p.m.
Opening Tip
• The Yellow Jackets are looking to snap a seven-game losing streak to Florida State, which is Tech’s longest in the series.
• Tuesday night is the third of five 9 p.m. starts for the Yellow Jackets this season, and the first of two at home.
• Tech has a one-day prep for a game twice this season. The UVA and FSU games are both at home and have tip times 54 hours apart. Next week, the Yellow Jackets host Clemson on Thursday night and travel to Wake Forest for a Saturday afternoon game, with tip times 43 hours apart.
• Georgia Tech’s win over Virginia was its 12th of the season, surpassing last year’s total.
• Tech has led at the half in four of its eight ACC games. Tech’s biggest halftime deficit was 10 to Miami. Tech is 4-4 this season overall when it has trailed at the half.
• Tech’s loss at North Carolina is the only game this season in which the Yellow Jackets neither led, nor were tied past opening tip. Tech has led wire-to-wire in three games – Georgia, The Citadel and Wake Forest.
• Five of Tech’s losses this year have come against teams ranked in the top 50 of the CBSSports.com RPI rankings – Illinois (48), Miami (2), NC State (20), Duke (1) and North Carolina (34). The Yellow Jackets have return meetings with Miami, NC State and North Carolina in the second half of the conference season.
• After getting outrebounded in its first three ACC games by an average of 9.3, Tech has outrebounded Duke, North Carolina, Clemson and Virginia, and tied Wake Forest, on the boards in its last five games.
• Tech is 10-2 at home in its first season in McCamish Pavilion and has averaged 7,264 in attendance with two sellouts.
• Tech has played just five true road games this season, four against teams ranked in the top 35 of the CBSSports.com RPI rankings top 25 – a 75-62 loss to No. 22 Illinois on Nov. 28, an 83-70 loss to No. 16 NC State on Jan. 9, a 73-57 loss at No. 1 Duke on Jan. 17 and a 79-63 loss to No. 34 North Carolina on Jan. 23.
• Tech still has its best 20-game start since the 2009-10 season, in which the Yellow Jackets won seven in a row on their way to a 15-5 start. Tech had won six straight this season before a Jan. 5 loss to Miami.
• Six of Tech’s eight losses have come by double digits, the 70-65 overtime loss to Virginia Tech and the 63-60 defeat at Clemson being the exceptions. Eight of the Yellow Jackets 12 victories have been by double digits, the closest game being Sunday’s 66-60 win over Virginia.
• NC State is the only team to reach 80 points (83) against Tech this season and the only team to shoot 50 percent (50.9) from the floor.
• Tech continues to be ranked high in the nation in scoring defense (39th) and field goal percentage defense (22nd), and ranks fourth in the ACC in both categories.
• Tech’s losses have come to teams with a combined record of 116-52 (through Feb. 3), and only two of those games were at home. Saint Mary’s (18-4) has the best overall record among the opponents Tech has beaten.
• Tech’s lineup for 15 of the first 16 games had been Mfon Udofia and Brandon Reed at the guards, Marcus Georges-Hunt and Robert Carter, Jr., at the forwards and Daniel Miller at center. Chris Bolden replaced Reed in game 16 at Duke and has started the last five games.
Series Notes vs. Florida State
• Florida State has won the last seven games in the series, including a 68-54 win in Tallahassee in the teams’ only regular-season meeting of 2011-12. Georgia Tech’s last win over the Seminoles occurred in Tallahassee on Feb. 13, 2007 by a score of 63-57.
• Last year’s FSU win was the first meeting since February of 2004 to be decided by double digits. The 12 meetings in between were decided by an average of three points per game.
• The scores of each of the last eight games, dating back to the last Tech win, have been in the 60s, with the exception of FSU’s 72-66 win on Feb. 10 in Atlanta. Tech has not scored more than 66 points against FSU in any of the last eight meetings.
• Since FSU joined the ACC, Tech is 17-22 against the Seminoles. Florida State won the first six in a row, Tech followed by winning five straight, and is 12-16 against the Seminoles since then.
• In those 39 games, 19 have been decided by four points or less, 28 by 10 points or less. One of those games went to double-overtime, which the Yellow Jackets won 111-108 on Feb. 11, 1999 in Tallahassee.
• Tech is 16-15 against the Seminoles in Atlanta, all but one of those games at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
• Tech is 6-10 against Seminoles teams led by head coach Leonard Hamilton. Tech is 7-10 against Hamilton overall, with a victory over his Miami team in December of 1997.
• Tech is 10-19 in games played in Tallahassee, including a 7-12 mark at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, formerly known as the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center.
• Tech and Florida State were both members of the old Metro Conference from 1976-78, and the Seminoles won three of those four meetings.
• Florida State has won both ACC Tournament meetings between the schools, including a 64-62 win at the Georgia Dome in 2009.
