Nov. 24, 2010
Complete Georgia Tech game notes
Official Legends Classic site
Find HDNet in your area
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech ends a week-long break in its schedule Friday with a trip to Atlantic City, N.J., for the championship round of the Legends Classic and a game against UTEP Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Boardwalk Hall.
Syracuse and Michigan will face off in the other semifinal game Friday at 8 p.m. The winners will advance to the championship game at 8 p.m. Saturday, while the losing teams from Friday’s semfinals will play each other at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Live national TV of all four games is available in high definition only on HDNet. Fans who wish to see the game live should contact their cable or satellite provider to sign up for HDNet. Information on whether your provider carries HDNet can be found here.
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (3-1, 0-0 ACC) vs. UTEP Miners (3-1, 0-0 C-USA)
Date: Friday, November 26, 2010
Tipoff: 5:30 p.m. Eastern time
Site: Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J. (capacity 14,770)
Television: HDNet – Kenny Rice, play-by-play; Tom Walsh, Seth Davis, color
Radio: Georgia Tech/ISP Sports Network, live on flagship station WQXI-AM (790 the Zone) and WYAY-FM (106.7) – Randy Waters, play-by-play; Jon Babul, color.
Satellite Radio: XM Ch. 190
On the web: www.Ramblinwreck.com; www.twitter/com/gtathletics; www.facebook.com/gtathletics
Tech Record Breakdown: 3-0 at home, 0-1 on the road, 0-0 neutral
Series History: UTEP leads, 2-0
Tech at Boardwalk Hall: 0-1 (lost to Temple, 76-58, in 1996)
Tech (3-1) has won two straight games since an 80-63 loss in its only other road game to date. The Yellow Jackets rebounded from that loss with a pair of homecourt wins over Albany (78-51) and Niagara (77-51) in the Atlanta regional round of the Legends Classic,
Head coach Paul Hewitt’s team returns two starters and eight letterwinners from a team that won three games in last year’s ACC Tournament to reach the championship game, then won their first-round game in the NCAA Tournament. Tech has been picked to finish ninth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Miners, 3-1 in their first season under head coach Tim Floyd, are playing their first game away from home after four straight home games. UTEP lost to Pacific (66-61) in its opener before defeating Mercer, Western Carolina and New Mexico State in succession.
Hewitt is in his 11th season at Tech, the third-longest tenure of any ACC head coach behind Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (30th season) and Maryland’s Gary Williams (22nd season), and has a record of 180-145.
Series vs. UTEP
Georgia Tech is facing UTEP for the first time since 1981. The Miners won both of the previous meetings, 73-44 on Dec. 18, 1981, and 75-71 on Dec. 20, 1968. Both games took place in the Sun Bowl Tournament at the Special Events Center in El Paso, Texas.
Series vs. Michigan, Syracuse
Michigan – The Yellow Jackets and Wolverines have met seven times previously, and Tech holds a 4-3 edge. The last two meetings took place in Atlanta, the most recent a 99-68 Tech win at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in the 2004 ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Michigan captured an 80-77 win over the Jackets at Philips Arena in the 1999 ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
> The other five games, dating back to 1966, all occurred on neutral courts, one in the 1971 NIT (post-season) and one in the 1995 Preseason NIT, both at Madison Square Garden.
Syracuse – Tech and Syracuse have faced each other three times previously, with the Yellow Jackets winning twice. The Orangemen won the most recent encounter, a 92-65 victory on Dec. 21, 2002 at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse went on to win the national championship that year, and Tech would reach the national championship game the next season.
> The other two meetings took place on neutral floors in Atlanta, including a 96-80 Tech win at Philips Arena in December of 2001, and a 70-53 Yellow Jackets triumph in the second round of the 1985 NCAA Tournament at the Omni.
Tech at Boardwalk Hall
Georgia Tech has played basketball in Atlantic City before, and in the same building that hosts this weekend’s Legends Classic.
The Yellow Jackets lost to Temple, 76-58, on Dec. 7, 1996, in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, as the arena was then known.
Built in 1929, the historic building hosted the nation’s first indoor college football game, was used as a headquarters and training facility by the Army Air Forces during World War II, and was listed on the United States Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
The facility underwent a $90 million renovation beginning in 1998, and was renamed Boardwalk Hall when it reopened in 2001.
