March 18, 2003
ATLANTA – Georgia Tech, in the post-season for the 16th time in the last 20 years with its 2003 berth in the National Invitation Tournament, hosts Ohio State in the first round at 7 p.m. Wednesday night at Alexander Memorial Coliseum at McDonald’s Center.
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2, with radio coverage provided by the Georgia Tech-ISP Network, airing in Atlanta on WTSH-FM (107.1) only.
Tickets, priced at $20 for reserved seats, can be purchased online at Ramblinwreck.com. All tickets purchased online can be picked up in person at the ticket office Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., or at will call (Gate 1) beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets can also be purchased at Alexander Memorial Coliseum Gates 1 and 2, beginning at 5p.m. Wednesday.
Tech students must also purchase tickets, and student tickets are priced at $5 and can be purchased at Alexander Memorial Coliseum Gate 2, beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday. A valid Buzz Card must be presented to purchase a student ticket.
Tech has a 14-14 record following a 71-65 loss to NC State in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., on Friday. The Buckeyes, which posted a 7-9 regular season record in the Big Ten, advanced to the finals of the conference tournament before losing to Illinois in the championship game, and enter the NIT with a 17-14 overall mark.
Tech must win at least one game in the NIT to avoid a second consecutive sub-.500 season. The Jackets finished 15-16 a year ago following a first-round loss in the ACC Tournament. Tech entered the NIT with an even won-loss record once before, in 1999, when the Jackets lost to Oregon, 67-64, to finish 15-16.
The 2003 NIT is Tech’s 19th post-season appearance overall, and seventh trip to the NIT. Wednesday’s game against Ohio State is the second meeting for the Yellow Jackets against a Big Ten opponent this season. Tech lost a 64-63 decision at Minnesota on Dec. 4.
The winner of Wednesday night’s game must await the outcome of two games that will determine its second-round opponent. Iowa, which defeated Valparaiso Monday night faces the winner of Wednesday night’s game between Wichita State and Iowa State later this week. That survivor will face the Tech-OSU winner Monday or Tuesday of next week.
“We’re looking at this as another opportunity to get better,” said head coach Paul Hewitt. “We need to use this opportunity to work on some of the things that we never really corrected during the regular season. Overall improvement is what we want. I can’t really point to one specific area.
“Ohio State is a very well-coached basketball team. I watched Coach O’Brien’s teams for many years. I was at Villanova when he was at Boston College, and there isn’t much change from what he did at BC. They’re very precise in their halfcourt offense. They’re probably the best screening team we’ve seen all year. They’re a physically strong team. So we’ll have to communicate well on defense.”
TECH IN THE NIT
This is Georgia Tech’s seventh appearance in the National Invitation Tournament, and the Yellow Jackets have a 6-6 overall record. Tech’s last appearance occurred in 1999, a 67-64 loss at Oregon in the first round.
Tech has also appeared in the NIT in 1970, 1971, 1984, 1994 and 1998. The Jackets reached the finals of the 1971 tournament at Madison Square Garden, losing 84-64 to North Carolina in the championship game. Tech’s deepest advance into the NIT since then was the quarterfinals in 1998, when the Yellow Jackets played three home games, defeating Seton Hall and Georgetown before falling to Penn State.
Tech has suffered three first-round losses in the NIT, all on the road to Virginia Tech (1984), Siena (1994) and Oregon (1999).
Since the NIT moved its early rounds to campus sites in 1977, Tech has not advanced to the final four in New York. It has, however, reached the final four of the Pre-Season NIT twice.
QUICK LOOK AT TECH
Georgia Tech’s starting lineup includes 6-3 freshman Jarrett Jack at the point, 6-4 junior Marvin Lewis and 6-4 sophomore B.J. Elder on the wings, and 7-1 sophomore Luke Schenscher and 6-10 freshman Chris Bosh in the frontcourt. Bosh and Jack are the only Tech players to start every game this season.
This lineup has started the last three games against Virginia, Clemson and NC State and 13 games altogether this season, and Tech is 8-5 in those games. Ed Nelson, Tech’s 6-8 sophomore forward, started the seven games prior to that in place of Schenscher, but has played well in a reserve role in the last three games (8.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg).
Tech has three players ranked among the ACC’s top 18 in scoring, led by Bosh, a second-team all-ACC performer who ranks eighth in the ACC in scoring at 15.4 points per game, leads the ACC in field goal percentage (55.8) and blocked shots (2.11 per game) and is second in rebounding (8.9). Bosh, who has 12 double-doubles this season, averaged 15.9 points and was 17-of-31 from the floor in Tech’s last three games.
Elder and Lewis form one of the league’s top three-point shooting tandems. Elder, who scored 20 points in Tech’s last regular-season game against Clemson, ranks ninth in the conference at 15.1 points a game overall, seventh in overall field goal percentage at 46.2 percent, and sixth in the league in three-point percentage (39.9). Lewis ranks 18th in the ACC overall at 12.6 points per game and is eighth in three-point percentage (38.4), but has struggled in his last two games (0-12 from three).
Jack, Tech’s fourth-leading scorer at 9.7 points along with 5.9 assists (fourth in the ACC), has given the Jackets another scoring threat of late, averaging 12.7 points over his last 12 games. He scored a career-best 21 Mar. 5 at Virginia. Schenscher averages 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, while hitting 47.1 percent of his shots, but has played very few minutes in the last three games despite starting.
Nelson, the ACC’s sixth-leading rebounder at 7.0 per game along with 8.4 points a game, has averaged 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in Tech’s last five games and has played the majority of minutes in the post despite not starting. Tech also gets reserve help from Isma’il Muhammad, a 6-6 sophomore forward averaging 5.7 points and 3.8 rebounds, and Anthony McHenry, a 6-7 sophomore averaging 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds, both of whom provide excellent defense on the wing.
Theodis Tarver (2.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg), a 6-9 freshman, and Robert Brooks (0.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg), a 6-8 junior, have given the Jackets a lift in the last two weeks with key minutes off the bench in the post, while Jim Nystrom, a 6-4 freshman from Sweden, has averaged 1.2 points in limited play as a backcourt reserve.
“Theodis is a guy who have played well of late,” said Hewitt. “You might see him in the starting lineup Wednesday night. He’s progressed to the point where I believe he deserves an opportunity. He’s an active defender, and he plays strong around the basket. This tournament give him an opportunity to tack some more games onto his freshman year.”
BOSH, ELDER EARN ALL-ACC HONORS
Georgia Tech freshman Chris Bosh has been named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference second team, and sophomore B.J. Elder was named to the third team in voting by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. It is the first time since 1996 that Tech has had more than one honoree. Bosh, a 6-10 forward from Lancaster, Texas, is the only freshman player named to this year’s first and second team. He leads Tech and ranks eighth in the ACC in scoring at 15.4 points per game. He leads the ACC in field goal percentage (55.8) and blocked shots (2.11 per game), and ranks second in rebounding (8.9 per game). A McDonald’s All-America as a high school senior last year, Bosh also has been named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team and All-Rookie team. Elder, an ACC All-Freshman choice a year ago, has averaged 15.1 points a game while ranking seventh in the conference in field goal percentage (46.2). The 6-4 guard is sixth in three-point percentage (.393) and ninth in three-point field goals per game.
TECH SERIES VS. OHIO STATE
Ohio State has dominated the series with Georgia Tech, winning 11 of 12 games since the teams first played on the hardwood in 1926.
The teams are meeting for the first time since Mar. 17, 1991, when the Buckeyes defeated Tech, 65-61, in the NCAA Midwest Regional second round in Dayton, Ohio. Tech and Ohio State met in the NCAA Tournament one other time, resulting in an 86-69 win by the 3rd-ranked Buckeyes in the 1960 Mideast second round. OSU went on to win the national championship.
Ohio State is visiting Alexander Memorial Coliseum for the first time since 1973. Tech is 1-3 against the Buckeyes on its home court, the lone win in the series coming by an 84-73 score on Jan. 11, 1967.
The closest games in the series were a 74-71 OSU win in Columbus on Jan. 26, 1979, and the above-mentioned 65-61 Buckeye victory in the 1991 NCAA Tournament. Overall, the average margin of victory has been 8.8 points.
Tech and Ohio State have two common opponents this season, thanks to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Tech dropped a 64-63 decision to Minnesota in Minneapolis on Dec. 4, while Ohio State defeated the Golden Gophers at home, 73-68, on Feb. 5. The Buckeyes lost their ACC-Big Ten Challenge game to Duke, 91-76, on Dec. 3, in Greensboro, while Tech dropped both its games with the Blue Devils, 91-71 in Durham and 77-58 in Atlanta.
THE COMFORTS OF HOME
Georgia Tech is 12-2 at home this season, its best home mark since the 1994-95 campaign, when the Yellow Jackets went 14-2. Only 10 other teams have posted a better record, percentage-wise, since the arena opened for the 1956-57 season.
Tech’s home wins include then-No. 17 Georgia in the second game of the campaign on Nov. 27 and ACC wins over NC State, Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia and No. 8 Maryland. The Yellow Jackets have won 15 of their last 18 at home.
The Yellow Jackets have averaged 80.1 points per game at home this season and outscored their guests by an average of 1.8 points. Tech has shot 46.7 percent from the floor and 41.8 percent from three-point range at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, while holding its guests to 40.5 percent overall.
In ACC home games: Tech outscored its foes by an average margin of 7.5 points a game, outshot them 46.3 percent to 42.3 percent overall, and 41.8 percent to 37.9 percent from three-point range. Tech has a rebound margin of plus-3.2, and has made 77.0 percent of its free throws.
TECH SCORING INSIDE, NOT OUT
Georgia Tech’s biggest problem over the last month of the season has been scoring. Since defeating Maryland, 90-84, on Feb. 9, the Yellow Jackets have averaged 66.6 points a game, almost eight points below their season average, and that includes a 90-point outburst at Virginia on Mar. 5.
The main culprit has been a brown-out from the perimeter. Tech has managed just 27.0 percent from behind the three-point line over the same period (33-of-122), and has been even worse over the last five games at 23.1 percent (15-of-65).
Tech did a much better job of getting the ball inside in its last four games, however. The Jackets scored 158 of their 287 points in the paint, including 52 against the Cavaliers (best since Tech’s season opener) and 40 of 65 against NC State in the ACC Tournament.
The emphasis on getting the ball inside resulted in a 50-percent shooting mark against North Carolina and 54.7 percent against Virginia. It was the first time Tech has shot 50 percent in consecutive games since late in the 2000-01 season (vs. Wake Forest and NC State). Tech’s 90 points at Virginia matched its best for a conference game this year and was its highest score in an ACC road game since Jan. 24, 2001 at Clemson.
