Jan. 16, 2004
ATLANTA – Back on the winning track after an 18-point win over Virginia Thursday night, No. 12 Georgia Tech hosts Maryland at 8 p.m. Saturday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The game, which will be regionally televised on the Raycom/JP Sports ACC Network (WATL-TV, Ch. 36 in Atlanta), caps a day of celebration for the Yellow Jackets’ basketball program. The annual Letterman’s Game will tip off at 4 p.m., and Tech will hang a banner from the Coliseum ceiling honoring the late Whack Hyder, the Jackets’ head coach from 1952-73.
Radio coverage of the Tech-Maryland game can be heard in Atlanta on WQXI-AM (790) and WTSH-FM (107.1).
Tech improved to 13-2 overall with Thursday’s 75-57 win over the Cavaliers, and evened its conference record at 1-1. The Terrapins are 10-3 overall and 1-1 in the ACC after defeating No. 9 North Carolina, 90-84, Wednesday night in College Park.
Like the Virginia game, Tech is hoping the home-court magic works again Saturday night. The Yellow Jackets have won all eight of their home games this season and 23 of their last 25 dating back to the end of the 2001-02 season. Tech has won three of its last four home-court meetings with Maryland, including a 90-84 win over the 8th-ranked Terrapins last season.
Tech shook off its recent early-game sluggishness against the Cavaliers with a greater defensive intensity at the outset. In each of its two losses, the Yellow Jackets found themselves quickly behind in the first half (9-0 at North Carolina, 10-2 at Georgia).
So head coach Paul Hewitt sought to get the Yellow Jackets out of that habit by shuffling the starting lineup Thrusday night against Virginia.
Senior Clarence Moore, junior Isma’il Muhammad and junior Will Bynum all made their first starts of the season Thursday night, replacing Anthony McHenry, B.J. Elder and Marvin Lewis. Hewitt had started the same five — McHenry, Elder, Lewis, Jarrett Jack, Luke Schenscher — for each of the first 14 games.
While Tech got behind 15-11 early, it was clear the Yellow Jackets were playing with greater intensity and energy early. The game reversed quickly after that as Tech forced 21 turnovers in the game and the Cavaliers made only six of their last 32 field goal attempts in the game, and missed their last 13 three-point attempts.
Tech held an opponent under 40 percent for the 11th time in 15 games, and held a team under 60 points for the seventh time this year.
Meanwhile, Lewis and Elder responded nicely, leading Tech scorers off the bench with 17 and 16 points apiece. The two combined to make 10 of 20 shots from the floor, 4 of 10 from three-point range, and 9 of 10 from the free throw line. Muhammad went 6-for-6 from the floor, including two rim-rattling dunks, and scored 13 points, while Moore added six points and six rebounds.
“Right around December, I sat those five kids down – Marvin, B.J., Isma’il, Will and Jarrett – and I told them, there are going to be times when we shuffle the lineup around,” said Hewitt. “Any combination of those can start. So that wasn’t a surprise, and I think that’s one of the reasons Marvin and B.J. handled it so well. They came off the bench and gave us a huge lift.
“Certainly Will and Isma’il, with their energy early in the game, got us off to a pretty good start. That’s what I was concerned about. I thought the last two games, we started out really passive and we weren’t attacking. Will and Isma’il really go strong off the dribble and they’ll attack you. Isma’il got off to a quick start, Will got off to a quick start, and obviously Mo has been playing well all year.”
Four Tech players are avaraging in double figures this season, led by the 6-4 junior Elder at 15.6 points a game (6th in the ACC), 6-3 sophomore Jack (13.0 ppg, 16th in the ACC), 6-4 senior Lewis (12.5 ppg, 18th in the ACC), and 6-6 junior Muhammad (11.8 ppg, 23rd in the ACC).
Jack, Tech’s point guard, and Schenscher, Tech’s 7-1 junior center, have started every game this season. Jack is second in the ACC in assist average (7.0 per game), third in steals (2.6 per game) and fifth in assist-turnover ratio (2.39-1), while shooting 50.8 percent from the floor. Schenscher averages 8.7 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds while hitting 53.5 percent of his shots. He has averaged 7.5 points and 8.5 boards in Tech’s two conference games.
Muhammad upped his conference-leading field goal percentage to 67.6 percent for the season after Thursday’s game. He has led Tech in scoring off the bench twice this season and has reached double figures nine times.
Moore is averaging 6.7 points and 4.4 rebounds for the year while hitting 45 percent of his field goals and 50 percent of his three-point attempts. Bynum, who averages 8.0 points and 2.9 assists, has scored 10.7 points a game in the last three for Tech.
Elder, who matched his career high with 25 points at Georgia and added 16 against Virginia, ranks sixth in the ACC in scoring, has hit 34.2 percent of his three-point attempts (10th in the ACC) and is shooting 41.4 percent overall. With eight more points, he will surpass 1,000 for his career.
Lewis has averaged 14.8 points in his last four games, including 17 in his last two against North Carolina and Virginia. He has shot 42.9 percent from the floor and 35.6 percent from three-point range (8th in the ACC) this season, and ranks seventh in the ACC in three-pointers per game (2.13).
Tech’s other primary reserves include McHenry (3.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg), a 6-7 junior playing strong forward, and Theodis Tarver, a 6-9 sophomore postman, who has sat out the first 13 games with a knee injury but has averaged 2.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in Tech’s last two games.
Tech has outscored its opponents by 20.7 points a game, a figure which ranks second in the ACC and fifth nationally. Tech has played just one game closer than 13 points this season, its 83-80 double-overtime loss at Georgia, and the Jackets have won two games by 50 points or more.
Tech’s opponents are shooting just 36.6 percent from the floor (Tech has held 11 of 15 opponents under 40 percent this season) and 26.6 percent from three-point range, both of which lead the ACC.
Offensively, Tech ranks third in the ACC and 19th nationally in points per game (81.3), third in the ACC and 25th nationally in field goal percentage (48.4), second in the ACC and 17th in the nation in assist average (17.7).
“At this point in the year, it’s all about trying to get better,” said Hewitt. “As you go deeper and deeper into league play, the teams are going to get better and they’re going to come at you a little harder. It’s about us getting better, especially at the offensive end of the floor. But as long as our defense continues to play the way we’ve been playing all year, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win some basketball games this season.”
Tech vs. Maryland
>Georgia Tech has lost 13 of its last 17 games with Maryland but still leads the all-time series, 31-28. Tech and Maryland split their regular season games last season, each team winning at home. The Terps won, 84-77, in College Park on Dec. 29, and the Jackets won in Atlanta, 90-84, on Feb. 9.
>Saturday’s game is the first time the two teams have met when Tech was in the top 25 and Maryland was not since Mar. 9, 1996, an ACC Tournament semifinal meeting which the Yellow Jackets won, 84-79. This is the first unranked Maryland team Tech has faced since Feb. 21, 1998.
>In the first three years under Hewitt, Tech has averaged 78.5 points a game against the Terps while allowing 83.3. Four of the six games have been decided by 10 points or fewer.
>Tech is 17-7 against Maryland at home, 16-7 in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Tech is 18-7 against the Terps all-time in the city of Atlanta, including two wins at the Omni. Tech has won three of the last four home games with Maryland, including a 72-62 victory in 2001 and 69-68 in 2000. The lone loss in that stretch occurred in the 2001-02 season by five points (92-87).
>Tech is 2-4 against Maryland under head coach Paul Hewitt, 2-1 at home. Tech is 14-16 vs. Gary Williams-coached Maryland teams.
Hyder Banner to be Hung Saturday
The late John “Whack” Hyder, Georgia Tech’s longtime head basketball coach from 1952-73, will have a banner hung from the rafters at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, alongside those of Tech’s retired jerseys, former head coach Bobby Cremins, and the late longtime Tech radio voice Al Ciraldo, during halftime Saturday.
Hyder won 292 games in 22 seasons on the Flats, leading the Jackets to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 1960 and the finals of the NIT in 1971. Among his greatest players were consensus All-American Roger Kaiser and Tech’s all-time leading scorer, Rich Yunkus.
#12/14 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (13-2, 1-1 ACC)vs. Maryland (10-3, 1-1 ACC)January 17, 2004 * 8 p.m. ET * Alexander Memorial Coliseum (9,191)
TV: Raycom/JP Sports (WATL-TV in Atlanta); Mike Goldberg, pbp; Mike Gminski, color
Radio: WQXI-AM (790) and WTSH-FM (107.1) in Atlanta; Wes Durham, pbp; Randy Waters, color
Series vs. Maryland: Tech leads, 31-28 In Atlanta: Tech is 18-7 At AMC: Tech is 16-7
Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt: 127-73 (.635), 7th season overall 61-46 (.570), 4th season at Tech 23-27 (.460) vs. the ACC 2-4 vs. Maryland (2-1 in Atlanta)
Maryland coach Gary Williams: 512-284 (.643), 26th season overall 305-156 (.661), 15th season at Maryland 16-14 vs. Georgia Tech (5-9 in Atlanta)
Next for Georgia Tech: Jan. 20 at Wake Forest, 9 p.m. ET Next for Maryland: Jan. 21 vs. Duke, 9 p.m. ET
