Tech Set to Face Louisville in ACC Tournament

Georgia Tech vs. Louisville

Tuesday, March 8, 2022 | 7 p.m. ET | Brooklyn, N.Y. | Barclays Center

Television:  ACC Network

Play-by-Play:  Dave O’Brien  |  Analyst:  Cory Alexander

Radio: Georgia Tech Sports Network by Legends Sports (In Atlanta: 680 AM/93.7 The Fan | SiriusXM 81 and 80, SiriusXM app 81 and 80 | Listen Online | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets App | TuneIn

Play-by-Play: Andy Demetra  |  Analyst: Randy Waters

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Facing each other for the first time in more than two months, Georgia Tech and Louisville square off in the opening round of the 69th annual New York Life Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament with a 7 p.m. contest Tuesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Tech (12-19 overall, 5-15 ACC) enters the ACC Tournament on a winning note, having defeated Boston College, 82-78 in overtime, Saturday at home to snap a four-game losing streak. The victory, coupled with NC State’s loss at Florida State, left the Yellow Jackets with the No. 14 seed in defense of its 2021 championship.

Third-team All-ACC guard Michael Devoe (Orlando, Fla.), the reigning ACC Tournament MVP and the conference’s No. 3-leading scorer (18.00 points per game), No. 7 three-point shooter by volume (2.30 per game) and No. 4 by percentage (37.0), leads the Jackets along with senior forward Jordan Usher (Canton, Ga.), averaging 14.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Louisville (12-18 overall, 6-14 ACC) defeated the Yellow Jackets in a tight affair, 67-64, on Jan. 2 in Atlanta, a victory that was part of a 4-0 start to conference play. But the Cardinals lost 14 of 16 games after that and changed coaches along the way, winding up in a tie for 11th place in the league standings at the end of the regular season. Louisville comes to Brooklyn on a four-game skid, including a 71-61 home loss Saturday to Virginia.

The winner of the Tech-Louisville game advances to meet No. 6-seed Virginia at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, and the winner of that game faces No. 3-seed North Carolina at 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

Tuesday’s game will be televised live on the ACC Network, with a live stream available through the ESPN app. Radio coverage will be on the Georgia Tech Sports Network by Legends Sports and flagship station WCNN (680/93.7 the Fan), and on satellite radio (XM channel 371, SiriusXM app 371).

Defending ACC Tourney champs on the way to Brooklyn#TogetherWeSwarm pic.twitter.com/XpImrFVr9h

— Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball (@GTMBB) March 6, 2022

TECH’S ACC TOURNAMENT HISTORY

Georgia Tech has played in 41 ACC Tournaments, and has a 28-37 all-time record in the event. The Yellow Jackets have won four championships, in 1985 (Atlanta), 1990 (Charlotte), 1993 (Charlotte) and 2021 (Greensboro).

Tech has been a runner-up four times (1986, 1996, 2005, 2010). The 1986, 1996 and 2010 runs to the finals occurred in Greensboro. Tech also made the finals in 2005 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Tech was 0-2 in the ACC Tournament under coach Dwane Morrison, 15-16 under Bobby Cremins (including all three titles), 9-11 under Paul Hewitt (runner-up in 2005 and 2010), 2-5 under Brian Gregory. and 1-3 under Josh Pastner.

Tech did not play in the 2020 tournament while serving an NCAA postseason ban.

THE OPENING TIP

• First time for everything – Georgia Tech and Louisville are meeting in the ACC Tournament for the first time, leaving Syracuse as the only league member the Yellow Jackets have never faced in the tournament. The Jackets and the Cardinals are not, however, facing each other for the first time in a conference tournament. They squared off as members of the Metro Conference in 1977, a game Tech won, 56-55.
• Back to Barclays – Georgia Tech is 2-4 all-time in the Barclays Center, including a pair of opening round losses in the ACC Tournament to Pittsburgh (2017) and Boston College (2018). Tech split a pair of games in the home of the Brooklyn Nets in the 2013 Barclays Center Classic and the 2015 NIT Pre-Season Tipoff.
• Water under the bridge – Since the first meeting between Georgia Tech and Louisville on Jan. 2, the Yellow Jackets are 5-13, and the Cardinals are 3-14.
• Devoe honored – Senior guard Michael Devoe was named Monday to the All-ACC third team after having earned honorable mention as a sophomore and a junior. The 6-5 guard ranks third in the ACC in scoring, fourth in three-point field goall percentage, seventh in three-point field goals per game, 13th in free throw percentage, 12th in field goal percentage, 15th in assists and fifth in minutes.
• Homecoming – Senior Khalid Moore grew up in the Briarwood area of Queens, N.Y., just 13 miles from where he will play this week’s ACC Tournament. The 6-7 forward attended Archbishop Molloy High School, as did former Yellow Jacket All-American Kenny Anderson.
• Dynamic duo – Georgia Tech seniors Michael Devoe and Jordan Usher have accounted for 46.9 percent of the Yellow Jackets’ scoring this season, and as the top two assist purveyors on the team, have had a hand in 69.2 percent of Tech’s field goals made. Those numbers for ACC games are similar (46.0, 70.4). In Tech’s 12 wins, however, they account for just 43.4 percent of the Jackets’ points; in Tech’s five ACC wins: 42.1 percent.
• ACC Tournament stars – Michael Devoe was named the ACC Tournament MVP last season in Greensboro while Jordan Usher made the all-tournament team. Devoe averaged 16.5 points and 5.0 assists while hitting 60 percent of his field goals (5-of-8 3pt) in Tech’s tournament games, while Usher averaged 15.0 points.
• Grand theft basketball – The Jackets are No. 2 in the ACC in forcing turnovers against conference opponents (13.30 per game) and are No. 2 in steals (8.05). Tech’s last 14 ACC foes (beginning Jan. 19 vs. Wake Forest) have coughed it up 188 times (13.43 per game), 121 of them takeaways for Tech (8.64 per game).
• Nine lineups – Tech has utilized nine different starting lineups this season, and Jordan Usher is the only player to start all 30 games. Tech’s most frequent lineup has been the original one (Michael Devoe and Kyle Sturdivant at the guards, Jordan Usher and Khalid Moore at the forwards, Rodney Howard at center), which the Jackets 18 times.
• Coming up short – Tech has lost seven games by five points or fewer this season, five of them in conference play and three of them in its recent four-game losing streak. One of those losses came against Louisville on Jan. 2. Four other ACC losses have come by 10 points or fewer.
• Climbing the ladder – In Tech’s last six games, Michael Devoe has passed Georgia Tech legends John Salley (1,587 from 1982-86), Bruce Dalrymple (1,588 from 1983-87), B.J. Elder (1,616 from 2001-05), Roger Kaiser (1,628 from 1958-61) and Tony Akins (1,658 from 1998-2002) on the program’s career scoring chart, reaching 12th place with 1,689 points.
• House of Usher – Jordan Usher ranks 17th in the ACC in scoring average, 15th in rebound average, 10th in field goal percentage and 14th in steals. In ACC games, the 6-7 senior is 19th, 16th, 13th and 10th in those same categories.
• Three over a thousand – Jordan Usher cleared the 1,000-point milestone for his career Jan. 15 at North Carolina. He has 1,218 points, 944 of them scored in a Tech uniform, giving Tech three 1,000-point scorers on its roster, including Michael Devoe (1,689) and Bubba Parham (1,452).
• Rookies rising – Tech’s highly-regarded freshman class has scored 77 points over Tech’s last five games and totaled 270 minutes on the floor, their most extensive time as a group this season. Deebo Coleman has averaged 24 minutes per game in ACC play this season, but Miles Kelly has averaged 21.4 minutes in the last five games and Jalon Moore 13.5.
• Three-bo – Kick-started by a strong game against Clayton State on Jan. 23, Tech freshman Deebo Coleman has hit 22 of 54 shots (40.7 percent) from three-point range over Tech’s last 14 games. That includes a 0-for-6 game at Notre Dame. He has more three-point field goals this season (43) than Michael Devoe made as a freshman (42).
• Rad Rodney – Center Rodney Howard has put together his best basketball this season in Tech’s last five games, scoring in double digits in six of Tech’s last eight games and posting a pair of double-doubles. He has averaged 11.0 points (38-of-60/63.3 pct. from the floor) and 6.5 rebounds, with 12 assists and five blocks. Louisville was one of the five games Howard missed due to his ankle injury.
• Sturdy Sturdivant – Kyle Sturdivant has a 48:18 assist/turnover ratio over Tech’s last 18 games and played eight of those games without committing a turnover. The junior guard has also posted six double-digit scoring efforts over that stretch.

📍 BKLYN#TogetherWeSwarm pic.twitter.com/oFSey96dEi

— Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball (@GTMBB) March 7, 2022

SERIES NOTES VS. LOUISVILLE

• Of the four most recent newcomers of the expanded ACC, Tech has the longest history with Louisville, meeting 28 times prior to the Cardinals joining the conference.
• Louisville won the first seven games between the two teams as ACC brethren before Tech broke through with a 64-58 home win over the Cardinals in the second meeting of the 2019-20 season. It snapped a nine-game losing skid in the series that dated back to 1999.
• The Cardinals won the teams’ only 2021-22 game, 67-64 at McCamish Pavilion, and has won 11 of the last 12 meetings.
• Tech went 3-6 against the Cardinals with Whack Hyder as its head coach, all of those games between 1958 and 1965.
• After a 12-year hiatus, Tech was 2-2 vs. Louisville when both teams were members of the Metro Conference in the late 1970s. Dwane Morrison was the Yellow Jackets’ head coach for all those games, and Denny Crum was on the Cardinals’ bench.
• After another long break, the teams met 13 times between 1988 and 1999, with Bobby Cremins and Crum on the opposing benches in all those games. The Yellow Jackets went 8-5 against the Cardinals during this time. Three of the meetings took place at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, and six at Freedom Hall.
• The other four were played at the Georgia Dome, which was demolished in 2017 following the opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tech won three of those, including the first-ever college basketball game played in the facility, and before the largest crowd ever to witness a college game in the state of Georgia at the time (28,885). That game will be forever remembered in Tech lore after James Forrest launched a half-court heave on an inbounds play that dropped through the net at the buzzer for an 87-85 Yellow Jacket victory,
• The teams have met seven times when both were ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams, and Tech has won four of those meetings.
• Tech coach Josh Pastner went 2-2 against Louisville during his seven-year stint as the head coach at Memphis and is now 3-8 against the Cardinals. The Jackets were 1-4 against Chris Mack-coached Cardinal teams.

Alexander-Tharpe Fund

The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.   

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship in 2021 after finishing fourth in the regular season. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, winning four ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993, 2021), playing in the NCAA Tournament 17 times and playing in two Final Fours (1990, 2004). Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball on social media by liking their Facebook Page, or following on Twitter (@GTMBB) and Instagram. For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com.