Feb. 25, 2014
Complete Game Notes | Coach Gregory Presser | Watch Online
THE FLATS – Heading into the stretch run of the regular-season, Georgia Tech begins a string of three consecutive road games with a 7 p.m. contest Wednesday night against Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center.
ESPN2 will air national television coverage of the game. Radio coverage of the game will be provided by the Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network and can be heard in Atlanta on All News 106.7 FM. The Tech radio broadcast can be heard nationally on satellite radio (Sirius ch. 108, XM ch. 190).
Tech (13-14, 4-10 ACC) finished off a 1-3 homestand Saturday with a 63-55 loss to Clemson. The Yellow Jackets are 4-5 on the road this year, including a 2-4 mark in ACC games.
In its third season under head coach Brian Gregory, Tech played its first 10 ACC games with no more than nine scholarship players, sometimes with as few as seven. Senior guard and leading scorer Trae Golden (groin) returned to play 33 minutes and scored 17 points against Clemson after missing most, if not all, of the five games prior. Sophomore forward Robert Carter, Jr., has returned from a knee injury to play a total of 94 minutes in Tech’s last four games after missing the first 10 conference games.
Daniel Miller, Tech’s 6-11 1/2 senior center, has been a big bright spot for the Yellow Jackets this season in the post, averaging 11.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in ACC games.
Wednesday is the second meeting of the season between Tech and Notre Dame, with the Yellow Jacketa having pulled out a 74-69 win over the Fighting Irish on Jan. 11 in Atlanta.
Notre Dame (14-14, 5-10 ACC) is coming off a 70-49 loss Saturday at Virginia and a 71-64 loss at Miami last Wednesday. The Irish are home Wednesday night for the first time since Feb. 11, having played their last three games on the road.
Wednesday night’s game begins a stretch of three road games in seven days for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets visit Florida State and Syracuse next Sunday and Tuesday.
Fast Break Points
• Three of Georgia Tech’s last four games will be aired on one of the ESPN networks. The Notre Dame game will be on ESPN2, the Florida State game on ESPNU and the Virginia Tech game on either ESPN or ESPN2.
• Georgia Tech is making its first trip to South Bend for basketball since Feb. 24, 1990, when the Yellow Jackets pulled out an 88-80 win in overtime at the Joyce Center, Tech went on to win the ACC that season and advance to the NCAA Final Four.
• Digger Phelps, the legendary Notre Dame head coach, is on the ESPN2 announce team for Wednesday night’s game. The Yellow Jackets were 3-0 against the Irish with Phelps as the head coach.
• Georgia Tech’s last four ACC road trips have produced two wins, an overtime loss and a four-point loss. Tech has won five of its last 11 ACC road games, winning at Virginia Tech, Wake Forest (twice), Miami and Boston College in that stretch. The Yellow Jackets won only three times in 36 ACC road games before that dating back to the 2008-09 season.
• Wednesday night is the last time this season Tech will play a second meeting with a team on its conference schedule. The Yellow Jackets’ games against Florida State, Syracuse and Virginia Tech will be first-and-only meetings.
• Georgia Tech is 9-7 at McCamish Pavilion this season, but only 2-6 against the ACC. Tech’s home ACC wins are against Notre Dame (Jan. 11) and Boston College (Feb. 13).
• Trae Golden, who had played just 43 minutes in five games, including DNP’s against Clemson (2/4) and Boston College (2/13), played 33 minutes and scored a game-high 17 points last time out against Clemson. He made 4-of-9 from three-point range, matching a season high for three-pointers made.
• Four Tech players scored in double digits in the first meeting between Tech and Notre Dame this year (Trae Golden 20, Chris Bolden 14, Kammeon Holsey 13, Daniel Miller 10). Marcus Georges-Hunt had nine points and six assists.
• Tech has played its ACC games this season with as few as seven scholarship players at times. Carter, Jr., Morris, and guards Travis Jorgenson and Solomon Poole had combined for 22 starts before this season and were all projected as major contributors this season when practice began. They have missed a total of 66 games this season (Carter, Jr., 10, Golden 2, Jorgenson 23, Morris 18, Poole 13).
Series vs. Notre Dame
Georgia Tech holds a 7-2 lead in the all-time series with Notre Dame that began in the 1940-41 season. The Yellow Jackets have won the last five meetings between the two teams, including a 74-69 win over the Fighting Irish on Jan. 11 in Atlanta, their first-ever meeting as Atlantic Coast Conference foes.
• This series was played exclusively on the campuses of the two schools until the most recent encounter, a 2007 meeting in the third-place game of the Paradise Jam. The Yellow Jackets erased a 9-point deficit in the final 5:11 and won the game on a three-point basket by Matt Causey with two seconds remaining.
• Tech won the last meeting at South Bend, an 88-80 overtime win on Feb. 24, 1990, at the Joyce Center with the Jackets headed toward an ACC title and Final Four berth later that season. Those games were the only two face-offs ever between legendary coaches Bobby Cremins and Digger Phelps. Tech is 2-2 in games played in South Bend, 1-1 in the Joyce Center.
• Four of the five meetings before that were played with Whack Hyder as Tech’s head coach, and the Jackets won three of those, including an 82-62 win in 1972 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Phelps’ first season as the Fighting Irish head coach.
About Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball
Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its third year under head coach Brian Gregory. The Yellow Jackets have been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, won three ACC Championships, played in the NCAA Tournament 16 times and played 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 (@GTMBK). For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
