Dec. 11, 2011
By Matt Winklejohn
Sting Daily
There are good times and better times for a basketball team to have consecutive days off, and for Georgia Tech, now is a good time.
The Yellow Jackets do not have practice today, and they were off Sunday as well after winning 65-45 at Savannah State Saturday. There were enough issues to give head coach Brian Gregory teaching points, but nothing distressing enough for him to issue an all-alert that might dis-joint players as they head into finals.
This is a weird time in the schedule as the Jackets have eight full days between games, and the usual cadences of practice-games-school, etc. are askew.
Sophomore center Daniel Miller made all six of his shots at Savannah State, and blocked four shots as well despite not feeling well. Kammeon Holsey made four of his seven shots so not only was the ball going through the post, but the Jackets were taking advantage of mismatches when the ball went inside. That’s key.
But Gregory told the voice of the Yellow Jackets, Wes Durham, after the game that he was none too happy that Tech allowed 11 offensive rebounds in the first half. That’s a key in the wrong direction. Against better competition, that will be big trouble.
“We weren’t physical enough [in the first half],” Gregory told Wes. “They had two on the final possession of the game, and four in the second half.” So that was better.
The coach wasn’t happy with some of the shot selection from the perimeter Saturday, and he and his staff will endeavor to do something about that between Tuesday’s practice and Tech’s next two games, Dec. 19 vs. Alabama A&M and Dec. 22 vs. a pretty good Mercer squad – both at the Arena at Gwinnett. If the Jackets took their lesser opponent for granted, and there were signs that might’ve happened, it’d better not happen again. Tech (6-4) is in no position to go about its business that way.
“That’s one thing that we have to understand,” Gregory said. “Great programs, all that stuff doesn’t matter. We play a certain way [regardless of opponent]. We’ve got to get a lot better.”
