Georgia Tech Basketball: Yellow Jackets Make Quick Turnaround to Face Virginia Tech
The best thing that could happen for Brian Gregory and his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (11-12, 2-9 ACC) is to come off of a Saturday home blowout win over Wake Forest to go to Blacksburg, Va to face the Virginia Tech Hokies (9-14, 1-9 ACC).
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
It has been a tough year for Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams.
Growing pains were to be expected given that the program is getting adjusted to a new coach.
The Hokies are 11th best scoring wise in the ACC at 66.9 points per contest while yielding 67.8 points per game which is 13th best in the conference.
Hokies’ junior guard Adam Smith lead the team in scoring averaging 13.4 points per game on 43.9% shooting from the field.
Smith has taken the sixth most three-point attempts in the ACC (136) and has the second highest three-point field goal percentage in the conference (43.4%).
Freshman guard Justin Bibbs has played strong for VA Tech this season as well scoring 13.2 points per game on 47.3% shooting from the field and knocking down 44.3% of his three-point attempts.
The Hokies have gone through similar difficulties that the Yellow Jackets have encountered.
Though the Hokies did get themselves a home win over the Pitt Panthers on January 27th 70-67, VA Tech has suffered some close losses as well.
Outside of their win over Pitt, three of their last four losses have been decided by three-points or less.
They had No.2 Virginia scared out their mind before falling to the Cavaliers 50-47 on January 25th.
Then they lost back-to-back road games to Wake Forest 73-70 on January 31st and to Syracuse 72-70 on February 3rd.
Buzz Williams bunch is getting back on the court rather quickly after falling to the Florida St. Seminoles 73-65 on Saturday.
However it is always better to come into these games with some type of momentum built, and that is what the Yellow Jackets are working with.
Georgia Tech was able to exact a little revenge on Wake Forest 73-59 on Saturday.
Brian Gregory’s crew had total control of the game Saturday, and more importantly, they put together their best defensive effort of the ACC season holding Wake Forest to 29.7% shooting from the floor.
Chris Bolden in the last couple of games has found his shooting stroke. Against Duke Bolden dropped 16 points on the stat sheet hitting 4 of 6 from deep, and against Wake Forest on Saturday he finished with 14 points ad knocked down 4 of 7 from deep.
Bolden emerging as an offensive threat from the perimeter is going to be big going forward if he can keep the hot hand.
Brian Gregory and Chris Bolden both discussed the offensive execution of the team of late as well as Chris Bolden’s hot hand in the postgame interview after the Wake Forest win care of the Georgia Tech Athletics You Tube Channel.
Just a couple of weeks ago the complaints were all about the offense and how things seemed to just bog down.
Lately, the point guard play has picked up with Travis Jorgenson and Josh Heath and the whole team seems to just have a nice rhythm in the half-court execution.
The quick turnaround should benefit Georgia Tech. If they can win back-to-back games for the first time in ACC play this year, there is really no telling how far the momentum can carry them.
This game can be seen on ESPNU at 9PM and heard on local Atlanta radio 680 AM and 93.7 FM. You can also catch this game on satellite radio Sirius 84 and XM 84.