Georgia Tech Basketball: How Will the Yellow Jackets Adjust to Life Without Marcus Georges-Hunt?

The loss of Marcus Georges-Hunt is a huge blow to an already trial ridden season for Brian Gregory and his Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

His 13.6 points and 5.5 rebounds from the wing are going to be hard to replace. What is going to be even more difficult to replace is the attributes that he brought to the floor.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets /

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georges-Hunt was one of the few players on the Georgia Tech squad who was adept at getting to the rim off dribble penetration consistently. He led the team in field goal percentage at 43.1%.

So when you consider that the team as a whole shoots 40.8% from the field, and that out of the three perimeter players that shoot 40% or better, Chris Bolden (41.0%) is suspended and Georges-Hunt is out for the year, the only perimeter player that is hitting 40% of his shots left on the roster is Josh Heath (41.4%).

Brian Gregory was quoted in a ramblinwreck.com post as saying this about his fallen junior forward:

“Marcus has had such a tremendous junior year, it is very disappointing to all of us that he won’t be able to complete his great play in Greensboro at the ACC Tournament, Marcus is such a determined and committed athlete. We know he will make a full recovery and come back stronger and better.

-Coach Brian Gregory

So now with Marcus Georges-Hunt out of the lineup, the question is “what will the Jackets adjustment be to the starting lineup and who are the players that need to step up?”.

Tadric Jackson has already started the last five games of the season due to the Chris Bolden’s suspension so needless to say that Brian Gregory is going to stick with him at the shooting guard position.

The parts that are interchangeable in this situation are the small forward, power forward and center positions.

Quinton Stephens hopefully will be available to start at the small forward position. He did not play against UNC because of a strained abdominal muscle that he suffered in the road game at Clemson.

If he is ready to go, he should be the starter at the swingman position.

Feb 22, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets forward Quinton Stephens (12) shoots a basket over Clemson Tigers guard Adonis Filer (3) in the first half at Hank McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

But the four and five spot still are going to be effected in this because of the fact that Robert Sampson may have to spend some time playing the small forward to spell Stephens on occasion.

This next idea is going to seem strange, but to keep the integrity of the substitution pattern this might make sense.

Brian Gregory should start Robert Sampson at the power forward spot and have Demarco Cox at the center.

The reason why you start Robert Sampson at the power forward with Stephens at the swingman and Cox at the center is because you would be able to have Charles Mitchell sub in for Stephens, which would allow Sampson to move to the small forward, or you could have Mitchell sub for Sampson until Stephens needs to sit which would put Sampson at the small forward when he subs back in with Mitchell and Cox in the block.