Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets Play At Ole Miss in NIT Quarterfinals

Coming off a huge home win over Belmont, the Yellow Jackets will play Ole Miss in Oxford on Tuesday night in the NIT Quarterfinals for a shot at New York.

Georgia Tech (19-15) hasn’t played in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals since 1971 when the team was led by coach John “Whack” Hyder and captained by All-American Rich Yunkus.

The Yellow Jackets will take on the No. 5 seed Rebels of Ole Miss (22-13) in Oxford Tuesday night for a shot at Madison Square Garden, and a possible NIT Championship.

Tuesday night’s game will be nationally televised at 9 p.m. on ESPN2.

Last Time Out:

First-year head coach Josh Pastner‘s Jackets dismantled the Belmont Bruins with a monster second half on Sunday in front of a large and loud home crowd. Tech set a new single-season home win record at 17 with the 71-57 victory over the NIT No. 7 seed.

More from Yellow Jacked Up

Senior Quinton Stephens saved his best for last, scoring a new career high 23 points in what would be his final home game for the Yellow Jackets.

Ben Lammers snagged his 15th double-double of the season,

Know the Opponent:

Georgia Tech got signature wins over North Carolina, Florida State and Notre Dame during the regular season, but Ole Miss has a pretty solid resume of their own.

The Rebels took down South Carolina earlier this month in Oxford, and the Gamecocks are headed to the Sweet Sixteen this week. They did lose to Kentucky and Florida, but beat a solid Vanderbilt team, and ran through No. 1 seed Syracuse in the NIT’s second round.

Led by junior guard Deandre Burnett’s 16.8 points-per-game, Ole Miss is averaging 78.3 points, but is allowing opponents 76.4.

This is the 12th NIT appearance for the Rebels, who beat a pair of higher seeded teams in Syracuse and Monmouth on the road to finally earn a home game.

Players to Watch:

Georgia Tech: C Ben Lammers

Ben Lammers dominated the boards on both ends against a hot shooting Belmont team with some size of their own, and the fear to go inside was evident on the Bruins’ faces. Tech will need a big game from Lammers, and he’ll need to make more field goal shots than he did on Sunday

Ole Miss: F Sebastian Saiz

Senior forward Sebastian Saiz is averaging 15 points-per-game and over 11 rebounds on the year, and led the Rebels with 23 points and 11 rebounds in an upset road win over Monmouth in the NIT second round. If the Jackets can’t contain Saiz, their season could come to an end Tuesday.

Prediction:

Ole Miss will have home court advantage Tuesday night, but the Yellow Jackets just seem to be destined to keep winning. This Georgia Tech squad has all the tools to put together an upset road win to punch their ticket to New York City.