The month of February is the most important in the college basketball season, and for the Yellow Jackets, this has been a rough one.
The month of February wasn’t at all kind to Georgia Tech basketball in 2018. The Yellow Jackets went 0-7 last month, all conference losses.
The Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament tips off in Brooklyn on Tuesday, and Tech would need a miracle run at the Barclays Center to have any shot at a meaningful post season.
After a strong conference start with key wins over ranked opponents, the Jackets lost steam deep in ACC play, and fell near the bottom of the league, going winless in February.
Georgia Tech is 11-18 overall and has a 4-12 conference record with a pair of regular season games left against North Carolina State and Wake Forest before traveling to New York for the ACC Tournament. Both of those last two games are at home.
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It would be remiss not to mention that some questionable officiating down the stretch in the Clemson game might have ended in a 1-6 month of February, but it only matters what the score is when the clock hits zero.
Aside from wins and losses, the Yellow Jackets lost a major piece to their offensive puzzle midway through the month. Guard Jose Alvarado, who Tech had been leaning on heavily this season for points. The freshman went out with a season-ending arm injury during a road loss to Duke back on the 11th, making a bad month worse.
Here’s the month of February scoreboard: Lost at Boston College 80-72 in overtime, lost at Louisville 77-54, lost to No. 9 Duke 80-69, lost at Wake Forest 79-62, lost to Virginia Tech 76-56, lost at No. 1 Virginia 65-54 and lost at No. 15 Clemson 75-67.
The good news is that Josh Pastner‘s team seems to hang relatively close throughout games, giving themselves a chance to come back. The Jackets had chances to beat BC, Virginia and Clemson, and played Duke close, even with Alvarado’s injury. The bad news is that none of that counts as a win on the scoreboard.
Also good news for Tech is that Josh Okogie and Ben Lammers continue to be productive, even in a tough stretch of losses.
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Waist deep in a rebuild, the Jackets have to take whatever small victories they can get, even if they don’t walk away with the win. Luckily for Tech, at least three games remain on the schedule and more can be earned if they win the last of those in Brooklyn.