Yellow Jacked Up
Fansided

Georgia Tech Basketball Opponent Preview USC Upstate Spartans

By Lee Cagle

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Josh Pastner of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets coaches his team during a time out during the Yellow Jackets' game against the Louisville Cardinals at Hank McCamish Pavilion on January 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 07: Head coach Josh Pastner of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets coaches his team during a time out during the Yellow Jackets' game against the Louisville Cardinals at Hank McCamish Pavilion on January 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

USC Upstate comes to Mccamish Pavillion on January 2nd, to kick off the new year against Georgia Tech in their first season in the Big East.

USC Upstate Spartans

Head Coach: Dave Dickerson – 2017-18 Record: 7-25 (2-12)  – Big South

Due to our busy week, we had to cut down our USC Upstate preview. Either way, let’s quickly get to know the USC Upstate Spartans.

Head Coach: Dave Dickerson is the 10th head coach in program history and was named to that position on April 5th, 2018. Dickerson was hired following a 7-25 season under coach Kyle Perry. They will make the move this season from the Atlantic Sun Conference to the Big South Conference for the 2018-2019 season where they are predicted to finish last.

Players to Watch:

This season the Spartans are returning six letter winners from last years team including Malik Moore, Deion Holmes, and Jure Span. Holmes was a second-team Big South Pre-Season All-Conference choice after averaging 15.5 points in 2017-18 which was a career high. He sits just 36 points away from 1000 points for his career. Jure Span also averaged 4.1 assists per game last season which was a team high.

Upstate will also bring in eight new freshmen to their 2018-19 class to complement the current roster built of two sophomores and four seniors.

Expectations for USC Upstate: Upstate is making a conference change this season, and that is a difficult thing for any team to do. A coaching change on top of conference change is going to be a big hurdle for the Spartans to jump over for this season.

How the Yellow Jackets matchup:

Georgia Tech should be able to handle USC Upstate in their matchup on January 2 but there is a bit of history between these two teams. As some may remember, USC Upstate actually beat the Yellow Jackets in 2014 under then head coach Brian Gregory. This Tech team under Josh Pastner, however, will be completely different than the one that played in 2014 much like USC Upstate is going to be drastically different with a coaching and conference change during that period.