Yellow Jacked Up
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Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets look to get back on track against Notre Dame

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 10: A general view as the ball goes in the basket during the 2017 NBL Blitz pre-season match between the Cairns Taipans and Brisbane Bullets at Werribee Basketball Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 10: A general view as the ball goes in the basket during the 2017 NBL Blitz pre-season match between the Cairns Taipans and Brisbane Bullets at Werribee Basketball Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) /
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The Georgia Tech men’s basketball team will look to get back on track against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Tuesday night. 

Georgia Tech men’s basketball are losers of two straight but will look to get back on the right track Tuesday night when they take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Jackets enter the game with a 10-8 record with back-to-back losses to Clemson and Lousiville. The Jackets were significantly shorthanded against the Cardinals, playing without Brandon Alston, Jose Alvarado, and Abdoulaye Gueye. Without the three, the Jackets lost by a final score of 79-51 after being down 43-16 at half time.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, this season hasn’t fared much better, collecting just an 11-7 record and is 1-4 in conference play. Like the Yellow Jackets, Notre Dame has lost both of their last two games with losses to North Carolina and North Carolina State.

Who to watch on Notre Dame:

The Fighting Irish have three players that the Yellow Jackets will have to keep a close eye on Tuesday night. Those three players are Temple Gibbs, John Mooney, and D.J Harvey.

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Temple Gibbs: The junior guard has been strong this season for the Jackets as he’s averaging 14.1 points per game this season along with 2.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He can get it done no matter his role on offense. The good news for the Jackets, however, is Gibbs is one of the Irish weakest players defensive with a defensive rating of 107.5, the second highest ton the team.

John Mooney: Without a doubt the Irish’s best player this season, Mooney has been tremendous for Notre Dame this season. Mooney is averaging a double-double this season with 14.0 points per game and 10.7 rebounds per game. His last two games have been off the charts with games of 16 points, 19 rebounds and 19 points, 16 rebounds. If Mooney has another game like those against the Yellow Jacket’s, Tech is going to be in an awful amount of trouble.

D.J Harvey: The sophomore out of DeMatha High School in Maryland (same high school as former first overall pick Markelle Fultz) is the third and last player for Notre Dame averaging 11.6 points per game.

Questions for the game:

Who will the Yellow Jackets be without?:  As mentioned above, the Jackets were without the important trio of Brandon Alston, Jose Alvarado and Abdoulaye Gueye. Which begs the question of “who will be available for the Jackets against Notre Dame?”. According to Ken Sugiura of the AJC, Jose Alvarado is “questionable-to-doubtful” against the Irish but Alston and Gueye are considered at this time to be game-time decisions. According to Sugiura, they’ll be evaluated during Tuesday’s shootaround.

Can Michael Devoe step up in the potential absence of Jose Alvarado?: Against Louisville, freshman Michael Devoe scored eight points and had two assists. It wasn’t his strongest performance of the season but it wasn’t his weakest either. Over the last four game stretch, Devoe is averaging just 7.0 points per game and a game score of 4.3. A game score of 10.0 is considered average. Prior to these last four games, Devoe had four games of double-digit points over the course of five games.

Prediction:

For the sake of the prediction, I’m going to assume that the Yellow Jackets will be without two of three of Alston, Alvarado, and Gueye. Either way, as we saw against Louisville, the Jackets scoring depth is minimal and they struggled immensely against Louisville. With that being said, Notre Dame enters Tuesday night’s game rather healthy it appears which is only good news for Notre Dame and only bad news for the Jackets.

Notre Dame 68 – Georgia Tech 52