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Georgia Tech Basketball 2020 Player Preview: G #0 Michael Devoe

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 19: Michael Devoe #0 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts after a basket against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at LJVM Coliseum Complex on February 19, 2020 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 19: Michael Devoe #0 of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets reacts after a basket against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at LJVM Coliseum Complex on February 19, 2020 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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How will Georgia Tech basketball’s Michael Devoe follow up a strong 2019-20 campaign?

The 2020 college basketball season is just a few weeks away meaning it’s time to start looking at this years Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men’s basketball team. Today, we start off our previews with one of the Jackets top players, junior guard Michael Devoe.

Sporting the No.0 jersey for the Yellow Jackets, Devoe is coming off a strong 2019-20 campaign that saw him post 16.0 points per game as well as 3.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds per contest.

The Yellow Jackets best player offensively, Devoe will play an important part of Georgia Tech’s success in the 2020-21 season. The Orlando, Florida native took a big see from his freshman year as a sophomore but if the Jackets want to be taken seriously as a quality team coming out of the ACC and someone who could make a run into the NCAA Tournament, he must take another step forward in 2020.

Strengths: 

Devoe’s biggest strength is that he is a very strong shooter as seen by his numbers last season. On the year, he shot 47.6% across the board but had great success from beyond the arch at 42.7%. Inside the perimeter, he shot at a 50.5% clip. While he is a shooter who seems more comfortable at mid-to-long range shots, he’s someone who can get it done from all around the basket. He was also one of the Jackets best free throw shooters in 2019-20, hitting just a bit over 79% of his free-throw attempts.

Quality defense is another one of Devoe’s strengths, last year he was third on the Jackets in defensive win share at 1.6. His overall defensive rating was 97.5 which isn’t great but it’s good enough to get by. He doesn’t induce a great amount of turnovers, but Devoe has the ability to force opposing guards into tough shot sections and bad passes.

Other strengths for Devoe includes being a very high basketball-IQ player who shows his IQ well on the offensive side of the court when it comes to spreading the ball around and finding open shooters.

Weaknesses: 

While he plays quality defense, Devoe struggles at creating turnovers and generating impact plays on the defensive end. Last season, he averaged just 1.2 steals per game and 0.1 blocks. This is kind of picky since the Jackets were in the top-100 in the nation with seven steals per game, you would like to see more individual consistency for the Jackets. While we don’t expect Devoe took get a ton of blocks, we would like to see that steals per game number increase towards the 1.5 to 2.0 steals per game mark.

Turnovers were a problem for Devoe in 2019-20 with an average of 3.4 per game. While turnovers are bound to happen, Devoe would have some games where he struggled to keep possession, including seven games of five or more turnovers. The Jackets will need to be better at keeping the possession this season and pushing their own tempo, a lot of that will start with Devoe.

Overall:

Overall, Devoe enters this season as one of the Jackets top players, if not their top player. He is their top offensive weapon and will be a dangerous shooter from all around the court this year if last years improvements were any sign of what’s to come. While already a terrific player for the Jackets, and one of the ACC’s top players as well, there is still plenty of room for Devoe to improve going forward which could be scary for Tech opponents. Expect a big season out of No.0 in 2020-21.