If you look in the ACC basketball realm, you’ll see an unfamiliar school with an unusual record.
Georgia Tech has been playing well this season holding an 11-7 record overall so far.
They also hold a 3-3 conference record, which includes beating the likes of North Carolina in an upset 75-63 thriller, and Clemson at home and North Carolina State on the road.
Georgia Tech isn’t a powerhouse in the ACC or basketball world period but they’re trying to get there. In fact, they were projected to be one of the worst teams in the ACC this season.
The Yellow Jackets are currently higher in the standings than Duke, Syracuse, Miami and five other teams.
You can definitely tell that this is a new team with new management as new head coach Josh Pastner is showing why he was the right man for the job. Tech fired Brian Gregory as coach after last season, where he led his team to a 21-win season. They made the NIT, but went 8-10 in ACC play.
Now, Pastner seems to be getting through to his team. “It’s really a credit to the players. They’ve done a great job of continuing to get better. But, we are so far from out of the woods. We have severe, severe limitations in a lot of areas,” said Pastner in an interview with a reporter from the Roanoke Times.
He says he there’s still a lot of work to be done, and they’re still very limited on the court and in order to beat the Hokies, they’ll have to be flawless.
“Our margin for error is zero,” Pastner said. “We’re very, very limited on offense. We’re about as limited as maybe any team in the country. But when you’re making shots, it opens up things.”
Three keys for Tech:
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The Jackets have won every game this season (11-0) in which they shot a better percentage from the floor,
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They’re 10-0 when scoring 70 points
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They’re 10-1 when attempting more free throws than the opponent.
Pastner says that one thing that the team is doing better on is player movement and ball movement.
“That’s been really important to me as a head coach - player movement and ball movement. We’re getting better at that. We’re very limited offensively, but when we have good player movement and ball movement, it creates good shots for us.”
