Due to the long break until the December 18th, here is a special 5 games in version of The View From Section 16.
After a 2-1 trip to St. Thomas the Jackets now sit at 3-2 for the year going into the Thanksgiving break. The team has a lot to improve on become a competitive ACC team, but it is way to early to call this a lost season like some message board posters have already done. Notre Dame is not a bad team and is currently projected to be a tournament team by Joe Lunardi. Here at the Complex we predicted 5 out of conference losses and that is still attainable with improved play. Many fans try way to hard to equate basketball to football and it just doesn't work.
As an example - Lets take at look at last year's co-ACC champion Virginia Cavaliers. They started off the year strong with a win against Arizona and were 6-1 going into the San Juan Shootout. However, when they got to San Juan the wheels seemed to fall off. They lost their 1st game by 11 to Applachian State and lost their 2nd by 24 to a Utah team that went 11-19. They did win the final game of the tournament by 7 over Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. The team then won 2 more, but after that lost 3 in a row to sit at 9-6 overall and 1-2 in the ACC. The team then turned it around to finish 21-11 overall and 10-5 in conference. In no way does this mean that this Georgia Tech team is as good as last year's Cavalier's that were led by Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds. However, it does go to show that a season is not over after a couple of lackluster early season performances.
A Few Thoughts:
- Talk that this team is at the same place pg wise, that the team was 2 years ago with Zam Frederick is ridiculous. With a healthy Mo Miller and Matt Causey the team has a fairly solid pg duo.
- De'Andre Bell is not a pg. He might provide some match up problems in the post and be able to defend, but with any pressure he struggles. The offense starts at 35 feet and leads to the standing around that many have complained about.
- Defense needs to improve, both on the interior and on the perimeter. There have been way to many
- Rebounding needs to improve. The team seems to like to try to rebound on athletic ability rather than boxing out - if this doesn't change it will be a long year on the boards. A healthy Peacock and the return of Dickey will help in this area.
- Anthony Morrow's mid-range game could be very big for the team this year. This new aspect to his game makes him much more difficult to defend. He also looks to have regained his confidence after a difficult junior year.
- Morrow has also looked much better coming off screens. In the past he tended to not hit them hard, but so far this year he has rubbed them much tighter.
- Lewis Clinch seems to be working his way out of his early season funk. He still isn't playing up to the level he was pre-suspension last year, but he did show some glimpses in the Virgin Islands.
- If the team can get Morrow and Clinch going at the same time they become a dangerous offensive team. In the loss to Winthrop Morrow went 3-17 and Clinch made no shots down the stretch. This turned the offensive into the stand around and watch offense that we have seen the last couple of years.
- Gani Lawal needs a lot of improvement on the boards and the defensive end. I don't see his playing time increasing without improvement in these areas.
- Jeremis Smith is playing very hard. He is by far the best player Tech has on the glass. His passing to Aminu in the post has been a huge plus thus far.
The team now has 8 days before a trip to Bloomington to play the Number 8 Indiana Hoosiers featuring freshman Eric Gordon, who is averaging 28 ppg, 3.3 rpg, and 4.3 apg through his first 3 collegiate games. If the Jackets want to compete in this game they will need to improve some of the current weaknesses and play a much more complete game.
