This will be the 1st Georgia Tech basketball game recap of the season, coming to you straight from Section 16 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Opponent: Carson-Newman (exhibition)
The Jackets welcomed the D-II Carson-Newman to AMC. The starts tonight were: Mo Miller, Lewis Clinch, Anthony Morrow, Jeremis Smith, and Alade Aminu. After his knee is completely healed, Matt Causey should be the starter at PG. Zach Peacock did not play due to a stress reaction in his foot. Tech jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back in throttling Carson-Newman 126-86. In a game like this it is hard to take a away. Tech was clearly much bigger, more athletic, and simply better than this D-II opponent.
Positives -
Despite limited action due to his knee (13 minutes) Causey dished out 9 assists. Clinch picked up where he left off before his academic problems last year, leading the team with 21 points in 20 minutes of action. His loss last year really hurt the team because he brings a completely different scoring ability than anyone on that team or this team.Morrow shot the ball well and also picked up 8 rebounds and 4 assists. He looked much more confident than he ever did last year following his injury.Gani Lawal played pretty well. He was active on both ends of the court, picked up 5 blocks, and had a very efficient 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting.Brad Sheehan had 18 points and 6 rebounds. While a lot had to do with the opponent and the fact he got a lot more minutes than he will all season, he did play pretty well.While I think Causey will start, Miller showed he will be a valuable back up and will get a lot of minutes. He picked 4 assists and scored 9, while looking pretty comfortable running the team.Rebounding - Tech won the battle on the boards 66-42. Yes, I know they had a huge size and talent advantage, but good nonetheless.Good team effort and energy. Negatives - A lot of turnovers - 23 to be exact. Many of these were the result of lazy passes that seemed at least in part to be the result of the blow out.Like last year a little trouble getting the ball in bound in the back court. It wasn't a huge problem, but probably needs to be addressed before playing better, more athletic teams Lawal was 2-8 from the foul line. The Jackets have struggled from the line in the past, in large part because Jeremis Smith's struggles - who was 3-4 tonight.Mouhammad Faye doesn't look any stronger. I know some guys can have wirey strength, but he is not one of them. Even the guys from Carson-Newman were able to force him off the ball, which doesn't bode particularly well for ACC play.Three point shooting wasn't particularly good tonight at only 5-25. However, this is an area that I am not at all worried about.2nd half defense was a little suspect. A little slow stepping out to contest the three and just a little laziness in general. Probably due in large part to the 74-36 halftime lead, but still not something you want to let slip in to the teams habits. Overall, a good game for the Jackets. It will be interesting to see how they stack up against a D-I team next Friday against UNC-Greensboro.
