Nov. 14, 2013
THE FLATS – After opening the season with a pair of home court victories over Presbyterian and Delaware State, Georgia Tech goes on the road for the first time this season to play state-rival Georgia at 7 p.m. Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.
Complete Game Notes | Coach Gregory Interview
The game will be televised regionally on Fox Sports South, and radio coverage of the game will be provided by the Georgia Tech IMG Sports Network and can be heard in Atlanta on WYAY-FM (106.7). The Georgia broadcast can be heard on satellite radio – Sirius Ch. 108 and XM Ch. 199.
Tech has dispatched its first two opponents by an average of 24.5 points, downing Presbyterian, 88-57, and Delaware State, 68-50. The Jackets have shot 51.8 percent from the floor collectively and have a team assist-turnover ratio of better than 2-to-1, while holding the two opponents to 33.9-percent shooting from the floor and forcing 25 turnovers.
In its third season under head coach Brian Gregory, the Jackets return four starters – center Daniel Miller, big forward Robert Carter, Jr., and wings Marcus Georges-Hunt and Chris Bolden – from a team that posted a 16-15 overall record last season and went 6-12 to tie for ninth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Georgia, in its fifth season under head coach Mark Fox, is coming off a 15-17 campaign (9-9 SEC) a year ago and returns two starters. The Bulldogs defeated Wofford, 72-52, at Stegeman last Friday night in their only game to date this season.
Following Friday night’s tilt, the Yellow Jackets return home for their next three games against Dayton (Wednesday), North Carolina A&T (Nov. 24) and Mississippi Valley State (Nov. 26).
Quick Hitters
• Georgia is the first of three true road games the Yellow Jackets will play during the non-conference schedule. The others come in December – Dec. 21 at Vanderbilt and Dec. 29 at Charlotte. Tech played only one such game last season, the ACC-Big Ten Challenge game at Illinois.
• November 15 is the earliest that Tech and Georgia have ever met on the hardwood.
• Georgia Tech has won the last two meetings with Georgia, including a 68-56 win two years ago that was the first for the Jackets in Athens since 1976. A win for Tech Friday night would give the Jackets their first three-game win streak in the series since 1992-93-94.
• A win for Tech tonight also would give the Jackets their first back-to-back wins in Athens since the early 1960s. In the midst of a 10-game winning streak in the series, Tech captured consecutive wins in Athens in 1959, 1960 and 1961.
• Tech and Georgia have a combined 24 players from their home state on their rosters.
• Kammeon Holsey has averaged 6.0 ppg in three meetings against the Bulldogs (12 in the 2011 meeting in Athens). Daniel Miller has averaged 7.7 points, including 10 in the 2011 meeting in Athens. Jason Morris has averaged 9.0 points, including 15 in Athens in 2011.
• Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 18 points in last year’s meeting with Georgia, his season high until finishing the year with 21 against Boston College in the ACC Tournament.
• Trae Golden scored just four points in Tennessee’s only meeting with Georgia last season, but he scored 16 in each meeting during the 2011-12 season.
Homegrown Jackets
Georgia Tech’s 2013-14 team features 14 players from the state of Georgia, unprecedented in the history of Yellow Jacket basketball. Tech has more players from its home state on its roster than any team on Division I college basketball, followed by Charlotte (13), Wisconsin-Milwaukee (13) and Purdue (12). Of Tech’s 13 scholarship players, 10 are from Georgia.
Tech Balanced in its First Two Games
Four Georgia Tech players are averaging in double figures through the first two games. Sophomore Marcus Georges-Hunt leads Tech in both scoring (14.5 ppg) and rebounding (8.5).
Senior guard Trae Golden has averaged 14.0 points and hit 12-of-19 shots from the floor in two games, while sophomore forward Robert Carter, Jr., has averaged 12.0 points and if 11-of-17 from the floor. Senior center Daniel Miller has averaged 10.0 points and is 8-of-15 from the floor.
• Tech has 37 assists on its 59 made field goals, a 62.7-percent rate. That includes 19 assists on 24 field goals against Delaware State.
• Tech has turned the ball over just 18 times in two games, and has a slightly better than 2-to-1 assist-turnover ratio. The Jackets had just six turnovers against Presbyterian, tying a team-low under Brian Gregory.
• Tech has shot 77.5 percent from the free throw line in two games, including a perfect 11-for-11 from senior post players Kammeon Holsey (7-for-7) and Daniel Miller (4-for-4).
• Tech has made 51.8 percent of its field goals in two games, and has scored 117 of its 156 points either in the paint or at the foul line.
• Tech has shot better than 50 percent in each game so far, and has done so 17 times under Brian Gregory.
• Tech has held both opponents under 40 percent (33.9 percent collectively), extending the total of opponents the Jackets have held under 40 percent to 28 under Gregory.
• Tech has outrebounded both opponents (although only by two against Delaware State), making it 39 times in 64 games under Gregory that the Yellow Jackets have out-rebounded their opponent.
Series vs. Georgia
• Georgia Tech has won consecutive games over Georgia for the first time since winning three straight over the Bulldogs in 1992-93-94. All three of those games were played at the Omni arena in downtown Atlanta.
• Tech snapped a 13-game losing streak in games played at Stegeman Coliseum with a 68-56 win over Georgia on Dec. 7, 2011. It was Tech’s first win in Athens since Nov. 26, 1976, a stretch that spanned three Tech coaches – Dwane Morrison (0-for-his-last-4), Bobby Cremins (0-4) and Paul Hewitt (0-5).
• Brian Gregory is the first Tech coach to win his first two meetings against Georgia since Roy McArthur, who won his first four during the 1946-47 and 1947-48 seasons.
• Georgia Tech leads the overall series 103-86 and has played the Bulldogs more than any other opponent in its basketball history.
• The series has been played alternately on the respective schools’ campus since the 1995-96 season. Of the 18 meetings since then, the home team has won 15 times. Georgia has won twice in Atlanta, both at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in 2000 and 2010.
• Before the December, 1995 meeting in Athens, the teams played 14 straight years at the Omni in downtown Atlanta, which was located on the site of the current Philips Arena. Tech went 8-6 against the Bulldogs in the facility, including eight of the last 10 before the neutral series ended. The teams have played on neutral sites other than the SEC or Southern Intercollegiate Championships only one other time, that coming at the 1960 Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla.
• The teams are meeting for the 190th time dating back to 1906, the most frequent opponent for Tech in its basketball history.
