ACC Roundup - All Hail The Yellow Jackets
What Georgia Tech has done in its last two games is phenomenal.
When you look at the boxscore from the Georgia Tech-Clemson game, something looks off.
We noticed on the bench first, where Duncan Powell played 49 minutes. Then you look at the starters and Naithan George pulled 55. Wow!
Every starter except for Javian McCollum got at least 43 minutes in a triple overtime 89-86 win for the Yellow Jackets and in his case, he went out early with a head injury.
It’s impossible to overstate how impressive this win was. Clemson is an excellent team and Georgia Tech has issues.
The Yellow Jackets have had had insanely bad luck with injuries. Jaeden Mustaf? Out. Luke O’Brien? Out. Kowacie Reeves? Out.
Yet they took Clemson to overtime. And then again. And one more time.
And it’s not like it was beautiful basketball. They had bad turnovers. They made some bad decisions. Clemson hit 18-21 from the free throw line; Georgia Tech managed just 12-25.
But here’s the amazing thing: somewhere in the second overtime, it was really clear which team was getting tired...and it wasn’t Georgia Tech.
Somehow, after 45 minutes and with only six meaningful players, one of whom played every minute, they were the fresher team.
After the game, Damon Stoudamire said this and who can argue:
“I’ve been telling anybody that’ll listen, injuries aside, I feel like we can play with anybody. I really do. And I’ve been saying it, but needed these guys to believe in that. I think tonight’s win shows that they do.”
A couple of more injuries and this team is a shoo-in for the Final Four.
Bookend this with the ridiculous win over Louisville this past Saturday and Georgia Tech has two of the most impressive wins of the season.
What they've accomplished lately is phenomenal. We hope they have some idea of how tremendous it is and how much respect they’ve earned as a result.
Less respected: Notre Dame’s awful Florida trip. We thought that losing to wretched Miami would infuriate the Irish and, you know, put some fight in the Fighting Irish.
Well, not as much as we thought.
Notre Dame pulled ahead by 10 in the first half, but the ‘Noles ripped off a 22-2 run and after the Irish woke up again, they were somehow down just one at the half.
And in the second, they just couldn’t capitalize on opportunities.
In their defense, Matt Allocco was out but that wasn’t enough to explain it. Just a frustrating performance by the Irish all around.
Four games set for Wednesday as Louisville visits BC, SMU ventures north to Virginia Tech, and NC State and Wake Forest are travel buddies, with State at Cal and Wake at Stanford.
We’d expect Louisville to be upset after losing to Georgia Tech Saturday and while SMU seems like an obvious pick, Virginia Tech has picked up a bit lately.
We like Cal over the Pack and if Jaylen Blakes is playing, we’ll take Stanford over Wake.
Wednesday’s ACC Action
- Duke @ Syracuse || 7:00 || ESPN2
- Louisville @ Boston College || 7:00 || ACCN
- SMU @ Virginia Tech || 9:00 || ACCN
- NC State @ Cal || 11:00 || ACCN
- Wake Forest @ Stanford || 11:00 || ESPNU
- Irish come up short again in seven-point loss at Florida State
- Notre Dame stumbles late in loss to Florida State
- Missed shots steer Notre Dame MBB into another road loss at Florida State
- ACC Basketball Recap: Florida State 67, Notre Dame 60 — More of the same
- Notre Dame Falls Despite Markus Burton’s 25 points, 67-60 in Tallahassee
- George scores 28 points, Ndongo adds 18 to help Georgia Tech pull away and beat Clemson 89-86 in 3OT
- Georgia Tech outlasts Clemson for win in 3OT thriller
- Another year, another Clemson home loss to Georgia Tech in multiple overtimes
- George scores 28 points, Ndongo adds 18 to help Georgia Tech pull away and beat Clemson 89-86 in 3OT
- Triple Overtime Loss to Georgia Tech for Clemson Basketball
- FSU men’s basketball coaching search: How good is the job and who are names to know?
- “Old model for Carolina basketball just doesn’t work”: HC Hubert Davis announces major decision for UNC staff to get sustainability
- “We’ve been consistently inconsistent”: HC Hubert Davis gives harsh reality check to his North Carolina team
- Tar Heels Plan to Use Open Date to Find More Consistency