Archive for January, 2011

Georgia Tech is tentatively scheduled to begin spring practices on March 28, according to the ACC. The Yellow Jackets’ spring game is scheduled for April 23.

Tech will practice at Bobby Dodd Stadium because of the construction of the new indoor practice facility.

Tech is coming off a 6-7 season and there will be competition at a lot of positions following the departures of quarterback Joshua Nesbitt, B-backs Anthony Allen and Lucas Cox, two starters on the offensive line, middle linebacker Brad Jefferson and the entire secondary.

The rest of the conference’s spring starts and game dates:
Team/Start/Spring Game
Boston College/March 15/April 16
Clemson/March 7/April 9
Duke/Feb. 16/March 26
FSU/March 21/April 16
Maryland/March 29/April 30
Miami/March 5/April 16
North Carolina/March 16/April 9
N.C. State/March 17/April 16
Virginia/March 16/April 2
Virginia Tech/March 30/April 23
Wake Forest/March 15/April 16
– Doug Roberson, AJC

Continue reading ACC spring practice start and game dates »

Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert was named the ACC player of the week today.

Shumpert, a junior guard, posted the fourth triple-double in Tech history in the Yellow Jackets’ 72-57 win against Virginia Tech. He scored 22 points with 12 rebounds and 11 assists. He added 12 points, three assists and three steals in a 74-63 loss to Maryland on Sunday.

– Doug Roberson, AJC

Continue reading Shumpert named ACC player of the week »

Quotes following Georgia Tech’s 74-62 loss to Maryland on Sunday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, courtesy of the sports information department:

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt

On Jordan Williams

“He established himself early in the game with all of those offensive rebounds and put backs and put us on our heels. He establishes a presence around the basket that we just didn’t have an answer for.”

On the team’s effort

“I thought the effort was good, but Maryland scored 48 points in the paint and that is what they do. We talked about guarding them off the dribble and not allowing easy baskets around the bucket and in the first half they had 13 field goals and I think every one of them was right at the rim. I look at effort in a couple different ways. Of course there is the physical effort, but then there is the mental effort and gritting your teeth and thinking, `Ok they want to score at the rim, let’s make them do something else’. Forty-eight points in the paint makes it tough to …

Continue reading Quotes after Tech’s loss to Maryland »

For a while, Georgia Tech couldn’t stop opponents from hitting 3-pointers.

Now, the Jackets have stopped those shots but they can’t stop teams in the paint.

Maryland scored 72 of its 74 points in the free-throw lane or at the free-throw line in Sunday’s 74-62 win. That came one game after Virginia Tech scored 52 of its 57 points in the lane or at the line.

Coach Paul Hewitt said he thought the way the Terrapins scored was much different than the Hokies scored. He said his guards did a good job of manning up on Virginia Tech’s guards on the perimeter. However, the Terrapins were able to blow by Tech’s guards and get into the lane with ease. Hewitt said he talked to his team about guarding the Terps off the dribble, but Maryland had no trouble, scoring 48 points in the paint.

“I thought the effort was good,” Hewitt said. “I look at effort in a couple of different ways. Of course there is the physical effort, but then there is the mental effort and gritting your teeth and …

Continue reading Tech’s problems in the paint »

Brian Oliver is finding his shooting stroke at the right time for Georgia Tech’s basketball team.

Oliver scored 28 points by hitting 11 of his 18 shots, including four of his nine 3-pointers, in Tuesday’s 72-57 win against Virginia Tech.

It came a game after he hit five of his nine shots in the loss at Virginia to raise his shooting percentage to 35.7 percent this season. He’s now hitting 37.9 percent of his shots after the performance against the Hokies.

During his struggles this season, coach Paul Hewitt has stood by his player, saying that he just needed to keep going to the gym and hoisting jumpers.

That belief and that work appear to be paying off.

“Honestly, I am not sure of what the difference is between tonight and a week ago,” Oliver said after the Virginia Tech game.

He said there have been some mechanical things that were wrong with his shot that have led to mental issues.

“You cant get down on yourself,” he said. “You say to yourself keep taking good shots, but you …

Continue reading Oliver heating up at right time »

Georgia Tech center Nate Hicks will miss the next 2-3 weeks after having his appendix removed Thursday morning. He is averaging 1.6 points and 2.4 rebounds a game.
The Yellow Jackets will host Maryland on Sunday.
Hicks is having a rough week. He suffered a broken nose in practice on Monday when it was hit by a teammates’ elbow.
In addition, Glen Rice has flu-like symptoms but is expected to play against the Terrapins. Kammeon Holsey was sick last week and wasn’t able to travel to the game at Virginia.
– Doug Roberson, AJC

Continue reading Nate Hicks out »

Former Georgia Tech standout Joshua Nesbitt is working out as a running back at a training facility in Charlotte in an attempt to improve his chances of making it in the NFL, according to Heather Dinich at ESPN.com.

Nesbitt, the most prolific rushing quarterback in ACC history, told Dinich: “I’m just working on, they listed me as a running back, so I’m trying to get better at running back drills and quarterback. I just want to play football. I feel like I have a lot to prove just by being the person that I am, just always being in the shadow of everybody.”

I’m trying to reach Nesbitt to get some more information.

Despite playing in a run-based spread-option offense, Nesbitt passed for 3,276 yards and rushed for 2,806 yards. Nesbitt’s toughness hasn’t been questioned. His accuracy has. He completed just 42.9 percent of his passes, which was one factor that necessitated his working out as a running back.

His senior season ended early after he sustained a broken arm at …

Continue reading Nesbitt working out at RB »

Iman Shumpert goes up for two points in his triple-double performance. AJC

Fresh off his triple-double against Virginia Tech, should Iman Shumpert receive early consideration as the ACC’s player of the year?

Debating his importance to Georgia Tech is pointless. It’s obvious that without the junior point guard the Yellow Jackets wouldn’t be where they are, even if were they are is just one game above .500 overall and 3-3 in conference play. With their recent play at home, in which they’ve hammered North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech, they could still go on a run and earn at-large consideration for the NCAA tournament with 10 conference games remaining, as well as a non-conference home game against Chattanooga. As shallow as the conference is this season, there’s no reason to think Tech can’t win the ACC tournament and get an automatic berth. The issues Tech has on the road (0-for-6 this season) don’t extend to neutral-court games, where the Jackets are 2-1 this …

Continue reading Shumpert the ACC player of the year? »

Here’s a transcript of the quotes following Georgia Tech’s 72-57 win against Virginia Tech on Tuesday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum:

Head Coach Paul Hewitt opening statement

The second half was probably as good of a team effort that we have had all year. Certainly, Iman [Shumpert] and Brian [Oliver] were outstanding but I thought we were taking care of the basketball and tightening things up offensively. I wanted to make sure that we were taking care of [Malcolm] Delaney and the guys going for three. They probably spread out a little too much and were beat off of the dribble, giving up some easy baskets in the first half. In the second half, we went back to playing some pretty good defense and Iman and Brian were tremendous.

Hewitt on playing defense at home

The energy that you get really helps. Our student section these last three home games has been really good. At the same time, we talked the other day, Virginia made seven three’s in the first half in Charlottesville and …

Continue reading Quotes following Georgia Tech’s win against Virginia Tech »

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said the difference in his players’ defensive performance against Virginia Tech, and the one in the previous game at Virginia, came down to details.

A game after the Cavaliers became the ninth team this season to hit more than 40 percent of their 3-pointers, the Hokies missed 10 of their 11 attempts in Georgia Tech’s 72-57 victory on Tuesday.

“We’ve been talking about being more aware when you’re off the ball,” Hewitt said. “We have a tendency to lock in on the ball, which is why we get a lot of steals. The second half we did a much better job of recognizing when our man was off the ball and recognizing who the shooters were when they were off the ball.”

Because Georgia Tech sometimes focuses too much on the ball, defenders would lose track of their man, which would allow him to slip into open spots. The Hokies were able to find some of those areas, but they couldn’t make those shots.

No one had a tougher time than Malcolm Delaney, one of the …

Continue reading Tech’s defense comes through again »