Archive for May, 2011

Greetings-

Kind of a newsy day Tuesday. Iman Shumpert decides to go, Wes Durham says he wants to stay and a busy upcoming weekend for Georgia Tech sports got significantly busier.

Shumpert calls it a career

In an interview Tuesday at the Edge Center, Shumpert talked about being a Bulls fan growing up in Chicago and dreaming of playing in the NBA. He made a picture book about his future in the NBA as a child for a school project. He said he decided last week to leave Tech for the draft, a decision that he felt confident of by the weekend.

From talking with NBA teams, Brian Gregory concluded that Shumpert was safely in the top half of the second round. From that, Shumpert decided he could move up into the first through pre-draft workouts – a notion Gregory backed – but that he could only do that by committing to basketball fully.

“I pride myself on doing a lot of different things,” Shumpert said. “Hopefully, my versatility will land me with the right situation.”

Shumpert …

Continue reading Shumpert goes, Durham stays and more »

Georgia Tech guard Iman Shumpert has decided to forego his final year of eligibility and stay in the NBA draft. Shumpert, a second-team All-ACC pick last season, will hire an agent and begin working out for NBA teams.

“I appreciate everything that Georgia Tech has done for me over my time here,” Shumpert said in a statement.

This past season, Shumpert became only the fourth player in ACC history to lead his team in scoring, rebounds, assists and steals. He was also selected to the ACC all-defensive team. Over his career, he scored in double figures 55 times out of 92 games.

At the time he decided to enter his name into the draft in late March, Shumpert said he was 50-50 and that he would likely return if he was projected as a second-round pick. That has largely turned out to be the evaluation. NBA scouting director Ryan Blake said last week that he projected Shumpert as either a second-round pick or undrafted and advised him to stay in school.

“I like him; he’s a good player,” …

Continue reading Shumpert to stay in draft »

Georgia Tech senior Paul Haley was named the ACC’s men’s golfer of the month for April. Haley won the first two tournaments of his career in the month, the Yellow Jacket Classic April 16-17 and then ACC championship at Old North State Club in New London, N.C., April 22-24.

At the ACC tournament, Haley shot a 10-under-par 206 over three rounds in leading Tech to its third consecutive league championship as the Yellow Jackets set a tournament record with a 33-under-par score. He made a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to defeat teammate Kyle Scott by one stroke, as he did at the Yellow Jacket Classic.

Haley, who graduates Saturday, is the third Tech player to win or share player of the month honors this season, following James White in February and March.

Continue reading Haley named ACC men’s golfer of month »

Reminder for those of you in the Atlanta area that the final stop of the Yellow Jacket Caravan will be Tuesday night at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center. Dan Radakovich and four coaches – Brian Gregory, Bruce Heppler, Paul Johnson and MaChelle Joseph – along with Wes Durham will appear. The event begins at 6 p.m. More information here.

Continue reading Last Caravan event Tue. in Midtown »

Greetings, all-

Hope the day finds you well. I spoke with Anthony Allen Monday about the draft and his future as a Baltimore Raven. He had some interesting things to say about the triple option impacting his draft position, how his undrafted teammates are doing and being welcomed to the NFL by Ray Lewis.

1. On Saturday (when he had to wait about six hours to get picked): “It started off a little nerve-wracking. I was sitting there trying to watch it (on television). You really shouldn’t do that. People were telling me you shouldn’t do it, but I was hard-headed and did it anyway. Once you’re seeing guys fly off the board that you played against and you know their capability and you know [you're better than], you start to stress a little bit.”

Once the seventh round started, though, he started getting phone calls from teams that told him they were going to try to pick him, which eased his anxiety.

Ready to be a Raven.

2. Allen’s plan for now is to just wait out the lockout. (A …

Continue reading Allen talks Ravens, draft, triple option »

With one of its lightest-hitting series of the season, the Tech baseball team dropped two of three games to Clemson.

Said Tech coach Danny Hall, “We didn’t swing the bats very good. Our pitching was good and our defense was good. Just didn’t do what we needed to do.”

In the three games, Tech hit .168. The Tigers were particularly effective against Tech’s 3-4-5 hitters, Matt Skole, Jake Davies and Daniel Palka, who were 3-for-32 with 2 RBI over the three games.

It’s only the second series that Tech, ranked No. 9 by Baseball America, has lost this season. Tech is 31-14 overall and 18-6 in the ACC. The Jackets fell a game further behind Coastal Division leader Virginia, the No. 1 team in the country, which took two of three from Boston College and is 20-4 in the ACC. Virginia owns the tiebreaker over Tech, having taken an early April series from Tech. Clemson is 29-15 overall and 13-11 in the conference.

Sunday, Tech lost 3-1, letting a sterling effort by pitcher Buck Farmer go …

Continue reading Tech baseball drops series, softball sweeps »