Bradley’s Buzz: Favors is down, but Georgia Tech’s up
Derrick Favors against Indiana-PA. He has done less of this versus the ACC. (AJC photo by Elissa Eubanks)
According to the good folks at NBAdraft.net — the best site of its ilk, IMHO — Georgia Tech freshman Derrick Favors is now No. 6 in its 2010 mock. That’s down from No. 2 earlier this month, and that’s a rather significant drop.
There’s a reason. Given his hype, Favors isn’t having much of a freshman season. He’s averaging 11.1 points and 8.6 rebounds, and even those numbers mislead. Over the past eight games he’s averaging 9 points and 8.4 rebounds, with 22 turnovers and 20 fouls against seven assists. He has scored in double figures once in four ACC games.
In sum, he doesn’t resemble the player he was at South Atlanta High, where he was considered the nation’s top recruit by Scout.com. (John Wall, ranked No. 2, is not only the best freshman but the best player in the college game. And he’ll be the NBA’s No. 1 pick in June.)
Maybe we should have seen this coming. Favors was a post player in high school. Tech already had a post player — Gani Lawal, who’s having a great junior season and who NBAdraft.net projects as going 24th this summer. Favors is playing power forward and facing the basket, and he’s struggling from the change. (Hence the turnovers.) Sometimes you watch Tech for long stretches and you forget Favors is on the roster.
And that, for NBA scouts, is the issue. They come to Tech games in bunches and they leave having seen Favors do very little. Owing to fouls and Hewitt’s substitution whirl and the emergence of Zachery Peacock as Tech’s best clutch scorer, Favors doesn’t play very long. He worked 23 minutes against Charlotte, 21 against Georgia and 19 against North Carolina. And when scouts can’t evaluate what they can’t see.
From Tech’s perspective, there’s an encouraging flip side. Even with their most talented player struggling, the Jackets are climbing. Joe Lunardi of ESPN.com rates Tech a No. 5 NCAA tournament seed in his latest edition of Bracketology. Andy Glockner of SI.com has the Jackets a No. 6 seed, and Ryan Fagans of Sporting News Today has them a No. 4.
And that’s without Derrick Favors at anywhere close to peak capacity. Imagine how far the Jackets might go if he gets rolling. Elite Eight, maybe? Final Four, perhaps?
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127 comments Add your comment
OSCAR
January 19th, 2010
6:36 pm
101th
Cmill
January 19th, 2010
7:44 pm
I called this when I saw Favors and his S. Atlanta team get dominated by a small East Hall team in the first round of the state basketball playoffs. Can you say overrated?
Reality check?
January 19th, 2010
9:28 pm
Did anyone just watch the game or is everyone just going to cry like little babies about our team?
old Tech fan in NC
January 19th, 2010
10:17 pm
Favors might be “down”, but he is not out! He seems to be at the right place at the right time tonight and getting many put backs and even a snow bird! And many rebounds.
My next door neighbor is a Tiger…good to see Tech keep rolling…it won’t sting when I see him now…
RomeDawg
January 19th, 2010
10:51 pm
Everyone reading this blog knows that Hewitt is probably the 3rd best coach in this state behind Fox, who has already outcoached him, and Rod Barnes at Georgia State. Within 2 years Hewitt will be fired and not too long after so will Paul Johnson. Even though Tech has low standards, Argo you can’t deny this, you will be tired of losing with that “High School Offense” and getting you arse smacked by Richt. Even the horrible Willie Martinez outcoached Paul Johnson. Somewhere Furman Bisher is mumbling about great football coaches such as Leeman Bennet, Paul Johnson and Rod Marinelli. Here are a few parting numbers for anyone who may have forgot: 339, 8 of 9, 73-66, and last but not least 30-24. I bet that one still burns. As a Techie you must NEVER forget, WE RUN THIS STATE! Stick to the books, Nerds!
Morgan Burnett
January 19th, 2010
11:00 pm
Anybody seen Caleb King? I hear he’s still running around UNTOUCHED on the tech campus!
Heckle Island
January 19th, 2010
11:31 pm
<<<<<>>>
<<<<<>>>>
<<<<<>>>>
Crow all you want buddy boy
Heckle Island
January 20th, 2010
12:26 am
that was BCS Bowl – Weedeater bowl
DC with proven success at every level – DC who was fired in his last DC job
NCAA tourn – nothing tournament
UGAissolastyear
January 20th, 2010
6:09 am
All the empty seats last night (especially after a big win at UNC) should show our AD, once and for all, that the support for Hewitt is just not there.
C C
January 20th, 2010
9:38 am
Hoops Please, actually GT did beat Duke once since 2004: In 2007 at Alexander. Regardless, beating both Duke and UNC is a beautiful thing no matter what season it is.
As much as I’d like for Favors to stick around for a second year, I’m afraid he’s gone despite a less-stellar-than-expected start. He would have to drop several more sports in the projected draft order, and I suspect he’s picking up enough to have at least a few solid games the rest of the way this year, like he did against Clemson.
thebull
January 20th, 2010
11:15 am
For those of you that think Favors is overrated you are sadly mistaken. I have sources that are VERY CLOSE to the Tech program that tell me otherwise. The reason he has not played up to everyone’s expectation is because he is a very coachable kid and he is playing within the system that Paul has designed. Paul runs EVERYTHING through Gani which is why his scoring output hasn’t been what everyone is looking for. He has a field goal percentage of 58.5% and that would rank him 15th in the nation if he gets the shot opportunities that Gani gets (and for comparison sake, Gani is 38th in the nation at 54.3%. The real reason he is on the bench late in games doesn’t have anything to do with him not being able to score. It’s that he’s only shooting 59.7% from the free throw line (Gani is 67.5% and Peacock is 82.1%). He has only taken double digit shots in 3 games this year. Now for comparison sake, lets take a look at DeMarcus Cousins of Kentucky (i chose him because he was the second rated post player out of last year’s high school class). He’s taken double digit shots in 12 games, meaning that at some level, the offense is being run through him. Another reason i chose him is because when Favors faced him last year in high school Derrick went for 37 and 22 against him. From what I am seeing (and hearing) is that Paul is intentionally doing this to try and keep Derrick around for another year.
messin with sasquatch
January 20th, 2010
1:40 pm
i would say the clemson game was favor’s coming out party………
GT VET
January 20th, 2010
1:43 pm
Shumpert and Peacock ARE GT basketball…great players..btw ugay fans keep posting the scores its very funny..Thats ALL you have to hang your hat or should i say tails on..2 wins..but just beating GT(which was everything to the butt sniffers) wont get you ranked and wont get you into the ncaas..but hey yall have girls basketball and the russian gym girls.GO GT,GO NAVY Fighter pilots(the old VF-14 and VF-32 Fighter Squadrons)GO USA..THWG!!!
GT VET
January 20th, 2010
1:50 pm
Rome dog is a sissy 8th grader,and floyd county is a joke…he also is the one that needs to worry about the books.wimp
messin with sasquatch
January 20th, 2010
2:22 pm
the terry business kindergartners and their crayolas………
Toni D
January 20th, 2010
4:03 pm
Derrick has been struggling because Udofia can’t get him the ball. Notice when Glen Rice and Shumpert are in for significant amount of time Derrick’s points go up. Its not rocket science – more Shumpert and Rick and less Udofia!
Steve
January 20th, 2010
4:38 pm
Herschel Talker wants someone to suck it. HT- you may be on the wrong blog but good luck to you man.
Herschel Talker
January 20th, 2010
6:41 pm
Just so everyone knows: UGA still sucks; we ruin this state.
RomeDawg
January 20th, 2010
6:43 pm
We ruin this state!
RomeDawg
January 20th, 2010
6:45 pm
Coach Fox has us nationally ranked now. Top 5 by the end of the year. Count on it! Go Dawgs! woof woof woof pant pant woof woof woof
CarolinaJacket
January 20th, 2010
6:55 pm
I never realized until I started reading these blogs that the UGA folks are much more concerned with beating Tech than their conference of national rankings. They are delighted now that they won in both football and basketball, even though they are ranked in neither. The other games simply are not all that important to them. That is a strange way to evaluate a team’s success, but I guess if it works for them they should continue to think that way (I believe the psychiatrists have a name for that kind of thinking). As far as the basketball team is concerned, I would love to see a game where the guards are hot and the big guys get their shots. The guards, who have had some great games, couldn’t hit the side of a barn against Clemson yet we still won. If everyone puts it together in one game we can take on anyone, period.
Tron Carter
January 20th, 2010
6:59 pm
It is unfair for us Dawgs to keep posting 73-66 and 30-24 without giving Georgia Trek credit for what they do excel in——Terrorism
Just ask proud Georgia Trek student and terrorist Syed Haris Ahmed.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/10/georgia.terror.trial/index.html
Tron Carter
January 20th, 2010
7:02 pm
The reason that we keep mentioning 30-24 is because you douches ran your mouths all year about how you would dominate us in Atlanta (in the 55,000 seat stadium that you can’t fill in the largest city in the State, even with free food).
As far as 73-66, we are trying to build up our program that is in terrible shape (except Fox) and we still beat you.
On hardwood or grass, we kick your a**
60-39-5
JB
January 20th, 2010
8:09 pm
Tron Carter,
You must have a miserable life if all you have to do with your time is go on some anonymous blog and try to taunt complete strangers with some score you had absolutely nothing to do with. You haven’t accomplished anything with your useless taunts except point out what a sad, pathetic person you are. You try to justify your behavior by saying that “douches ran their mouths all year”; well guess who is the douche running his mouth now doing the exact same thing? All you have done is define yourself as a douche! Not very clever are you? No wonder Dawgs get stereotyped as idiots. Thanks for clearing that up for the entire blog. What a tool!
Mike
January 20th, 2010
8:41 pm
Hey Tron, you spent two posts telling us how much you hate Tech with arrogance. Is that supposed to impress someone? JB is right, you have nothing to add to any discussion, just a flame to highlight to everyone that you have personality issues. BTW we get the fact that you hate Tech. Honestly, I don’t think anyone really cares. So, exactly what have you accomplished?
Sassy
January 21st, 2010
9:46 am
Have you all ever gave any thought that Favors may not be feeling well, this young man has been traveling around during his AAU season went right into high school without a break, went McDonald’s All American, Jordan Brand Classic, into college summer classes, starting classes and practicing and playing ball without a break. In other words get off him, if you feel you can do any better then please go play ball.
GT VET
January 21st, 2010
12:20 pm
Hey tron,u little candy ass,I know we will never meet ,but (praying)one day we may meet and id love for u to say to my face im a terrorist..Im a retired navy pilot and id still kick your whimppy butt all over Georgia…my god BOY its a GAME and u bring crap like that into it?? my guess is you NEVER played any sports much less football and Im POSITIVE you never served this great country,grow the hell up ..give GT hell when yall beat us noone is gonna cry about it,,thats the name of the game but calling people (kids ) terrorist???you freaking punk