Hokies travel to Atlanta for final regular season game

Georgia Tech is the only ACC team Virginia Tech has yet to face this season.  They’ll do so tomorrow in the regular season finale in Atlanta.

The Yellow Jackets aren’t very good, but they showed earlier this week that they are fully capable by knocking off Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.  Georgia Tech is 14-16 overall, with a 5-12 mark in conference play.  This is a game the Hokies are capable of winning, but obviously a 100% great effort by GT is enough to defeat the Hokies with relative ease.

Despite the win over Syracuse, Georgia Tech is a slumping basketball team.  They had lost four in a row and six of their last seven before the Syracuse win, and the lone win in that span came by three points against a very bad Boston College team.  I don’t think the school will make a change with head coach Brian Gregory after this season, but I do believe he’ll head into 2014-15 (his fourth year) on the hot seat.

Here’s a look at Georgia Tech’s starting lineup…

G Trae Golden (6-2, 205, Sr.): 12.9 ppg, 82 assists.  Though Golden leads Georgia Tech in scoring, he hasn’t been a very efficient player.  He is just 39.8% from the field and 31.5% from three-point range.

G Corey Heyward (6-1, 211, r-Fr.): 1 ppg, 44 assists.  Heyward is listed as a starter for this game, and he has started 12 games on the year.  He averages just one point per game and shoots only 30% from the field.

G Marcus Georges-Hunt (6-5, 219, So.): 11.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg.  Georges-Hunt is arguably Georgia Tech’s best player.  He is a big wing who is a tough physical matchup.

F Robert Carter, Jr. (6-8, 247, So.): 10.7 ppg, 8.4 rpg.  Carter is a good power forward who can also shoot the ball with range.  He is Georgia Tech’s top rebounder.

C Daniel Miller (6-11, 275, r-Sr.): 11.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg.  Not only can Daniel Miller score on the inside, but he can rebound and block shots.  He has 76 blocks on the season, and he also leads the team with 33 steals.  He is one of the most underrated players in the ACC.

The Hokies also have to watch out for Kammeon Holsey (6-8, 234, r-Sr.), a very experienced player who averages 7.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.  Holsey is a gifted post scorer who makes 53.4% of his shots.

I feel like Georgia Tech has the talent to be better than they have been this year.  I don’t feel like they should be an NCAA Tournament team, but I do think they should have a winning record.  Let’s check them out from an efficiency standpoint…

Offensive efficiency: GT #240, VT #290
Defensive efficiency: GT #112, VT #148

Georgia Tech is better than the Hokies, but they aren’t that much better.  They’ve been terrible offensively, just not quite as terrible as Virginia Tech.  They haven’t been all that great defensively either, but slightly better than the Hokies.

This is a game Virginia Tech can win.  Will Georgia Tech be 100% fired up after beating Syracuse?  Will they overlook the Hokies after such a big win?  I feel like with four seniors, they will be focused on Senior Day.  In the end, it comes down to which team executes better, and neither team has executed particularly well this year on the offensive end.

4 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. 2 pm est. Was wondering same bc they used to list that at top of write up.

    I miss your predicted scores too!

    1. Raines is not traveling, and Emelogu is questionable.

      We don’t receive injury reports in Bball like we do football. They typically tell the media on gameday what the deal is, or the media just looks to see who’s suited up, who’s sitting, etc.

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