Georgia Tech Preview and Gamethread

If Clemson is going to salvage any sort of decency this season, beating GT at home is a must. Georgia Tech heads to Littlejohn Colliseum with a record of 9-10, 1-3. They are fresh off a pasting on their (pseudo) home court at the hands of UVA. UVA is a very good basketball team, but losing by 32 at home is not good.

Brian Gregory is more than halfway through his first season as GT's head man, and it's been a rocky start in what already figured to be a rebuilding year. Gregory comes to GT from Dayton, where he took the Flyers to 2 NCAA tournament appearances in 8 seasons. He is a Tom Izzo disciple. He was an assistant coach under Izzo at Michigan State for 5 years, 3 of which resulted in Final Four appearance (1 National Championship).

GT's best player is Glen Rice Jr. He can shoot from 3, but his forte is really midrange pull up jumpers. He loves to shoot it off the bounce. The key to throwing off a rhythmic shooter is to make him uncomfortable. Don't let him get to his spots on the floor. I'd expect to see Tanner Smith guarding him. Tanner needs to crowd him and be physical with him. If you let him catch it and get a rhythmic dribble into his shot, he'll hurt you.

Junior PG Mfon Udofia is GT's 2nd leading scorer. He was a highly regarded recruit coming out of high school, but hasn't really lived up to that billing thus far. He's not a very good shooter and is left hand dominant. However, he is quick, but that shouldn't bother Andre Young too much since he's as quick as almost anyone in the conference.

In the frontcourt, GT has very good length. Kammeon Holsey is a bouncy PF that seems bigger than his listed 6'8 height. Daniel MIller is a 6'11 shot blocker (2.6 bpg) that could give our undersized frontcourt a bit of trouble (think Henson vs Grant). Neither guys poses much of a threat with their backs to the basket, so it will be important to clear the defensive glass and not let these guys get any easy points.

The last guy to keep an eye on is Jason Morris. He was another highly regarded 4-star coming out of high school. He was supposed to be a shooter, but has struggled with his shot so far this year (30% from 3). I'm not counting him out though, since Malcolm Grant was struggling with his shot until he got out of his slump against a soft Clemson perimeter defense.

This is a game we as fans should expect to win. Lets go out and avenge our football team's beatdown at GT.