Info Center

A road game against a talented team that is desperate for a win. That will be the situation for the #23 Hokies when they travel to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Sunday afternoon. Virginia Tech is 2-1 against Georgia Tech since joining the ACC, including a 70-69 win in Alexander Memorial Coliseum two years ago. But can they repeat that feat this weekend?

Georgia Tech is coming off two tough losses on the road to UNC and Maryland. They didn't compete well in either game, falling 77-61 to UNC and 80-65 in College Park. In fact, the Yellow Jackets are so poor on the road that they've lost 16 straight games on opponents' home floors.

Unfortunately for the Hokies, they aren't hosting Georgia Tech. They have to travel to Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where Georgia Tech is 11-0 this season. Their most recent home games saw them knock off Duke 74-63 and Florida State 88-80. But with two losses in a row, the Yellow Jackets are in a near must-win situation if they want to keep their slowly fading NCAA tournament hopes alive. The Hokies will get Georgia Tech's best shot on Sunday.

Georgia Tech Starting Lineup
Pos	Name	Ht	Wt	Year	Pts	Rebs
G	Javaris Crittenton	6-5	198	Fr.	13.4	3.5
F	Thaddeus Young	6-8	217	Fr.	14.9	5.1
F	Mouhammad Faye	6-10	208	r-Fr.	4.6	3.5
F	Jeremis Smith	6-8	236	Jr.	8.7	5.6
C	Ra'Sean Dickey	6-10	250	Jr.	8.9	5.9

Three-guard and even four-guard lineups can be seen throughout college basketball but this is a truly unique starting lineup for Georgia Tech. This is by far the tallest and lengthiest starting lineup Virginia Tech will see this season. It is also one of the youngest.

Javaris Crittenton was one of the top point guard recruits heading into the season, and he has not disappointed. He is Georgia Tech's second leading scorer, and he has dished out 106 assists on the year. He will develop into one of the top point guards in the ACC, and he is a good player now. However, like most freshmen, he will turn the ball over. He has 72 turnovers on the season, and in ACC play he barely has a positive assist/turnover ratio (25 assists, 24 turnovers).

Fellow blue chip recruit Thaddeus Young also has a spot in the starting lineup, and he is leading the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game. Young has the game of a wing, but he is big enough and strong enough to present a physical mismatch at whatever position he plays. He is shooting over 50% for the season, including 41.4% from three-point range.

Georgia Tech has two very capable inside players, although they aren't putting up the numbers that they did a season ago. Jeremis Smith plays the power forward position, and his nine double-doubles in 2005-06 was the second most in the conference. But his numbers have dropped this year, and they've dropped even further in ACC play (6.3 points, 4.2 rebounds). Smith is a bruiser, and the Hokies need to keep him off the glass.

His partner on the inside is center Ra'Sean Dickey. Like Smith, Dickey was also having a down year. But since ACC play began, he has picked it up. He is averaging 12.3 points and 5.2 rebounds since ACC play began.

Georgia Tech's best player off the bench is wing Anthony Morrow. Morrow was an honorable mention All-ACC player last year, and he was the only player for Georgia Tech to start every game. He averaged 16 points per game and led the ACC in three-point percentage (42.3%). This year, Morrow hasn't started a single game. He is averaging just over 17 minutes off the bench, and his scoring average has dropped to 8.8 points per game.

Morrow is still a very dangerous player. He can spot up from the outside and nail the three, hitting at a 40.2% clip from the outside this season. Morrow is Georgia Tech's version of A.D. Vassallo coming off the bench.

Georgia Tech got a tough break early in the season when shooting guard Lewis Clinch was suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, and he has not played a game since the Winston-Salem State game on January 3rd. He was averaging 13.2 points per game and was shooting 47.6% from three-point range. After Clinch, a 6-3 guard, was suspended, Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt made the decision to go with a bigger lineup.

The Yellow Jackets are a good team. Let's see how they rank in the ACC in our usual key categories. These statistics are for ACC games only.

Georgia Tech vs. Virginia Tech (ACC games only)
Category	Georgia Tech		Virginia Tech
Category	Stat	ACC Rank	Stat	ACC Rank
FG %	50.0%	2	47.5%	4
FG % Defense	47.2%	9	44.0%	5
3-Pt. %	34.3%	8	40.9%	2
3-Pt. % Defense	37.0%	7	30.8%	3
FT %	69.4%	8	70.6%	7
Rebounding Margin	+0.5	5	-3.8	10
Turnover Margin	-4.00	12	+3.33	2
Assist/TO Ratio	0.67	11	1.14	1
Scoring Offense	74	8	76.3	4
Scoring Defense	77.5	10	74.3	6
Average		8		4.4

That's not very impressive for Georgia Tech. They only rank in the top half of the ACC in two of the 10 categories. With such a big starting lineup, they should arguably be higher in rebounding margin as well.

Georgia Tech Home ACC Games (2-0)
Category	Stat
FG %	55.2%
FG % Defense	46.9%
3-Pt. %	51.5%
3-Pt. % Defense	33.3%
FT %	77.8%
Rebounding Margin	+3.5
Turnover Margin	-5.0
Assist/TO Ratio	0.75
Scoring Offense	81
Scoring Defense	71.5

Georgia Tech shoots better, rebounds better and plays better defense at home. Their free throw percentage is also much higher. However, they still struggle with turnovers.

Virginia Tech is 2-1 in their last three games, and they have not won the turnover margin battle in any of those three games. To beat Georgia Tech on the road, that has to change. The Yellow Jackets shoot the ball extremely well. Smith and Dickey are nearly automatic on the inside, both shooting over well over 60% for the season. Once Georgia Tech gets the ball inside, they are nearly impossible to stop.

The Hokies need to deny the basketball to the inside, exactly what they did to Tyler Hansbrough when they beat then-#1 UNC. Make Georgia Tech try to force tough passes, as the Yellow Jackets are dead last in the ACC in turnover margin, and next-to-last in assist/turnover ratio.

Turnover margin will likely be more critical in this game than any other Virginia Tech game. If the Hokies can get a big advantage, they can come out of Atlanta with a win, but it's going to be very tough against a team that has played great at home.

Our 29th RPI ranked Virginia Tech Hokies travel to the land of Phil Donahue's hair to play Coach Bobby Cremins' old team, the 36th RPI ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets down in the ATL. By all accounting, the Rambling Wreck is a perfect hoops team; they are a perfectly good at home, winning 12 straight in their own building, but a perfectly bad 0 for their last 16 road games when visiting. All things being equal, that's usually a sign of a pretty talented squad which lacks the mental maturity to dig in their heels and play lockdown defense on the road. In other words, a team that is only able to play one end of the court at a time, and that end tends to be offensive in nature.

The top of Georgia Tech's roster resembles that remark, as the Yellow Jackets' three leading scorers are all underclassmen (one sophomore, two freshmen). The Rambling Wreck can indeed score, checking in at 12th in the nation in points (which makes the Yellow Jackets the second highest scoring team the Hokies will play all year) and 6th in national in field goal percentage. But Georgia Tech's defensive production drops to 158th best ... clearly, if you are 12th in scoring you have some very solid talent, but when you fall 146 spots in scoring defense, you have not figured it out. This is also an indication that with a little seasoning Georgia Tech will be a very tough ACC hoops team in 2008 and 2009, but you want to hear about 2007.

Can the Hokies beat a perfect-at-home Georgia Tech while wearing their visiting Chicago Maroon gear? "Yes." I answer in the affirmative because VT holds the Greenberg-ball recipe for success in the form of a 251 spot edge in turnovers. As an up-tempo hoopster myself, you won't normally see me typing this ... but I say try to amplify that turnover edge by taking some air out of the ball and slowing the game down when our Hokies are on offense. Make Georgia Tech make the extra pass, which will help keep the Yellow Jackets' young superstars from falling into an offensive rhythm, and simultaneously maximize the Hokies' turnover edge. Finally, crash the defensive glass in a further attempt to limit any Georgia Tech offensive synchronicity by forcing the Yellow Jackets to play an offensive game of one and done when it comes to shooting. If our Hokies win it won't be by much, but I'm siding with the older team here.