Taking a second review of Georgia Tech's 64-54 win over No. 15 Miami on Wednesday night at McCamish Pavilion. You can read the "5 observations" posted early Thursday here.
5 additional observations
1. Freshman point guard Jose Alvarado had one of the odder stat lines of any player in Division I this season – 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, three rebounds, no assists, seven turnovers, two blocks and two steals in 39 minutes.
According to sports-reference.com, only one other Tech player has had as many as seven turnovers in a game going back to the 2010-11 season – Mfon Udofia against Alabama A&M in December 2011. He’s just the fifth player in Division I this season to have 12 points, seven turnovers, two blocks and two steals in a game, also from sports-reference.com. For good measure, he also took a charge.
Despite the seven turnovers, many of which were out of character for a player who is usually fairly secure on the dribble, it would seem Alvarado’s net effect on the Jackets was overall positive. Ahead 51-46 at the 3-minute mark, Alvarado was on the perimeter defending guard Bruce Brown and, catching him napping, popped the ball out of his hands and was first on the loose ball, drawing a foul. Alvarado made both ends of a one-and-one to extend the lead to seven.
His second block of the game stuffed a deep 3-point try with 1:46 to play with Miami down eight and was turned into a layup at the other end. They were the first two career blocks for Alvarado, who stands 6-foot-0 but towers over Miami’s 5-7 guard, Chris Lykes, who attempted the 3-pointer.
His other block was against 6-3 Ja’Quan Newton on a layup in the first half, a more impressive thwarting. Alvarado lost the ball on the dribble to Newton, then ran alongside Newton as he drove to the basket. He leapt a moment before Newton and got two hands on the ball as Newton got off the ground.
Alvarado was grateful to teammates for their encouragement as the turnovers piled up.
“Especially Josh (Okogie),” he said. “He just said, ‘Keep your head up. … Don’t change your game just because you don’t want to turn the ball over. Just keep playing how you always play and we’re going to find a way to win.’”
2. Center Ben Lammers played much of the game out of his usual high-post spot in the Tech offense. Rather, he played beyond the 3-point arc, cutting to the basket and spacing the floor rather than having the offense run through him at the elbow.
He had another tough shooting game – 3-for-11 from the field for eight points – and added eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and three steals.
“We’re just mixing some things up here and there and just trying to get Ben going,” coach Josh Pastner said. “We need to get Ben going the best way that we can get him going. We’re just going to keep tinkering until he gets his comfort and starts turning the corner.”
Lammers has been off his 2016-17 form, with a shooting percentage now down to 45.7 percent from the field after shooting 51.6 percent last season. Tech missed a chance to build on some early success in the game Wednesday when he scored on an alley oop and then hit a jump shot from the elbow in a span of three possessions, the second at the 5:34 mark of the first half. However, Lammers didn’t get another shot for the remainder of the half.
3. Point guard Justin Moore did not dress for the game, though he was available to play. Moore missed the Coppin State and Notre Dame games last week to stay home in San Diego after the Christmas break to attend the funeral of a close family friend.
With Moore not in uniform, Alvarado played 39 minutes at the point, getting 34 seconds of rest midway through the first half. Pastner said that Moore’s status going forward is “to be determined. We’ll take it one day at a time.” Moore played a combined 47 minutes in the first two games, but has played a total of 63 minutes in six games since.
4. Tech received some praise from former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, now an ESPN analyst.
Tremendous win for @GTMBB The hardest thing to do in coaching is to keep your team moving forward when things go sideways and you have adversity. Getting back on track and keeping everyone working and pulling in the same direction is not easy.
— Seth Greenberg (@SethOnHoops) January 4, 2018
Okogie speaking on the same topic:
“Our coach always says we can’t only be happy and together when we’re winning,” he said. “Even when things aren’t going our way, we’ve still got to be energized. We’ve still got to be together. That’s one thing we stress as a team. We’re always together and we’re going to keep doing that because when you stay together, whether you win or you lose, you’re still able to bounce back and learn from it.”
5. It's hard to know quite where to draw the line with Miami playing pretty badly on offense/Tech ramping up its defensive play.
“We went cold and stayed cold as far as I was concerned,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said.
That said, even with Miami off its game, Tech still defeated a top-25 team and did so going away. And however much Miami contributed, the Jackets did as well, holding their own on the defensive glass and challenging shots inside and outside of the arc. (Miami was 17-for-37, 45.9 percent, on 2-point field-goal tries, a good number.) Straight-line drives continue to be a problem.
After a solid game against Notre Dame (except for the free-throw shooting), this was a result to build on. After Yale on Saturday, Tech has Notre Dame again next Wednesday, this time without All-ACC forward Bonzie Colson (out with a fractured foot) and then a road trip to Pittsburgh. Both are entirely winnable games.
Plus/minus
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