A few more thoughts and observations from Georgia Tech's 64-48 loss to No. 2 Virginia Thursday at McCamish Pavilion. The "5 observations" story can be read here.
1. Not to belabor the point, but Georgia Tech really surrendered any chance of beating Virginia by giving up so many possessions with turnovers – 18, to be precise.
And what I imagine was all the more aggravating for Tech coaches and players as they review the game video is how many of those turnovers were, at best, ill-advised. In the first 13 possessions alone, these were Tech’s five turnovers:
First possession, 0-0: Ben Lammers tries a somewhat risky bounce pass into the lane to Josh Okogie, who doesn’t cleanly receive it and loses the ball.
Fourth possession, 2-2: Jose Alvarado dribbles upcourt and passes on the wing to Okogie, not anticipating Ty Jerome, who intercepts the pass.
Seventh possession, 4-2, UVA: Brandon Alston receives a pass on the wing but is standing on the sideline.
11th possession, 6-2, UVA: Lammers throws a pass near the top of the 3-point arc to Tadric Jackson on the wing, who pulls back his hands, as though he thought it were deflected, and the ball goes out of bounds.
13th possession, 8-2, UVA: Abdoulaye Gueye takes a drive-and-dish pass from Alvarado on the low block, but shuffles his feet on a pump fake and is called for a travel.
It should be pointed out that, through these 13 possessions, Virginia only had eight points itself. But, in quite a drastic contrast with the Pitt game, when the Jackets scored on nine of their first 10 possessions, the Jackets thwarted their upset attempt early and by their own hands.
Credit is due Virginia, which has augmented its harassing defensive style with players with long reach and quickness, the sorts of players who can cause the sort of tentativeness that the Jackets seemed to exhibit.
2. Tech is not alone in getting depantsed by the Cavaliers in such a manner. North Carolina turned the ball over 19 times and shot 29.6 percent from the field in a 61-49 loss. N.C. State had 15 turnovers and shot 41.1 percent in a 68-51 loss.
That said, UVA has been a particularly cruel matchup for the Jackets. Tech beat Virginia 66-60 at McCamish Pavilion in February 2013 in the last season that the Cavaliers didn’t the NCAA Tournament. Since then, including a return game at John Paul Jones Arena later that month, Virginia is 6-1 against Tech and has won the six games by an average margin of 21.2 points per game.
Tech actually shot the ball reasonably well when it got shots up at the basket; the Jackets had an effective field-goal percentage (which proportionately weights 3-pointers) of 46.4 percent, the second best of any ACC opponent against UVA thus far. They just didn’t give themselves enough opportunities.
3. It might have been a good education for Alvarado, who has largely handled himself in his freshman season, but attempted a number of what coach Josh Pastner calls “hope shots” and finished 1-for-7 for four points. He had five assists against three turnovers and six rebounds. It was reminiscent of his seven-turnover game against Miami.
He’ll ultimately be better because of games like Thursday’s.
Plus/minus
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