Georgia Tech’s past seven games haven’t done much for the Yellow Jackets’ record. But they’ve developed a sizable store of knowledge of the RPI top 50.
Of the seven, six have been against teams in the top 50 as of Saturday morning. Not surprisingly, Tech’s record in the seven games is 1-6, the lone win against Syracuse (No. 37). Sunday’s game against Duke at McCamish Pavilion (6 p.m., ESPN) will be the seventh out of eight, as the Blue Devils were No. 7 after Friday’s games.
“We’ve just got to kind of get out of a little bit of a rut,” coach Josh Pastner said.
For Pastner, it may feel more like a canyon than a little bit of a rut. He had never previously lost six of seven in his nine seasons as a head coach. In fact, his teams had never lost more than two in a row until this season.
It isn’t unfamiliar territory for Tech, though. In seven of the past eight seasons, Tech has had stretches of 1-6 or worse in ACC play. Regardless, the Jackets are in danger of continuing the slide. Tech gets a little bit of a break with a road trip to Wake Forest (RPI: 119), but Tech is 1-7 on the road, and both teams probably will look appetizingly at the other.
“After the Syracuse win, I thought it would propel us a little bit, and we did,” Pastner said. “We played well vs. Boston College for segments, really well. Obviously, it didn’t work itself for us.”
Pastner said Friday that, following the 23-point loss to Louisville on Thursday, he wanted to push the team hard in practice and “attack, attack, attack.” However, he said he had to be “delicate” and make sure that the team’s psyche was ready to play for Duke.
Duke’s confidence may not be in the best place – the Blue Devils lost to St. John’s on Feb. 3 after the Red Storm had lost 11 games in a row and then lost to North Carolina on Thursday. Still, with a highly potent offense (featuring freshman forward Wendell Carter from Pace Academy, with guard Alex O’Connell from Milton High coming off the bench), the Blue Devils are quite capable of snowing the Jackets under in a matter of minutes. It happened in Tech’s losses to Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State and Louisville, all of whom hit the Jackets with flurries that put the game out of reach.
Even without shaky confidence, Tech already has enough challenges. Beyond guard Josh Okogie, who is playing at an All-ACC level, the Jackets aren’t getting consistent play from anyone else. Also, because Pastner is using a rotation of only six players, there really isn’t much potential to keep playing different players and combinations until finding one that works. Further, the deeper into the season that Tech goes with center Ben Lammers and guards Jose Alvarado and Okogie playing heavy minutes, the greater the toll.
“We’ve just got to stay prepared,” Okogie said. “Just keep grinding, keep practicing, keep listening to Coach, keep supporting one another. That’s all we can ask for.”
It isn’t as though Duke is invincible, although the Blue Devils’ win streak over the Jackets is at 10 games. Duke is also effective at one aspect of the game – 3-point shooting – that the Jackets have had recent trouble defending.
“We know they’re going to be fired up coming in here on Sunday,” Pastner said. “But we should be as well, too.”
