Georgia Tech is headed to Virginia this weekend looking to do something it has done once during the Damon Stoudamire era: win three consecutive ACC games.
That opportunity is on the table only because something has seemingly clicked for Stoudamire’s squad, a team with back-to-back wins over two of the top teams in the league.
“You gotta put your head on it a lot more now,” Stoudamire said. “You have to manage games, and I think that has to be a shared vision between staff and the team. We gotta know what’s a good shot and what’s not a good shot in those situations. But we’ve done a good job of it. The last four games we’ve done a great job of it. We’re a couple possessions away from winning four in a row. The guys are starting to understand collectively, not just one guy, but collectively, and I think that’s put us in this position.”
With six regular-season contests remaining on the docket, the Yellow Jackets (11-12, 5-7 ACC) appear to be safe to qualify for the ACC’s postseason tournament. That’s no small feat when considering where the team was in January coupled with an injury cloud that’s stagnant over the program.
Already without guards Kowacie Reeves and Jaeden Mustaf and forward Luke O’Brien ahead of Tuesday’s game at Clemson, Tech lost point guard Javian McCollum after McCollum collided with teammate Baye Ndongo. McCollum missed the rest of Tech’s triple-overtime, 89-86 triumph over the Tigers and the senior won’t play in the game that starts at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Virginia.
Tech had three players log at least 52 minutes in the Clemson game, and guard Nait George played all 55.
“I don’t know if (McCollum will) be there (Saturday),” Stoudamire said. “He’ll get back when he can get back. It’s unfortunate. He’s been playing well, been giving us leadership, the things he’s been doing up to that point was big. We’ll miss him.”
Tech will face a Virginia team drastically different from the one the ACC is used to. The Cavaliers had been a perennial ACC — and national — title contender under longtime coach Tony Bennett, but Bennett retired in October, just weeks before the start of the 2024-25 season.
Ron Sanchez was left to try to keep the ship headed in the right direction. The results have been a mixed bag.
Virginia (11-12, 4-8 ACC) won its first three games, including a victory over Villanova, but also has four losses to ranked teams and started January with a five-game losing streak. The Cavaliers then started February with a one-point loss at rival Virginia Tech before dominating Pittsburgh on the road Monday.
Bennett, meanwhile, will be recognized throughout Saturday’s game at John Paul Jones Arena.
“Slow-paced, methodical, play deep into the shot clock, shooters. We gotta be ready to limit their opportunities,” Stoudamire said of this season’s Cavaliers team. “We gotta run ‘em off the line, we gotta do a great job of guarding the 3. We have to do a great job of not extending possessions. We gotta limit them to one shot. If you don’t limit them to one shot, it’s a possibility you can be on defense for two minutes. That’s draining.”
If Tech can somehow survive Saturday’s trip to Charlottesville, Virginia, it will have a mountain of momentum ahead of a pair of home games next week against the league’s two West Coast teams in Stanford (15-8, 7-5 ACC) on Wednesday and California (12-11, 5-7 ACC) on Saturday.
“Our confidence is getting higher,” Tech center Baye Ndongo said. “We’re doing the little things in practice, especially in shootarounds. We’re trying to figure out our own things, what’s better for us. We got a really good chance to complete this season strong.”
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