Georgia Tech must figure out a way to get up off the mat. Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, Louisville has stepped into the ring.
The 21st-ranked Cardinals come to McCamish Pavilion to face Tech at 3:45 p.m. Saturday. They’ve won more games in a row (10) than the Jackets have all season (9). They’ve put themselves in second place in the ACC standings, a game back of No. 2-ranked and first-place Duke. They’ve built a resume that includes a 16-5 record, a NET ranking of 26 and nine wins over teams considered Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents.
And they’ve done all that with a first-year coach in Pat Kelsey, with forward Kasean Pryor and guard Koren Johnson both out for the season because of injury and forward Aboubacar Traore having missed a chunk of the season because of a broken arm.
“They play hard. And they’re a connected group. And you can kind of see ‘em building as the year went on,” Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said Friday about the Cardinals. “They found a great rhythm. They play for each other. They look like they have a lot of fun with each other, and they’re not (only) one of the hottest teams in the league, they’re one of the hottest teams in the country. We gotta have a lot of energy, we gotta match their energy.”
Stoudamire’s team, conversely, have won only twice in January. The Jackets (9-12, 3-7 ACC) haven’t been able to overcome their own slew of long-term injuries to guards Kowacie Reeves and Jaeden Mustaf and forward Luke O’Brien and have fallen into 15th in the 18-team ACC. Tech is holding on barely to the final spot for the league’s postseason tournament in March.
Starting a new month may be reason for hope for Tech, but the first week of February includes Saturday’s matchup with the Cardinals (9-1 ACC) and a trip to Clemson (17-4, 9-1 ACC) on Tuesday. The Jackets also don’t have a ton of momentum of their side after blowing a late lead and losing 71-68 at Notre Dame on Tuesday.
Tech had been 20-0 under Stoudamire when leading with five minutes remaining in regulation of a game. It led the Fighting Irish 62-58 with as little as 2:26 to play Tuesday, then was outscored 13-6 over the final 2:25 to fall to 0-6 on the road this season and 10-20 against the ACC in the Stoudamire era.
“Guys are energetic. There’s been no falloff in terms of the energy and the effort, what they’re bringing. Attitudes have been great,” Stoudamire said. “I still feel like we can do some things. We got 10 (conference) games to go. It starts (Saturday).”
Louisville has beaten Tech 27 times in 42 all-time meetings and has eight wins in Atlanta. This year’s Cardinals’ squad has four players averaging double figures in scoring, led by senior guard Chucky Hepburn (15 ppg). Hepburn also leads the ACC in assists with 135 and steals with 51.
The Cardinals take an astounding 31.3 3-pointers per game (only four teams nationally average more) and make nearly 10 of those 3-point shots per contest. Senior guard Reyne Smith has made 82 3’s, second nationally.
Louisville’s 10-game win streak is the fifth-longest active streak nationally. Beating Tech would run that streak to 11 during a remarkable turnaround of a season considering Louisville went 8-24 in 2023-24.
“They have extremely dangerous pieces offensively. They’re as good of a pick-and-roll team as there is in our entire conference,” Kelsey said Friday about the matchup with Tech. “They are gonna challenge you on every single possession to be on your responsibilities. And if you’re not they can embarrass you. We have to be on it.”
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