GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you’re looking for a movie recommendation, Georgia Tech guard Kyle Sturdivant might have a suggestion. After the Yellow Jackets’ first-round win over Florida State at the ACC Tournament Tuesday, Sturdivant said he sought to inspire his teammates by reminding them of a pivotal scene from the recently released “Creed 3.”
Asked if he ever felt discouraged when his team fell behind by as many as 11 points before winning 61-60, the Tech captain said he did not and said he sought to inspire teammates by referencing the movie from the Rocky series to his teammates during a timeout late in the game. The team went to go see the movie, directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan, Sunday evening in Greensboro.
“I don’t want give out the movie too fast, but you kind of see when he got knocked down a little bit and he got back up,” said Sturdivant, who is probably not giving away a spoiler in mentioning that a character in a boxing movie makes a dramatic comeback after getting knocked down. “That’s what I was mentioning to the guys: Hey, man, it’s not over. We’ve just got keep fighting.”
Said guard Deebo Coleman, “Kyle was like, This is what we went to see ‘Creed’ for. We’ve already seen it; we know what to do now.”
As is their wont – and Creed’s, evidently – the Jackets didn’t give up, making up the 11-point deficit and then a separate five-point deficit in the final two minutes to win it in the final second of play on a free throw by forward Ja’von Franklin.
“If you haven’t seen “Creed 3,” I would recommend it, and I’m not Michael B. Jordan’s agent, even though I wish I was,” coach Josh Pastner said. “But that was a heck of a movie. These guys performed like Adonis Creed with the toughness and we used the analogies out of the movie. It was pretty cool.”
