After scoring six points in the team’s first five games against Division I opponents and dropping out of the starting lineup, Georgia Tech center Rodney Howard has relocated his scoring savvy.
The senior has scored 37 points in the Yellow Jackets’ past four games and further has made 16 of 20 field-goal attempts, a stretch that included a streak of 13 consecutive makes. He started Tech’s most recent game, Saturday against Alabama State, his first start since the fourth game of the season.
With Howard’s slow start, coach Josh Pastner promoted forward Ja’von Franklin into the starting five, where he remained until suffering a groin injury during Tech’s Dec. 10 loss at North Carolina that kept him sidelined against Alabama State. Franklin is questionable for the Jackets’ Wednesday home game vs. Clemson (7:30 p.m., ESPN2).
“I’m not going to lie,” Howard said of being taken out of the starting lineup. “It was frustrating a lot.”
He added that he understood the decision, particularly given that Franklin was playing well during Howard’s slow start.
“Me coming off the bench kind of helped me see things from a different perspective, coming in and already seeing how the flow of the game is going and doing what I can to affect the game,” Howard said.
Howard has scored more on pick-and-rolls to the basket and has shown off range that extends to the free-throw line, a shot he had not taken much in his first two seasons with the team. The jumper is a shot that he has grown more confident taking.
“I always shot it in high school,” Howard said. “Of course, high school and college are different, but college, you want to play the right way, you want to do what is best for the team. But I’ve probably just needed to actually start shooting it whenever I’m in the high post, whenever I’m open, to give the defense a little different look, and it also gives our offense a whole different look. Now they’ve got to respect the high post, now they have to respect the shot or whatever it is.”
Tech would benefit greatly from Howard maintaining or even surpassing his level of productivity. The more that teams have to honor his jump shot, the more space that it will open near the basket for Jackets perimeter players cutting to the basket for layups – a staple element of Tech’s Princeton offense. (Tech also being more accurate from 3-point range – another shortcoming thus far, although the Jackets made a season-high 13 3-pointers against Alabama State – also would help in drawing out the defense.)
“He’s improved his game,” Pastner said of Howard. “He’s gotten better, and I’m proud of him.”
Howard’s scoring and his teammates’ 3-point shooting are among planks that Tech’s hopes of being competitive in the ACC tenuously rest upon. The Jackets, picked to finish last in the ACC, were projected to finish 8-12 in the ACC and 16-15 overall by KenPom as of Wednesday morning.
Howard has had to adjust to having a new assistant coach to work with, as former associate head coach Eric Reveno is now on the bench at Oregon State. In his six seasons at Tech, Reveno’s specialty was training post players, helping develop Ben Lammers, James Banks and Moses Wright, among others. Assistant coaches Brian Eskildsen (hired to replace Reveno) and Julian Swartz are now working with the post players.
“It is different,” Howard said. “Coach Reveno is a bigs coach, and I wouldn’t say necessarily that coach ‘Esky’ and coach Swartz are bigs coaches in a sense, but they are.”
The change in staff led to Pastner changing some responsibilities. Besides working with the perimeter players, associate head coach Anthony Wilkins oversees the offense. In addition to working with the post players, Swartz directs the offense, and Eskildsen has responsibility for rebounding and transition defense.
“I think, year by year, you’re continuing, as part of a leadership role, to put everyone in their positions of strength to continue to help bring the best out of the young men that we have,” Pastner said.
That development is a particular point of pride of Pastner’s. One particular example is guard Deivon Smith, who as of Wednesday morning was second in the ACC in assist/turnover ratio (2.71) after averaging 1.14 last season. Forward Jalon Moore is another. After playing in 13 of 32 games last season and averaging 8.6 minutes and 2.8 points per game, Moore is in the starting lineup, ranks third on the team in scoring at 9.9 points per game and second in rebounding at 5.9 rebounds per game.
The Jackets will need Howard, Smith and Moore, as well as their teammates, to continue the improvement.
“I like our group,” Pastner said. “And I’ve said it from the beginning – we’ll get better as a team the more we play. That being said, we’ve got to go produce. We’ve got to go win games.”
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