University of North Carolina Athletics
Georgia Tech Game Guide
February 16, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
North Carolina (14-11, 3-7) will travel to Georgia Tech (17-8, 5-6) as both teams try to get out of the bottom half of the ACC. Carolina beat NC State 74-61 on Saturday afternoon to snap a four-game losing streak. Georgia Tech is coming off of a 75-64 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday night, dropping them to 1-4 on the road in ACC play and 5-2 at home. Georgia Tech's only road win came at Carolina. The Tar Heels are 1-4 on the road in league play and 2-3 at home. Georgia Tech is one game ahead of Carolina in the ACC standings; a win would put the Yellow Jackets in the top five and a loss would leave them in the jumble towards the bottom. Carolina leads the all-time series, 60-21, including a 46-19 edge since Georgia Tech joined the ACC. Carolina holds a 21-12 edge in Atlanta but just 12-9 in Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Game Time: Carolina at Georgia Tech, 9:00 PM.
Last Time: Georgia Tech beat Carolina in the first meeting this year 73-71 on January 16th Georgia Tech went on a 15-1 run to take a 20-point lead in the first half. The Yellow Jackets still led by 16 with 13:03 left. A 20-3 Carolina run gave the Tar Heels the lead, but a Zach Peacock jumper with 42 seconds left gave the Yellow Jackets the lead. Carolina shot just 37.9% for the game and 35.3% in the second half. Georgia Tech shot 43.1% for the game. Will Graves led Carolina with 24 points on 5-of-8 from beyond the arc; he added three assists and seven rebounds. Deon Thompson and Ed Davis each added 12 points and combined for seven blocks. Iman Shumpert led Georgia Tech with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Gani Lawal had 12 points and 12 rebounds but shot just 5-of-15 from the floor.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 9:00 PM.
Storylines
Putting it all together: While effort and focus have been problems, sometimes simultaneously for Carolina this year, effort has not been a problem in the last two games. But Larry Drew II was not eager to say that problem is over. "We've had games where we play hard and we have stretches when we play hard. Then the next game, we come out and we don't do much of anything. We just have to learn how to take the momentum of one game to the next," Drew II said. In 160 minutes of ACC road game action, Carolina has been outscored 302-282. But it has been a stretch totaling just 19:05 in those four games that Carolina has been outscored 70-14; those 70 points account for nearly a quarter of all points Carolina has allowed in those four games. Carolina has outscored opponents 268-232 in the other 141 minutes, but that's of little consolation. Clemson had a 26-6 first-half run in a little less than seven minutes. Carolina committed seven turnovers in that stretch and Clemson also had eight points off turnovers and three second-chance points. At Virginia Tech, a 7-0 run that took just 1:21 put the Hokies up by nine with 9:44 to go. Carolina took two shots while the Hokies took six and made three, scoring four of their seven points on offensive rebounds. At NC State, the Wolfpack had a 12-1 run. Over 3:35 in a span extending between halves, State went from being down four to up five and the crowd involved. Five of those points came off of second chances or Carolina turnovers.
Against Georgia Tech last time, a 15-1 run nearly put Carolina completely out of it. It wasn't like the Yellow Jackets were lights out; they only made 6-of-18 shots in that span but Carolina made 0-of-6 and turned it over eight times. Georgia Tech scored seven of their 15 points off of either turnovers or second chances during that run. During that decisive 21-7 Duke run in the final minutes, Duke shot 8-of-14 from the floor after having shot 14-of-55 the rest of the game. That about sums it up - moments of brilliance followed by huge letdowns, going from holding Duke to 25% to letting them shoot 57.1% down the stretch. Offensive rebounds plagued Carolina during the Duke game particularly; nearly half of Duke's first-half points (12 of 21) came on second chances. The Blue Devils ended up with 23 offensive rebounds and Carolina was fortunate to surrender just 21 second-chance points. Carolina played great defense against Duke for most of the game but just couldn't finish it with a defensive rebound. "That's a huge part of this team is being able to offensive rebound and defensive rebound. Before the year started, we didn't even think that we were going to have trouble on the boards at all. That's become more of an emphasis - boxing out our man, being smart, grabbing on to the ball and not doing anything dumb and turning the ball over," David Wear said.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in Alexander Memorial Coliseum is not yet known.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
Raycom coverage: The game will be available regionally on Raycom.
Names To Know
David Wear: With his brother Travis, Tyler Zeller and now Ed Davis all nursing injuries, the more perimeter-oriented twin was asked to bang in the post. He did an admirable job against Tracy Smith, a very experienced and skilled player that is difficult to guard. In his 17 minutes, he did commit three fouls but added seven points and four rebounds, three offensive. He will have a much tougher task against the bigs of Georgia Tech on Tuesday, but he is starting to feel more comfortable. "I've been practicing against Ed Davis, Deon Thompson (and) Tyler Zeller, all year long. So when you get in the game, you're really not going to go up against too many better big guys than that. I felt like I was ready and prepared," Wear said. Carolina has struggled on the road this year, but Wear has not. In games outside the Smith Center, Wear has shot 13-of-22 and 7-of-10 from three, averaging 3.7 points in 11 minutes. In ACC play, his road numbers have also been great - 8-of-12 shooting, 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and 4.8 points in 9.3 minutes. He's sure to see more minutes than that on Tuesday. He played just three minutes in the first meeting against Georgia Tech and had one turnover. That was Carolina's third ACC game and he had averaged 3.7 minutes, making 1-of-3 shots (0-of-1 three's) and scoring two points to go with two turnovers in league play. Since that game, he had shot 55% from the floor and 57.1% from beyond the arc, averaging 4.3 points in 11.6 minutes. He has also averaged 2.4 rebounds and one offensive board per game. Since his breakout game against Virginia Tech, the numbers get even better - he has made eight of his last 14 shots and 3-of-5 three's, averaging 5.3 points, 3.0 rebounds and 13.8 minutes.
Larry Drew II: Against NC State, he had 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting, 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, and added seven assists (his most since the last State game), two steals (his most since Clemson) and two turnovers. And he scored five of his 15 points down the stretch when the game was still in doubt. He has had games where he has scored some of his only points sometimes in garbage time, like hitting two three's in the final two minutes of a Wake Forest blowout. There are times, particularly in the second half, when it seems he suddenly tries to do too much. He took nine second-half shots agonist Duke and he took six of those in the final 4:44, making just 1-of-6 and 0-of-3 three's. His teammates combined to take six shots in that span. His only basket came with 21 seconds left. The way he sets the tempo early, taking shots that are there and taking care of the ball, will determine how well Carolina does in both halves and in any given stretch. Against Georgia Tech, four of his five turnovers came in the first ten minutes and not coincidentally, the Yellow Jackets led 27-9. It's a lot to ask of one player to set the tempo for this erratic bunch, but it's his job and he understands that. But against Duke, Drew II showed his potential for doing what Carolina fans knew he could do all along - play very good defense on an elite opposing guard. Nolan Smith was tearing up the ACC but had a scoreless first half, making 0-of-7 shots, and Drew II showed that defense could carry over for him. Carolina killer Javi Gonzalez had just five second-half points on 2-of-6 shooting and just 13 on 5-of-12 for the game after scorching Carolina repeatedly. "I think that I've just been more focused on keeping the guy in front of me, so to speak, just worrying about if my man doesn't beat me, then my teammates don't have to help and that will lead into easy baskets. I think, `Okay, just stop your man and don't let your man do what he wants to do,'" Drew II said.
Gani Lawal: The 6-9 junior is the only Yellow Jacket in the top 20 in conference-only scoring with 12.1 points per game but is second in rebounding at 9.4 per game. He's also tied for second in offensive boards with 3.0 per game and leads the league in defensive rebounding with 6.4. He has shot much better at home in league play, shooting 54.3% compared to 41.7% on the road and making 59.1% of his foul shots compared to 47.6% on the road. He has struggled shooting in his last two games, making just 11-of-24 shots and 10-of-18 foul shots, but he has averaged 16 points and a whopping 15 rebounds, four offensive, adding 2.5 blocks and 1.5 steals. Carolina did a great job on Lawal in terms of his shooting, holding him to 5-of-15. In his previous two games against Carolina, he had made 12-of-16 shots. He also turned it over four times in the meeting earlier this year after committing just one in his first two games. But there were two stats that were significantly different - he had 12 rebounds, two more than the ten he had in the first two games combined, and he had just two fouls; he had fouled out of both previous meetings. But this will be a depleted frontcourt trying to stop not only Lawal but also two other threats down low in Derrick Favors and Zach Peacock.
Iman Shumpert: Shumpert has had good games this season - most notably, against Carolina - but when he has struggled, so have the Yellow Jackets. As they have lost their last two, Shumpert has made 2-of-14 shots, 0-of-6 three's and scored just six points, adding three assists to six turnovers. But in the win over NC State in the previous game, he had 14 points, seven assists and no turnovers and shot 5-of-7 from the floor, 2-of-3 from three. Shumpert has been good at home in ACC play, averaging 9.5 points on 46.2% shooting from three (6-of-13). The Yellow Jackets have lost just one ACC game in Atlanta at home and that was in 2009. But Shumpert was never as good a shooter as he was against Carolina, making 10-of-17 shots and 3-of-5 three's, adding 7-of-9 free throws on his way to 30 points. In the seven ACC games since, Shumpert has scored 49 points (7.0 per game) on 30.4% shooting and has made 6-of-21 three's (28.6%). He has also made 9-of-12 free throws, just three more attempts than he had against Carolina. He has shot 42.3% from the floor and averaged ten points in Georgia Tech's three ACC wins since the Carolina game, averaging 4.7 assists to just 1.7 turnovers. But in the Yellow Jackets' four ACC losses since, Shumpert averaged 4.8 points on 19.4% shooting (1-of-11 from three) and added 13 assists to 15 turnovers. Carolina struggled against him because the defense couldn't stop his penetration and they have to be careful not to let him get early confidence.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
