University of North Carolina Athletics
Georgia Tech Game Guide
January 16, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2011
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
Carolina (12-4, 2-0) will face Georgia Tech (7-8, 0-2) in the home opener for the Yellow Jackets on Sunday. The game is the second in a stretch of three games in six days that started on Thursday night, when Carolina beat Virginia Tech 64-61. Georgia Tech is coming off of a 87-62 loss at Clemson on Wednesday. The Yellow Jackets have lost three straight and four of their last five. They are 5-2 at home this year with losses to Georgia (by one) and UNC-Charlotte (in double overtime). Carolina leads the all-time series, 60-23, but they have a 12-10 record at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. But the Yellow Jackets have won five of the last six in the Thrillerdome and is 5-2 against Carolina under head coach Paul Hewitt. Carolina is 11-9 against Hewitt's teams but 3-8 away from Chapel Hill. Carolina's last win in Atlanta came in 2008. That win was Carolina's first in Atlanta since 2001.
Game Time: North Carolina at Georgia Tech, 7:45 PM, Fox Sports Net
Last Time: Carolina lost in the opening round of the ACC Tournament to Georgia Tech, 62-58, on March 11, 2010 in Greensboro. The Tar Heels led by seven early in the second half but after Georgia Tech tied it with 5:13 to go, Carolina would not score again 47 seconds remained, nearly a five-minute drought. Carolina shot just 33.3% for the game and its three starting guards made just 5-of-29 field goals (1-of-13 three's). Carolina out-rebounded the Yellow Jackets, 46-37, and had 21 offensive rebounds. Georgia Tech shot 42.9% and 50 percent in the second half. Tyler Zeller had one of his best games as a Tar Heel to that point with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and ten rebounds in just 25 minutes. The only other Tar Heel in double digits was Deon Thompson, who had ten points. Without Zeller's shooting, the Tar Heels made just 16-of-58 field goals. Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and five blocks. Gani Lawal had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 6:45 PM.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching the game 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.
Fox Sports Net coverage: The game will be available on Fox Sports Net. Tim Brando, Mike Gminski and Jenn Hildreth will have the call.
Storylines
Ending the droughts: For stretches of at least 14 minutes in each of its first two ACC games, Carolina has gone - to put it mildly - cold. At Virginia, Carolina scored six points in 30 possessions (and turned it over eight times) in a 14:28 minute stretch that spanned both halves. Against Virginia Tech, it was a 14:37 stretch in the first half during which Carolina was outscored 31-13; Carolina had 29 possessions and 13 points but turned it over eight times. That's eight field goals and 16 turnovers in 29 minutes of ACC basketball when both stretches are totaled. And in the other 51 minutes of those games, Carolina has scored 107 points (allowing 61), hitting 38 field goals and turning it over just nine times. Yes, it's selective in terms of each stretch selected from each game and basketball is a game of runs. But the cold spells have lasted so long - nearly 30 total minutes out of 80 - that it is significant. And the Virginia drought was worse in the sense that Carolina had all eight of its turnovers in that span; it took Carolina not turning it over the rest of the way to win a very tight game. Carolina had a lot of similar stretches last year; for a 21:30 stretch in the middle of a blowout loss to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, it made just four field goals and turned it over 11 times. Carolina has to value the ball. Georgia Tech's ACC opponents have three more turnovers than the Yellow Jackets (34 to 31). But ACC opponents - largely helped by Clemson's 70% - have shot 61.1% against them and 60.6% from three. All season, opponents have shot 45.2% and 40.7% from three. Georgia Tech has forced 51 more turnovers than they have committed and they have 56 more steals. Georgia Tech has been a turnover-prone team; this year, the Yellow Jackets are 2nd in the league in turnover margin (+3.4) and average the fourth-fewest turnovers (13.6). Carolina is 6th in turnover margin (+1.5) and average 14.1 turnovers. Georgia Tech's opponents average the third-most turnovers (17) in the ACC.
Carolina will likely see some zone, since this is a copycat league and Virginia Tech had success defensively against Carolina with it. The Tar Heels just could not seem to penetrate it early on, turning it over or taking ill-advised shots. "We needed to get the ball inside more. First half we were just rotating around and standing still," Roy Williams said. "We needed to get the ball inside and we needed to move inside more. We needed to screen more." "We like to be a little passive and pass it around the outside rather than attacking, getting it in the middle and working from there. When we do get it in the middle, we have to be careful with our passes because we had multiple turnovers in there," Tyler Zeller said. Carolina has done very well coming back from deficits and bouncing back from cold stretches, but if there is a troubling statistic, it's that over half of Carolina's points have come on "garbage" opportunities - offensive rebounds or turnovers. Carolina scored just over 40% of its points that way in the prior to league play. It's not a bad thing to score after opponents' miscues/good efforts by the Tar Heels to steal the ball or get an offensive board, but it's not always something Carolina can rely on. Carolina's opponents scored 37% of their points that way out of conference, it's been 32 percent. Ever since Long Beach State and Texas scored 91 and 78 points against Carolina, respectively, opponents have averaged 57.2 points and just 17.8 "garbage" points. Before that, opponents had averaged 71 points and 28.0 garbage points. Carolina has not allowed opponents to capitalize on its mistakes; 45 offensive rebounds have led to 34 points and 55 turnovers to 63 points by opponents. That is a combination of good defense and good fortune. Georgia Tech's opponents have scored 140 points off of 123 Georgia Tech turnovers in the Yellow Jackets' eight losses compared to just 62 points off 81 turnovers in seven Tech wins. Their opponents have also scored 81 second-chance points on 82 offensive rebounds in Georgia Tech's eight losses compared to just 30 second-chance points on 55 offensive rebounds in Georgia Tech wins.
Names To Know
Tyler Zeller: It's a rarity to see a Georgia Tech team without the dominant bigs that usually litter their roster. It makes sense that the Yellow Jackets are struggling without that presence, especially considering how much Carolina struggled without some of its size last year. But even against that size, in two games against the Yellow Jackets in his career, Zeller has averaged 12.5 points on 10-of-15 shooting, adding 6.5 rebounds. He has done that in just 17.5 minutes per game. He has yet to play in a game in Atlanta (he was hurt in last year's contest) but in Greensboro last year, he had 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with ten rebounds. And after starting out this season strong, his scoring tailed off until he had 16 points - his most since Evansville - on 7-of-12 shooting (his seven field goals were his most since Kentucky). He also had nine rebounds. John Henson had to calm him down briefly at Virginia when he was frustrated at some of the physical play; he had 12 points in that game but shot just 4-of-10 from the floor. He handled it better against Virginia Tech, and Carolina needs him to continue to keep his head. He has averaged just 2.6 fouls this year but 3.3 outside the Smith Center; Carolina is 2-3 in games where he has picked up four or more fouls and 1-3 in such games outside of Chapel Hill.
Kendall Marshall: The freshman point guard's clutch performance against Virginia Tech has been well-documented, but it's not as common knowledge that he leads the ACC in assist turnover ratio (3.0) and is third in assists (4.4); he is the only non-starter in the top ten in assists. His nine assists to no turnovers against the Hokies were the best assist-turnover performance since Ty Lawson had nine assists and no turnovers against Virginia in February 2009. His ten points against the Hokies were the most since he had ten in the season-opener against Lipscomb. The fans recognize how special his court vision is, and so do his teammates. "He's the gas to the car right now. He just distributes, finds guys, gets the ball to them and he runs the show," Harrison Barnes said. But he is still a freshman, and the road is not an easy place to play. Outside of the Smith Center, Marshall has 29 assists and 11 turnovers in eight games. At home, he has 42 assists to 13 turnovers. But in the last six games, Marshall has 36 assists to five turnovers in 111 minutes. And in the last three games, he has averaged 6.0 points (on 6-of-11 shooting), 6.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 1 turnover in 20.7 minutes. The increased steals are somewhat by design, according to Marshall. He knows the knock on him is his defense, and he is trying to rectify that. "Coach (Williams) tells me that he likes the things that I do offensively but the key to my playing time, to being able to help this team out on the court, is how well I'm going to defend and not be a liability. Lately, I've been able to get into the passing lanes a little bit and make some things happen. That instills confidence in him that he can be comfortable with me out there on the defensive end," Marshall said.
Iman Shumpert: Lost in Georgia Tech's struggles has been how much the junior point guard has improved. He's always been a talented player, but this year, he's been able to find consistency. He had a 13-game streak of double-figure scoring games snapped at Clemson on Wednesday, but he still had eight points. He's averaging 15.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals this year. He's shooting just 37.2% from the floor and 26% from three, but he has had to take 30% of Georgia Tech's shots as their main offensive option. He is shooting just 30.8% in league play and 1-of-8 from three, averaging 11.5 points. But the Yellow Jackets haven't played at home yet and Shumpert has really shone there, averaging 17 points (12.8 on the road) on 38.1% shooting (32.3% on the road). He has also made 12-of-32 three's (37.5%) on his home basket compared to 3-of-23 (13%) in road games. His numbers against Carolina in three games last year sum up his inconsistency prior to this season; he had 30 points in the first meeting on 10-of-17 shooting (playing 36 minutes); in the next two meetings combined (51 minutes) he had nine points - including zero in the Georgia Tech win in Atlanta - on a combined 3-of-11 shooting. He made 3-of-5 three's in that first game in Chapel Hill and just 2-of-6 in the next two. At 6-5, he's a tough matchup on both ends of the court and is taller than most of Carolina's guards.
Glen Rice, Jr.: Georgia Tech's 6-5 sophomore swing man (Paul Hewitt calls him a "point-forward") showed last year that he was aggressive - at times to a fault - but it has paid off this year. He is second on the team in scoring (12.1 points) and rebounding (5.3); he has had to help carry the load in the latter area with Georgia Tech's lack of a proven post presence. He had an up-and-down freshman campaign and was starting to show that same inconsistency this year. In a win against Richmond, he had nine points (all in the second half) and has averaged 16.2 in the five games since. He has also averaged 7.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals in that five-game stretch. In the previous ten games, he averaged 10.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals. He is second on the team in ACC scoring but leads the team in field goals attempted in league play and minutes played. He hasn't shot well in ACC play - 11-of-28 (39.3%) and 2-of-6 from three (33.3%), but that hasn't stopped him from trying. But he has shot a very nice 46.7% at home this year and added 4.7 rebounds, 17 assists to just eight turnovers, and 12 steals. In three games against Carolina last year, he had 15 points (eight in the final meeting) on 6-of-19 shooting (3-of-8 in the final meeting) and 3-of-6 from three. He added 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 23.3 minutes of action.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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