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Behind Enemy Lines: Five Questions For SI All Yellow Jackets
As NC State and Georgia Tech get ready to meet on the basketball court for the second time this season, All Wolfpack caught up with its counterpart with the Yellow Jackets, Matthew McGavic, to get some advance intel on what to expect.
Here's how Matt answered five questions about the Yellow Jackets heading into Saturday's game at McCamish Pavillion:
SI All Wolfpack: Despite losing its last three games, Tech has played well lately. What has been the biggest area of improvement for the Yellow Jackets?
SI All Yellow Jackets: Other than getting back Jose Alvarado from injury and Jordan Usher becoming eligible in the 2019 Diamond Head Classic, their physicality, pure scoring and ability to start fast has gotten better. In their game against Boston College, they willed their way to victory based on their physicality alone, and almost did the same thing against Duke at home. Also, whenever they are not turning the ball over, Tech's offense has looked good, especially in the first half. In the first halves against both Virginia and Louisville, GT shot over 60% but had double digit turnovers.
AW: Along those same lines, Tech hasn't been able to close out close games. What does it need to do differently to start winning them?
AYJ: There's a couple factors that play into this. In the games where they find themselves behind, they spend so much energy and effort getting back into the game that whenever it gets to crunch time and either side can come out victorious, there is no more gas in the tank and it impacts their physicality and mental acuity. But in the Louisville game, the opposite happened. Forward Moses Wright even admitted that when they took an 11-point lead just after halftime, they got comfortable and got out of attack mode. That cannot happen against any team in the ACC, especially against the No. 6 team in their own house.
AW: Like the Wolfpack, the Yellow Jackets have had to deal with some injury issues this season. How healthy are they right now and deep can they go, considering that State might have only seven available players?
AYJ: he injury situation isn't as bas as we thought it might be prior to the Louisville game. Michael Devoe led the scoring efforts against Louisville and Jose Alvarado came out hot to start that game. However even when fully healthy, Josh Pastner does not dive deep into his bench. He regularly has played just seven players on any given night, and seemingly only deviates from that whenever it is a blowout in either direction. If the Jackets are fully healthy on Saturday, I expect just Bubba Parham and Evan Cole to come off the bench, although Cole had been nursing a wrist injury, so we shall see.
AW: James Banks is averaging 20 points per game in his career against the Wolfpack, about twice what he averages against everybody else. What is about this matchup that makes him so effective?
AYJ: I would say the answer lies within long tall and long that Banks III is. Over his 2 seasons at Tech, NC State has only had a handful of players challenge him in terms of height. And even if they he is matched up with players of similar heights, his incredible wingspan gives him an advantage. This is further amplified over the guard-heavy lineups that the Wolfpack has presented in hi time at Tech. It will be interesting to see how he performs if he is forced to post up against both Bates and Funderburk.
AW: Is Tech still holding out hope that it's NCAA appeal will allow it to be eligible for this year's postseason?
AYJ: The vibe I get from around the program is that they're taking a wait and see approach. What I mean by that is that Tech waited until the last possible moment to formally file the appeal, and because of that, the NCAA will likely not have a response until after the Jackets are already in the ACC Tournament and NCAA/NIT. If the appeal gets denied after the fact, they can live with that. They would rather make the tournament and have it taken from them than do what Louisville did a few years ago and self impose.
