Georgia Tech Preview

Clemson vs. Georgia Tech, 1/19, 7:00pm, Alexander Memorial Coliseum

Before I say anything, Rest in Peace Gaines Adams. I'm not good at these kinds of things, so I'll send you to someone who is (DrB) and add my deepest condolences. Also, if you haven't already, consider heading over and signing the sympathy card at Tigernet.

Since the game will be played one way or another, time to talk about it. The loss of Stitt makes a already formidable task quite a bit harder. Stitt has a mid-foot sprain and is hoping to be ready for Saturday's tilt with the Blue Devils. I'm a bit skeptical with websites that say full recovery requires "a few weeks." And really, a not fully-recovered foot could result in the same post-injury Stitt we saw last year, the one without the explosive first step. The injury is particularly bad timing because this is by far the strongest defense we've played since the Duke game and we could use a slashing Stitt to penetrate against the GT zone. Normally, this would be a great opportunity for Young to show his game is otherwise equal to to Stitt. Unfortunately, it looks like Young's not feeling well, either.

GT's defense specializes in shutting down their opponent's FG percentage, holding teams under 30% from behind the arc and around 41% from inside the arc. This is where Stitt would be pretty invaluable, we need someone who is able to break down the defense and create space. Its a little hard to gauge how our halfcourt offense will perform, most teams haven't been willing to go inside against GT this season with the shot-blocking presence of 6'10" freshman Derrick Favors and 6'9" sophomore Gani Lawal, but I guarantee Clemson will be looking to T. Booker to shoulder the load tomorrow. I think the thing to look for early in the game is whether Clemson is able to feed the post or if Booker is able to score in some other way--that's probably how FSU pulled off their victory earlier in the season. If Booker isn't seeing success, we don't have a lot of weapons to turn to and GT will be sticking right to the arc to keep Potter or Young from getting open shots.

There is some hope, though. It's not that GT has been playing up-and-down so much this season, the only inexplicable loss was to Georgia and they've played well against some other good teams only to come up a little short: FSU, Dayton, and the rapidly improving Virginia Cavaliers. No, the Achilles heel of the GT team right now is their turnover problems on offense, which feeds right into our primary strength this year. They are actually about as bad UNC, with sophomore Iman Shumpert leading the way downhill. Unfortunately this could be offset somewhat by GT's ability to crash the offensive boards, ranking 15th in the country. Clemson has predictably begun to struggle with defending the offensive glass as ACC play has begun, falling to 170th in the country.

This sets up an interesting matchup, we have a defense that we profile poorly against but an offense we profile decently well against. If we can force some turnovers with the pressure and T. Booker can get some baskets to fall, we could very easily keep up with the Yellow Jackets and have a shot to win the game in the final five minutes. But if we fail to get the turnovers machine rolling along, we could be in for a long night. Already down a starter, Purnell might have to consider folding up the tent relatively early in this game to avoid burning players out in anticipation of the Duke game on Saturday. If Stitt is really able to return, we might have a slightly better chance against Duke then playing at GT without Stitt.