By Kenneth Cross
With the accumulation of playing in the NBA at the highest level for 13 seasons and his knowledge of the game, Georgia Tech head basketball coach Damon Stoudamire has seen his team turn about-face in one week.
Cincinnati defeated the Yellow Jackets, 89-54, on Nov. 22, but Georgia Tech came back last Tuesday and Saturday and knocked off a pair of ranked teams in No. 21 Mississippi State and No. 7 Duke.
“Fast forward after losing to Cincinnati, you know they could have rolled over and played dead,” said Stoudamire. “They chose to roll their sleeves up and go harder and they chose to let us coach them harder.”
A pair of freshmen came up strong for the Jackets as Baye Ndongo led with 21 points as he was 9-of-11 from the floor and Nate George contributed nine assists in 28 minutes as Georgia Tech took a 72-68 win over Duke on the first Saturday of ACC play.
“Obviously, I am proud of the win, but here’s how it is for me, most people don’t know how it is to come into new situations and you are going to have new players and they are going to combine with the older players,” explained Stoudamire. “To come in here and get a collection of guys that never played for me, it’s not easy.”
Collaboration with players and how to put lineups and rotations in winning situations has potentially given Georgia Tech a renewed confidence with the last two wins.
Myles Kelly and Kowacie Reeves maintained scoring consistency with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Reeves was 4-of-5 from three as he set the tone for Georgia Tech as they built and maintained the lead as he hit back-to-back triples to give the Yellow Jackets a 12-2 lead with 16:26 remaining in the first half.
“The guys that I inserted into the lineup hadn’t been playing major minutes,” noted Stoudamire. “The guys that I inserted into the lineup hadn’t been playing major minutes. Even though those guys came out of the lineup, they have been really good. What we have now is a connectivity that spells ‘team.'”
Kelly was clutch though after Duke took a 66-62 lead with just over two minutes to play.
He scored six points, four on free throws, as he was a tough cover for the Blue Devils in the clutch. Ndongo gave tied the game on a layup with 1:36 to play and then gave GT a 70-68 advantage on a slam dunk on the next possession.
The Yellow Jackets’ focus and ability to find ways to win allowed it to surpass Duke with more aggression and steady cohesiveness in all aspects of it’s game on Saturday.
“We have a smaller margin of error,” Stoudamire commented. “It doesn’t matter if we play Duke, UMass Lowell … that’s our margin of error. These guys bought in way early and some could have wavered.”
Stoudamire was impressed and pleased with Ndongo’s over game on Saturday as he contributed four of the Yellow Jackets’ eight blocked shots on the defensive end.
“The weakside shot blocks that he was getting, there are not a lot of guys doing that,” Stoudamire said. “He found a rhythm and with the rhythm tonight, he slowed down and I think that helped him.”