The Downside - Georgia Tech

SWC75 · Mar 1, 2023

- Despite the recent slump, I went to the Dome tonight with some residual optimism. Surely we would beat Georgia Tech to clinch a winning record and then maybe, in the atmosphere of the celebration for the 2003 national champions, maybe we could rise to emotional tide and beat Wake Forest. That might give us the confidence, (and Wake the discouragement) to be them again the following week in the ACCT, (they were set up to be our opening opponent). Then, with the slump just a memory, who knows? Now the pilot light is out, for the coach, the team and my optimism. I just want this to end. The next interesting thing will be to see who leaves, which we should do in about two weeks.

- Jim has told us that it takes longer to learn offense than defense, that the zone defense is easier to learn than man-for-man and that his halftime adjustments allow us to do better in the second half. He tried so many line-ups and strategies in this game, it reminded me of this classic movie scene:
Claudette Colbert for our next coach!

- Tech came in as the #302 field goal shooting team in the country with 42.1%. the shot 52.2%. They were the #253 three-point shooting team with 32.8%. They shot 45.0%. They were tied with us at #267 in rebounding margin with -1.6. They outrebounded us 34-28 and had 10 offensive rebounds to our five.

- Jim has been bragging that we were -3 in rebounds, (probably in ACC games) but +4 in turnovers, so we were 1 up. In this game we were -6 and -1. In the four-game losing streak we have been -35 in rebounds and -9 in turnovers. The system isn’t working, Jim.

- Our offense wasn’t terrible but it continues to be limited. Judah Mintz (23 points) and Jesse Edwards (180, both had big games. Joe Gerard struggled but still got to 11. Bennie Williams wasn’t quite as dynamic as he’d been against Pittsburgh but had a solid game with 11 points on 5 for 7 shooting and 7 rebounds. But Maliq Brown and Symir Torrence continue to be unproductive, Justin Taylor made one good move and disappeared. Quadir Copeland can’t throw it in the ocean from a pier and Chris Bell isn’t even playing any more. JB said he was going to start him until he had “6 straight plays where he didn’t noting” in practice. It sounds like he’s lost at least part of the team.
- (UPDATED) I’m always hopeful we can win and through maybe we were going to do it much of the first half. But I was pessimistic enough to look up how many three game losing streaks we’ve had in the JB era and how many points we’d lost those games by to compare it to these three games. I had hopes of turning my research into a paper airplane in the first half but that ship sailed (?) So here is what I came up with:
1980-81 Connecticut (63-65), Villanova (78-88) and Seton Hall (65-66) beat us by a total of 13 points
1981-82 Boston College (77-88), St. John’s (76-84) and Boston College (92-94) beat us by a total of 17 points
1988-89 Villanova (73-76), St. John’s (63-65) and Connecticut (62-68) beat us by a total of 11 points
1991-92 Seton Hall (76-86), Notre Dame (98-101), St. John’s (62-63) and Georgetown (68-72) beat us by a total of 18 points
1992-93 Boston College (93-94), Villanova (61-79) and Georgetown (60-64) beat us by a total of 23 points
1994-95 Connecticut (70-77), Villanova (87-89 in OT) and Seton Hall (74-82) beat us by a total of 17 points
1995-96 West Virginia (78-90), Connecticut (70-79) and Georgetown (64-83) beat us by a total of 40 points
2001-02 Georgetown (69-75), Villanova (61-67), Boston College (65-69) and Villanova (64-78) beat us by a total of 30 points
2005-06 Connecticut (80-88), Villanova (65-80), Pittsburgh 67-80) and Seton Hall (61-68) beat us by a total of 43 points
And Georgetown (53-68), DePaul (69-108) and Villanova (82-92) beat us by a total of 64 points
2006-07 St. John’s (60-64), Louisville (71-76) and Notre Dame (91-103) beat us by a total of 21 points
2007-08 Louisville (50-61), Notre Dame (87-94) and Pittsburgh (77-82) beat us by a total of 23 points
2008-09 Pittsburgh (60-78), Louisville (57-67) and Providence (94-100) beat us by a total of 34 points
2010-11 Pittsburgh (66-74), Villanova (72-83), Seton Hall (68-90) and Marquette (70-76) beat us by a total of 47 points
2012-13 Georgetown (46-57), Marquette (71-74) and Louisville (53-58) beat us by a total of 19 points
2014-15 Duke (54-73), Virginia (47-59) and North Carolina State (57-71) beat us by a total of 45 points
2015-16 Pittsburgh (61-72), U of Miami (51-64), Clemson (73-74) and North Carolina (73-84) beat us by a total of 36 points
And North Carolina (70-75), Florida State (73-78) and North Carolina (70-75) beat us by a total of 45 points
2017-18 Wake Forest (62-73), Notre Dame (49-51) , Virginia (61-68) and Florida State (90-101 in 2OT) beat us by a total of 31 points
And North Carolina (74-78), Duke (44-60) and Boston College (70-85) beat us by a total of 35 points
2019-20 Oklahoma State (72-86), Penn State (64-85), Iowa (54-68) beat us by a total of 49 points
And North Carolina State (74-79), Florida State (77-80) and Louisville (66-90) beat us by a total of 32 points
2021-22 Virginia (69-74), U of Miami (87-88) and Wake Forest (74-77 in OT) beat us by a total of 9 points
And Notre Dame (69-79), Duke (72-97), North Carolina (79-88 in OT) and U of Miami (72-75) beat us by a total of 47 points
2022-23 St. John’s (69-76 in OT), Bryant (72-73) and Illinois (44-73) beat us by a total of 37 points
And North Carolina (68-72), Virginia Tech (70-85) and Virginia (62-72) beat us by a total of 29 points
And Duke (55-77), Clemson (73-91) and Pittsburgh (82-99) - and Georgia Tech (76-96) beat us by a total of 77 points

This IS the worst slump of the JB era. We had no 3 or 4 game slumps in the Louie and Bouie Era. We had three in the 1980’s, (our most talented team- the 1988-89 group – wasn’t immune. There were four in the 1990’s (the team that played for the title in 1996 wasn’t immune, either). Five came in the 2000’s, including two in the 2005-06 season, the one where Gerry led us to the BET title and a birth in the Big Dance. The two teams in the first half of the last decade that didn’t make it to a #1 ranking each had a bad streak.

Then came the “bubble” era. 11 of the 25 three or four game losing streaks in the Boeheim Era have come in the last 9 seasons. We’ve had two of them in 2015-16, (and went to the Final Four), 2017-18, 2019-20, 2021-22 and, for the first time, three this year. It’s getting worse. If we have a mass exodus of players after this season, we’ll see a lot of them in the future. We could be next year’s Louisville.

- Jim has maintained that his critics don't come to the games. He's been able to look around the Dome and smile at all the supporters he had. But the stands tonight looked as if we were playing Monmouth in December, not an ACC game in February. That had to make an impression.

- Two words: Matt Langel. Matt Langel - Wikipedia