Tobacco Road Report

By Chris

The Georgia Tech-Clemson matchup on Saturday showed that the Tigers are not likely to fade in conference play. Clemson used their basic formula for success on Saturday: aggression. The Tigers were able to force 17 Tech turnovers, pull 15 offensive rebounds, and get to the foul line 26 times. Their statistic advantage in these areas was the difference in the game.

The teams traded runs in the first half with Tech opening in early 14-8 lead and then Clemson responded by holding Tech without a field goal for 9 minutes. With three minutes left in the half, Clemson held a 28-20 lead and showed signs of routing the Jackets. Tech was able to get a few key baskets (layup by Crittenton, steal by West) to go on a 14-1 run to close the half. In the second half, Clemson remained aggressive as the Tigers attacked the basket with dribble penetration. Cliff Hammonds and KC Rivers were able to beat their defenders leaving Mays and Booker with open space as Tech’s big had to help. The result was early foul trouble for Jeremis Smith, Mohammad Faye, and Ra’Sean Dickey.

The critical play in the game came with 13 minutes left. Tech freshman big, Zach Peacock was ejected for an elbow to Trevor Booker’s face. This left Tech with four fouls on all their post players that get any meaningful minutes. Hewitt responded by putting the Jackets in a basic 2-3 zone.

Unfortunately, it looked to TRR like the Jackets had never practiced zone as the Tigers easily found open looks. To further compound Tech’s problem, the Jackets were not able to find Tigers to box out in the zone and Clemson exploited the offensive boards. Still, Tech was able to keep the game close due to the dynamic freshman duo, Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young. The last minute was solid offensive basketball with Tech taking a 1 point lead on a runner by Crittenton with 6.5 seconds left. This is where a seasoned team took over.

The Tigers were able to inbound the ball almost to half court to James Mays. Mohammed Faye overplayed the pass losing defensive position and Mays blew by him on the dribble. Tech had two defenders between Mays and the bucket, but neither had the discipline to stop the penetration. Mays finished, Jackets lose, and Clemson moves up in the rankings…

Statistics show why Tech lost on Saturday, last play aside. Tech had an effective field goal percentage of 62.2 percent, while only allowing 42.4 percent on the defensive end. Tech won the boards, but as usual made 17 turnovers or 25 percent of all possessions. Simply put, Tech will not reach their potential until they learn to value the basketball. For Clemson, they had an offensive rebounding percentage of almost 50 percent. Clemson overcomes their lack of size with pure effort on the boards. The Tigers remind TRR of Michigan State with their attack on the offensive boards. Saturday also illustrated how important James Mays is to their success.

What do we see for each team?

Clemson is not going anywhere this season. There are enough easy wins for the Tigers in conference that this is an NCAA tourney bound team. We can’t see them winning the conference, but 10-6 in conference seems quite possible. For Tech, someone needs to become a perimeter threat with the loss of Lewis Clinch. For those who don’t know, Clinch was suspended for violating institute policy and will not dress again this season. This puts the pressure on Anthony Morrow to return to form. To become a conference contender, Tech must value the basketball and get Young involved. Young is not assertive in taking the game over and Tech needs to get him to force the issue.