FAYETTEVILLE -- A challenging week for the Georgia Tech basketball team with three games in six days got off to a rough start.
The Yellow Jackets, playing their second game in 16 days because of a lengthy break for finals, lost to Gardner-Webb 79-69 at home in Atlanta on Monday night.
Now Georgia Tech (5-4) has back-to-back games against SEC opponents in the University of Arkansas (7-2) tonight at Walton Arena and against Georgia back home on Saturday.
Yellow Jackets Coach Josh Pastner said after losing to Gardner-Webb (8-5) that he welcomes the quick turnaround to play the Razorbacks.
"I'm glad we're able to bounce back," Pastner said in his postgame news conference. "I still believe in our group a lot. I love our group. I think we've got a chance to be really good. We've still got some youth, and it showed a little bit."
Georgia Tech 6-9 junior center James Banks, a transfer from Texas, had 22 points and 12 rebounds against Gardner-Webb.
"We've got to get over it," Banks told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Yeah, it sucks to lose, but we're not hanging our heads on this one game.
"This one game doesn't define us as a basketball team or as a program. We have to put this behind us. We have to come together as a unit, and we have to respond."
Georgia Tech ranked fifth nationally in field goal defense at 36.2 percent going into the Gardner-Webb game, but the Bulldogs shot 52.2 percent (31 of 59) and hit 6 of 15 three-pointers.
"If we're not good defensively, it's just going to be hard for us, because we're not an offensive juggernaut," Pastner said. "We've got to hang our hat on the defensive end, and if it fails us, we're going to struggle. We just couldn't get stops, and that's who we are. That's our identity.
"As I told our guys, there's no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've just got to dig ourselves out of the hole and find a way to try to get a win [tonight]. Get back to who we are defensively."
Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson, who spoke to the media Monday before Georgia Tech lost to Gardner-Webb, said he's been impressed by how the Yellow Jackets have played against a tough schedule.
Georgia Tech's other losses were at No. 3 Tennessee 66-53, at Northwestern 67-61 and to St. John's 76-73 in Miami. The Yellow Jackets' victories are at home against Lamar 88-69, East Carolina 79-54, Texas Rio Grand Valley 72-44, Prairie View A&M 65-54 and Florida A&M 73-40.
"I really believe that it's going to be a good game with two good teams," Anderson said. "I think it's going to be a physical game.
"They want to play mid-tempo to a half-court game, and they mix up their defenses. So our guys are going to have to really be alert knowing what they're in defensively.
"I want us to impose our will on the opponents. I think in the last couple of games we've played at the other teams' pace and that comes back to the effort and the execution. We've got to be better in those departments."
In the Razorbacks' past two games they lost to Western Kentucky 78-77 in Walton Arena and beat Texas-San Antonio 79-67 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
"I think defensively we've got to be engaged," Anderson said of how to speed up the tempo. "And just the overall effort. We've got to come up with those loose balls. We're making stops, but teams are getting offensive rebounds. The last game we had a bunch of turnovers."
Arkansas had 15 turnovers compared to 12 by UTSA.
"That's execution," Anderson said. "You've got to value the basketball. We started the game off with two turnovers. That's sloppiness."
Georgia Tech's field goal defense rose to 38.1 percent after the Gardner-Webb game, which dropped the Yellow Jackets 18 spots in the national ranking to 23rd. They're eighth nationally in three-point defense (26.7 percent) and 15th in scoring defense (61.0 points).
Gardner-Webb, which plays in the Big South Conference, led Georgia Tech 45-38 at halftime. The Yellow Jackets' deficit grew to 55-42 with 15:38 left, and they didn't draw closer than seven points the rest of the game.
"It's a credit to Gardner-Webb. Full credit to them," Pastner said. "But what did we do in prepping for that?"
Pastner said he's asked himself whether the Yellow Jackets watched too much film or had too detailed of a scouting report that made the players think too much and be a step slow instead of reacting on defense.
"Or was it just a bad game?" he said.
Georgia Tech had two-a-day practices with so much time between games, prompting a question from a reporter Monday night about whether the players might have been worn down.
"I mean, could it be a factor? Maybe," Pastner said. "But I don't want to use that as an excuse.
"We have to work. They're 18- to 22-year-olds, and you're dependent on them to produce, and the one controllable factor I do know we have is our defensive ability."
Georgia Tech will be the third Power 5 conference opponent the Razorbacks have faced this season -- they lost to Texas 73-71 in overtime and beat Indiana 73-72 -- and the first ACC team to play at Walton Arena since Nov. 19, 2014, when Arkansas beat Wake Forest 83-53.
"Playing against another Power 5 school is giving everybody what they want to see," Razorbacks sophomore point guard Jalen Harris said. "It's early competition before we get into conference play, and it's getting us ready for the competition we're going to be seeing in the conference. It's real big for us."
Arkansas men vs. Georgia Tech
WHEN 8 p.m. today
WHERE Walton Arena, Fayetteville
RECORDS Arkansas 7-2. Georgia Tech 5-4
SERIES Georgia Tech leads 4-1
RADIO Razorback Sports Network
TELEVISION SEC Network
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
GEORGIA TECH
POS., NAME, HT., YR.;PPG;RPG
G Jose Alvarado, 6-0, So.;13.6;2.8
G Brandon Aldston , 6-5, Sr.;11.6;2.6
G Curtis Haywood, 6-5, So.;8.6;2.4
F Moses Wright, 6-9, So.;6.4;3.6
C James Banks, 6-9, Jr.;8.9;8.8
COACH Josh Pastner (39-39 in three seasons at Georgia Tech, 206-112 in 10 seasons overall)
ARKANSAS
POS., NAME, HT., YR.;PPG;RPG
G Jalen Harris, 6-2, So.;9.3;3.1
G Isaiah Joe, 6-5, Fr.;16.9;2.4
G Mason Jones, 6-5, So.;13.4;5.3
F Daniel Gafford, 6-11, So.;17.9;9.2
F Adrio Bailey, 6-6, Jr.;8.7;4.3
COACH Mike Anderson (158-88 in eight seasons at Arkansas, 358-186 in 17 seasons overall)
TEAM COMPARISON
Georgia Tech;Arkansas
70.3;Points for;85.3
61.0;Points against;71.0
+0.3;Rebound margin;+1.1
+1.0;Turnover margin;+3.3
44.2;FG pct.;47.3
30.9;3-PT pct.;36.2
71.8;FT pct.;65.0
CHALK TALK Arkansas point guard Jalen Harris' 7.56 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the nation, and his 7.6 assists average leads the SEC. ... Razorbacks freshman guard Isaiah Joe is averaging 4.2 three-point baskets per game to rank fifth nationally. ... Arkansas forward Daniel Gafford has hit 24 of 34 free throws in the previous five games to raise his percentage to 60.7 percent (37 of 61) on the season. ... Razorbacks freshman guard Desi Sills is averaging 8.7 points off the bench the past three games. ... Georgia Tech is 0-3 away from home this season, losing 66-53 at Tennessee, 67-61 at Northwestern and 76-73 to St. John's at the Miami Invitational. ... Georgia Tech has won four in a row over Arkansas since the Razorbacks beat the Yellow Jackets 72-42 on Dec. 30, 1961, at the Poinsetta Classic in Greenville, S.C. ... In the teams' most recent meeting, Georgia Tech won 83-73 on Nov. 26, 2015, in New York. ... Yellow Jackets center James Banks transferred from Texas, where he played off the bench in the Razorbacks' 77-74 victory over the Longhorns in Houston on Dec. 6, 2016. Banks had 2 points and 1 rebound in 8 minutes.
Sports on 12/19/2018