Technical Tidbits 5/22

Georgia Tech went a long way towards bolstering its frontcourt depth yesterday by adding Arkansas-Little Rock transfer James White to the thin stable of big men that the team currently features. Ken Sugiura was dead on when he reported last week that Brian Gregory had more interest in the graduate transfer market -- White wasted no time picking the Jackets over reported offers from a number of other solid basketball schools such as Georgia and Alabama. With the addition of a solid post presence like White, I'm almost teetering on the edge of optimism for the coming season; the pieces all seem to be there for what could be a nice season.

For Georgia Tech AD Mike Bobinski, the main priority at the Institute will be strengthening the state of Georgia Tech athletics for now and the years to come. Bobinski, who took over the position of athletic director after Dan Radakovich bolted for Clemson a few years ago, came to the Flats by way of Akron and then Xavier, where he worked for a combined 20 years. While it is hard to point to any one big splash or accomplishment he's made during his stay so far, don't discredit what all Bobinski has done for the program. He is a rare breed of athletic director who doesn't give us anything to complain about because he does everything so quickly and professionally. I would also like to applaud Bobinski's patience, especially with the basketball program. He must be itching to make a big move -- like hiring a new basketball coach, for instance -- but decided to stick with the man hired by his predecessor. In this era of quick triggers when it comes to firing coaches, it's nice to see an AD keep some faith -- even if said faith comes from a financial perspective.

One of the biggest debates surrounding college basketball recently has been whether or not to shorten the shot clock to stimulate offense and increase the speed of the college game. The proposed solution to this issue is likely decreasing the admittedly lengthy 35-second NCAA shot to 30 seconds, and that appears to be the direction in which we are currently headed. I'm personally in favor of this move simply because watching college basketball can be intolerable at times when the two teams are struggling on offense and taking their time on each possession. In fact, I'd even put some of Tech's awful 7-minute scoring droughts on the length of the shot clock because the opposing team can hold the ball for so long and because Brian Gregory's offense struggles so mightily to score in transition the first place. You can argue that shortening the shot clock wouldn't actually increase scoring (and you might have a point), but it will certainly speed the game up.

I'll leave you today with some fun conference realignment talk from ESPN. I have no clue why I'm so fascinated by the thought of realigning the divisions in the ACC, but I do love a good "YOU HAVE TO PRESERVE THE NATURAL RIVALRIES!" debate. I honestly hate both options proposed in the article, but that's mainly because they both follow the current boring, vanilla two-division format. Ew. Give me something new, ACC. I'm over here trying to be an ACC hipster and you keep putting me down. How fin (h/t to thehipsterhandbook.com).

Should college basketball shorten the shot clock or take another approach? Is there no issue to solve in the first place?

Have a great weekend!