Technical Tidbits 12/19: COFH to Philips Arena? Mark Fox says yes.

Georgia Tech took home a victory in its pre-Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate matchup over the weekend, defeating Alcorn State by a final score of 74-50 at McCamish Pavilion. Alcorn State is a team that Tech should absolutely beat both logically and statistically, but every bit of confidence helps when a big rivalry is just around the corner. Ben Lammers led the way with 12 points and 13 rebounds and Tadric Jackson had another nice day off the bench, scoring 14 of his own. That figure was matched by freshman Josh Okogie, who also added on three steals in what was a very dominant performance from the Jackets. The season’s record now stands at 6-3, likely a game better than many would have expected at this juncture given the talent lost from last year’s team. Tomorrow’s game against UGA will teach us yet another lesson, so hopefully the momentum will carry over.

Georgia head basketball coach Mark Fox has suggested that UGA and Georgia Tech should consider moving the venue for the basketball version of the rivalry, advocating for playing in downtown Atlanta rather than having it rotate between the two home courts. I’d honestly never even considered this, but Fox makes a very compelling case for why we should transition to a neutral field — it would likely help with attendance and could make the game more accessible and relevant to more people, among other things. It’s entirely possible that there could be many more UGA fans than Tech fans at Philips Arena for such a matchup, but it would likely still be beneficial to both schools as far as exposure goes.

It has been nearly a month since Tech claimed the football edition of COFH against UGA, but the loss has evidently remained quite painful for a number of the Georgia players. We saw a trio of UGA’s biggest contributors from this season agree to return to Athens last week -- likely against the advice of quite literally everyone around them, at least in one case — but the loss seems to have done a number on most of the team. The 2017 season is going to be a massive question mark for both teams, likely until well after it begins, but a Tech victory would mean that a few very talented UGA players would be leaving Athens with a 1-3 record against the non-rival from Atlanta. That’s a nice trend.

K.