Technical Tidbits 12/21: Tech drops COFH in blowout fashion

Georgia Tech basketball suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of rival UGA yesterday night, falling by a final score of 60-43 at McCamish Pavilion. The team looked decent defensively, holding a talented Georgia roster to 60 points, but the offensive performance was a throwback to the Brian Gregory days — the Jackets shot just 34.6% on the day, including 10% from three-point range. Just one Tech player, center Ben Lammers, scratched double figures for the day by putting up 10 points and 8 rebounds. The remaining four starters put up a combined 18 points, including 4 points from Corey Heyward and a goose egg from Quinton Stephens on 0-9 shooting. The expectations for this team were initially quite low given the talent-drained state of the program after much of the scoring from last year’s NIT team moved on, but putting up 43 points, including 18 in the first half, is atrocious. Tech will have plenty of chances to right the ship, but last night’s was hardly an inspiring performance.

Though that particular edition of Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate was hardly one to remember, we can at least reflect on the 2014 COFH prank pulled off by Ryan Pickren. Back before shrubs were the root of UGA rage, Pickren hacked into their online calendar to change the date of 2014’s football game to some light pregame trash talk. Everyone reacted poorly, and he was charged with a felony before accepting some community service — which he apparently fulfilled by hack-proofing the websites of a few local charities. The latest bit of information is that Pickren was hired by United Airlines to find flaws in their own security and was paid in the form of five million sky-miles, which he subsequently donated back to Tech. Just for reference, the school could use that to blast Paul Hewitt and his contract to the moon 20 times. A worthwhile investment to say the least.

College football just can’t escape the plague of violence that has recently taken over, with a number of high profile players facing charges stemming from physical encounters with women. Outrage was sparked most recently when a two-year-old video of Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon punching a woman off of her feet surfaced, prompting justified questions about the extent of Mixon’s punishment from Oklahoma among other moral issues. Both the head coach and athletic director in Norman saw the video initially and decided to allow Mixon back on the team after a one-year suspension, which can hardly be considered a punishment given that Mixon redshirted and remains on scholarship — he simply had to wait a year to keep playing. This happens much more often than it should. In the ESPN article above, two other such cases are addressed: those of former FSU player De’Andre Johnson and current Mississippi State player Jeffrey Simmons. Jimbo Fisher saw it fit to kick Johnson off the team following his incident, but new FAU head coach Lane Kiffin decided to give him another shot to play in Boca Raton. Tough lessons all around. You knock out somebody and get one of three outcomes: free transfer to an exotic beach location for a free education, full enrollment at the school of your choice, or a year off to improve your skills. Great work, coaches and parents of America.