Technical Tidbits 12/23: Pastner picks up commit No. 2, Tech holds off Wofford

Head coach Josh Pastner picked up a big commitment for his class of 2017 yesterday afternoon when three-star shooting guard Curtis Haywood II announced his decision to play at Tech. A talented scorer with good length, Haywood chose Tech over reported offers from Mercer, Texas Tech, and others plus some strong interest from higher-profile basketball schools like Texas and Wichita State. Though no position is looking particularly strong for the Jackets in 2017, another scoring wing to complement Tadric Jackson will be excellent even as players like Josh Okogie and Christian Matthews continue to develop.

The basketball team hung on for a tight 76-72 victory over the Wofford Terriers last night, edging their SOCON opponent with a lot of help from junior center Ben Lammers (19pts/7reb/6ast) and a nice bounce-back performance from senior Quinton Stephens, who improved upon his previous struggles from the floor with a 7-point shooting performance and a team-high 12 rebounds. It would have been sub-optimal to lose to Wofford, but it’s worth noting that the Terriers did make an NCAA Tournament appearance just two seasons ago after a 28-7 campaign. Every win counts, and we might as well make them look as good as possible.

As we continue our in-depth examination of the strange state of discipline across college athletics, let’s take a look at Duke forward Grayson Allen. Notorious for acting like a fifth-grader since enrolling at Duke, Allen was suspended indefinitely by Coach K yesterday after tripping yet another opposing player. Should he have been suspended for making a fool of himself and the Duke program by tripping a third player? Probably. I doubt the suspension will last far into ACC play (Duke has two straight conference games that are essentially bye weeks versus Georgia Tech and Boston College after opening versus Virginia Tech), but an indefinite suspension for tripping does seem to indicate a discrepancy in punishments for various incidents. Fortunately for us, we get the fun distraction of watching sports reporters try to psychoanalyze Allen just like Colin Cowherd and Chris Broussard attempted to do in the cancerous autoplay video from the link above. Two of the most intelligent and in-the-loop voices in sports, to say the least.