Technical Tidbits 6/21: Shumpert Wins a Ring, More CWS Blues for ACC

Cade is out of town this week, so I’ll be pinch hitting today.

The AJC’s Ken Sugiura published a great article yesterday, highlighting Georgia Tech’s newest football commitment, McEachern High School DB Jaytlin Askew. From the article, it sounds like Askew is exactly the type of player Tech should be targeting both on and off the field. As a player, Askew is a little bit undersized, measuring in at 5’ 9”, but more than makes up for it with blazing speed (10.8 hundred meter dash) and cover skills. In the classroom, Tech was a perfect fit for Askew, who discovered a love for robotics at Georgia Tech summer camp. These summer camps may be an untapped recruiting resource for Coach Paul Johnson and staff to look into.

A year after Virginia brought the ACC its first College World Series title in 60 years, the conference has come up short yet again. Ten teams from the ACC made the regional field of 64, with 6 hosting the first weekend, yet only Miami made it to Omaha, where they were the first team eliminated. The Hurricanes entered the final field of eight as the second highest remaining seed but were defeated Saturday by Arizona and yesterday by UC-Santa Barbara, sealing their fate. It’s frankly amazing that a conference at the level of the ACC has such difficulty come postseason, but here we are again. One note that might be of interest to #Beesball fans: the team that ended the Yellow Jackets’ season is on the brink of elimination as well. The #1 seeded Florida Gators play Texas Tech at 5:00 today in a loser-leaves-town matchup.

Going off the beaten path for a moment, a member of the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team is currently in her native Portugal, fighting for a spot on the Portugese U20 National Team for the upcoming European Championships. Rising sophomore Chelsea Guimaraes has previously played for the Portugese U18 team and hopes to maintain her spot in this next age group. I know Women’s Basketball isn’t a sport that is covered often in this spot, but it is always exciting to see Georgia Tech Athletics represented on the international stage. Cheer Chelsea on and follow her blog here.

As you may have heard once or twice by now, the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Championship Sunday night, defeating the 73-win Golden State Warriors in a dramatic seven-game series. Reserve guard Iman Shumpert became the third former Yellow Jacket to capture an NBA Championship, joining Chris Bosh (2 rings with Miami) and John Salley (2 rings with Detroit, 1 each with Chicago and the Lakers). Shumpert had a bit of a rough series, shooting just a hair over 30% from the field and recording a 1:7 assist to turnover ratio, but his defense on the perimeter was an important asset to the Cavaliers off the bench. Now that Cleveland has broken their championship drought, maybe Atlanta will be next. One can only dream...