Technical Tidbits 1/5: Blue Devils handle Jackets, Sellers to transfer

All good things must come to an end, as was evidenced yesterday night when Duke snapped Tech’s record one-game win streak in the ACC with a 110-57 blowout. It is always disappointing to lose a college basketball game by 53 points, but let’s face it: Tech was playing with house money after the shocking victory against North Carolina. If nothing else, Roy Williams looks even more like an idiot than he did 24 hours ago, which is a win for everybody. The ridiculously tough opening to the ACC schedule continues on Saturday with a home game against Louisville, and I can see no better end to a three-game stretch versus top-10 teams than with another upset. After all, it would be very Georgia Tech-ish to go 2-1 with a couple of random double-digit wins and a 50-point loss just for good measure.

By the way, the early return of the consummate professional Grayson Allen after a one-game suspension shows how badly Coach K needed this game — I’m confident that he would’ve sat Allen for at least the three game stretch against Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Boston College had the Hokies not upset Duke and had the real Tech not upset UNC. It’s incredibly weak to issue an “indefinite suspension” and then reinstate the guy one game later, but I don’t really have that much of an issue with it personally. He acted like a little kid and was punished for it, much more severely than many others who do much worse if we are being honest. He tripped a few guys. It’s more pitiful than despicable, really.

The offseason attrition is officially underway with redshirt freshman defensive lineman Trent Sellers announcing that he will transfer from Georgia Tech to Northwest Mississippi Community College, a move which is almost certainly a precursor to him seeking a position at another FBS school. With a strong group returning at his position plus a number of potential contributors waiting in the wings, Sellers pretty clearly didn’t see a place for himself in Tech’s future plans. We wish he would’ve had the opportunity to live up to the precedent set by a certain other Sandy Creek graduate at Georgia Tech, but best of luck to him wherever he may end up.

Interestingly enough, Georgia Tech’s 9-4 finish and the strong victory over Kentucky in the TaxSlayer Bowl mean that the Jacket have a quasi-legitimate shot at finishing ranked in the final poll of the season. It seems advantageous to the media for Tech to finish this season and start next season ranked simply because they could spin the 2017 Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game against Tennessee as a battle between two top-25 schools (yes, you know they’ll sneak the Vols into the top-25 next season). I’m all for it personally, though there is a good chance we don’t see that happen in this next poll or even at all. We’ll know soon enough if Tech will be go unranked over a whole season for the first time since 2013.