Technical Tidbits 2/13: Jackets handle Eagles, remain on NCAA Tournament bubble

Despite getting off to one of the weakest starts you’ll ever see in college basketball, Georgia Tech was able to handle Boston College over the weekend by a 65-54 margin at McCamish Pavilion to secure win No. 15 of the season. Managing just 15 points in the entire first half against an Eagles defense which is among the worst in the ACC if not the nation, absolutely nothing went right for the Jackets during the first 20 minutes. The fact that the team was able to step on the gas in the second half to the tune of 50 points despite obvious offensive handicaps and an assortment of injuries is only the latest testament to Josh Pastner’s excellent coaching. It may not have been him specifically, but someone was able to rally the team from the land of missed layups and turnovers and change the game into a breakout performance for Tadric Jackson (29 points) and Ben Lammers (17 rebounds) on the way to a much-needed win.

For the first time ever, the selection committee for March Madness has decided to take the CFB Playoff Committee approach by providing us with a look at the top-16 seeds as it would stand if the tournament started today. There is already plenty of love for the ACC in this week’s partial bracket, with four teams from the conference making comprising the top-16: North Carolina, Florida State, Virginia, Duke, and Louisville. Tech is currently an astounding 2-3 against those teams, proving both that the Jackets can hang with anyone in the nation and that the team’s ACC schedule is borderline ridiculous.

As for the decision to release the top seeds well in advance, some people who hate having fun have been critical. I haven’t really heard a substantive argument against revealing the top seeds so far, largely because it’s overwhelmingly positive for fans of teams on the bubble. We can now see what the committee is thinking (though we already know what they consider when making their decisions) without having to pretend to be shocked when [insert best team in America] gets the first overall seed on the day of the big revealing. Wow, it’s Villanova? Thank God I got to watch a three-hour program to find out!

By the way, Georgia Tech remains firmly on the bubble according to just about every major news outlet. The win over Boston College was an absolute must have, and Tech has an even better opportunity to strengthen the resume this week when the team heads down to Coral Gables for a matchup with Miami. The Canes are red-hot and coming off of a big win over No. 4 Louisville according to their official website, but the unfortunate truth is that the result of that game — much like their entire athletics program — is just a big, sad typo: Miami lost by a final score of 71-66. I’ve sent a memo to Miami website manager Helen Keller to notify her of the error.

Anyways, Tech controls its own destiny. It’s win and you’re in at this point, so the best thing to do would be to head down south and recreate the only good game from Brian Gregory’s five-year career by beating the Hurricanes. Chris Bolden won’t be around this time, but at least we have his cousin!