Technical Tidbits 2/27: Jackets fall to Irish in South Bend, see NCAA Tourney hopes slip

Georgia Tech’s at-large NCAA Tournament hopes sustained what may have been a death blow up in South Bend last night as the Jackets fell by a final score of 64-60 to the Irish. Tech was stuck playing catch-up for the duration of the game, trailing by as many eight in the first half alone and never coming back to tie or take the lead. Tadric Jackson scored a very quiet 20 points, most of which came in the late stages of the game, and Josh Okogie added on 14 of his own, almost all of which came in the opening minutes of the game. The team now absolutely must win out (at Syracuse and at home against Pittsburgh) to have a shot at an at-large bid, but even then it would likely take a couple of ACC Tournament wins to get in.

Georgia Tech baseball claimed two of three from Youngstown State over the weekend, winning games one and two before dropping the final matchup in blowout fashion at Russ Chandler Stadium for the season’s first defeat. Youngstown State is a team that the Jackets should probably sweep pretty easily, and they almost did so after winning the first two games by a combined 17 runs, but one bad inning proved to be the difference maker. Every loss hurts, but this one shouldn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things as long as Tech shows up to play when the ACC schedule starts up. Before that time comes we have five more winnable games to play against Georgia State, Kennesaw State, and Belmont (x3), all at home, before heading down to Coral Gables for a three-game set with Miami.

As the ACC’s basketball season draws to a close, the time has come to debate who should win the 2016-2017 Coach of the Year award for their efforts in the nation’s best conference. There’s an argument to be made for a few different coaches, but many feel that Josh Pastner bringing home the honor is something of a foregone conclusion after he piloted a remarkable one-year turnaround at Tech. If the above article is correct, Pastner’s main challenger could be UNC’s Roy Williams, whose Tar Heels have had another remarkable season against teams not coached by Josh Pastner. I got cyber-jumped last time I said something true about Roy Williams, so I’ll just stick to alternate facts this time around:

Roy Williams is an excellent coach, one whose on-court achievements are matched only by the strength of his character and the veracity of his statements during NCAA investigations. Better?