Technical Tidbits 2/28: Thank you, seniors!

It’s officially senior day at Georgia Tech, meaning that tonight’s game against Pittsburgh will be the final matchup at McCamish Pavilion for six seniors on the current roster: Jodan Price, Quinton Stephens, Kellen McCormick, Josh Heath, Rand Rowland, and Corey Heyward. The truly remarkable thing about this graduating class is that Tech will be losing so much and so little at the same time. On one hand, you’re seeing the final game for three starters in Quinton Stephens, Josh Heath, and Corey Heyward. That trio has played a ton of minutes, especially late in the season. On the other hand, the offensive contributions from them, particularly Heyward and Heath, has been minimal. That isn’t a knock on their talent as players, but rather a testament to how they play the game: with their eyes on the defensive end and on distributing the ball. Congratulations to all six of the seniors on completing their Tech careers.

One small error which really cost the Jackets in the final minutes of the loss at Notre Dame was guard Tadric Jackson’s intentional foul of Irish guard Matt Farrell with over 30 seconds left on the clock. Coach Pastner had decided to let Tech go for the defensive stop on that possession, but Jackson appeared to panic ever so slightly when Farrell raced by him at the top of the arc. The result was a pair of free throws and a 4-point lead which proved insurmountable, but it’s hard to fault Jackson given that Tech wouldn’t have been in the game without his offensive contributions. Watching Tadric Jackson develop into a reliable scorer this season has been very exciting. Hopefully he will continue his momentum into his senior campaign next year.

ACC commissioner John Swofford is “encouraged” by a new bill designed to take the place of the highly-controversial House Bill 2, which has been called discriminatory by the vast majority of the sports organizations and corporations which used to hold events in North Carolina. The ACC is one such organization — Swofford announced some time ago that all of the conference’s championships would be moved out of its home state until the bill was repealed. It seems pretty obvious that replacing the bill is the best move for the North Carolina economy, which has already lost millions of dollars in potential revenue following the relocation of the NBA All-Star Game, ACC Championship Game, and other events, but whether or not the new bill has the votes to pass remains to be seen.