Non-Rev Game of the Week*: Women’s Basketball hosts no. 2 Notre Dame

Welcome to a new feature here at From the Rumble Seat, a weekly-ish preview of an under the radar important game you may not have heard of. It may not be every week, but the games, matches, and meets it covers certainly will be critical to the teams involved.

Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball vs. no. 2 Notre Dame

Location: McCamish Pavilion, Atlanta, Georgia
Ticket Information: Click here!
Television: Regional Sports Networks (Fox Sports South in Atlanta)
Radio: WREK 91.1

Georgia Tech enters this game sitting pretty at 11 - 3 (1 - 0 ACC), having already secured their first ACC win on the road in Chestnut Hill against Boston College this week. In that game, recapped extensively by ramblinwreck.com here, the Yellow Jackets turned a healthy shooting performance into an eight point lead at the halftime break. The Eagles were able to stay in the game, bringing Tech down to the wire. However, strong free throws in the final minutes, as ever, kept them at arms length. The pair of freshmen stars named Elizabeth, Balogun and Dixon, each secured a double-double and this incredibly young team has really built successfully on the solid foundation this program had thanks to the strong stewardship of this coaching staff. Despite losing to a tough Maryland team, a solid Houston team, and a bizarre spectacle against Dayton, Tech managed to upset a ranked team from Athens and lock down the rest of the schedule coming into this weekend.

Meanwhile, in South Bend, things have gone about as expected for the defending national champions. The Fighting Irish, ranked second nationally, perhaps under-ranked following no. 1 UConn’s loss to Baylor, have indeed earned that ranking so far this year. Their only loss is to UConn, and have taken down no. 11 Oregon State, no. 17 Gonzaga, no. 19 Iowa, no. 20 Marquette, and no. 24 DePaul, while steamrolling some lesser teams on their schedule.

However, Notre Dame isn’t invincible. A Tech team that swooned extremely hard during ACC season last year was able to play them far closer in two games last year than most teams have this year. With upgrades across the roster, as well as a team cohesion and chemistry seemingly greater, this Georgia Tech team has a greater than zero chance at pulling an upset in what could be one of their most important games in years, and certainly the most important since falling to Michigan in triple overtime of the WNIT championship in 2017. Georgia Tech’s patented brand of scrappy defense and excellent rebounding must come out in full force for Tech to have a chance to win, and it has looked pristine so far, dominating the glass and forcing turnovers almost every game. The young freshmen and sophomores that make up the bulk of this team will be tested, no doubt. However, of any of the teams to mess around and do the thing, Georgia Tech has a tremendous chance to do something special on Sunday.

Be sure to check back in for the result of this game, as well as the rest of the non-revenue sports news, Monday morning in the Yellow Jacket Roundup.