Technical Tidbits 5/22: Tech Basketball Finalizes Non-Con Schedule

The Georgia Tech Basketball team’s non-conference schedule has been completed with the addition of a game at UAB. The Jackets will face four power conference schools and seven mid-major programs before entering ACC play. Aside from a contest with Kentucky, the schedule looks fairly manageable, depending on who the ACC/Big Ten Challenge opponent is. The other known power conference opponents are Stanford and georgia, which will be must wins considering the relative weakness of the rest of the schedule. All of the mid-majors were decent at best (most were awful) last season, with the best being UAB, who finished at 19-13. This season Tech has a tournament-quality team, let’s hope they don’t blow it with bad losses early in the season.

Recently, a photo of fans at a 1918 Tech game in masks has been making its way around the Internet. The AJC’s Ken Sugiura took a deep dive into the story of the photo, and it’s an interesting read. It seems like 1918 pandemic Atlanta was about like it is at this moment in time, with masks encouraged in public and certain large gatherings canceled. At least they got to enjoy live sports back then.

While power rankings don’t matter in the long run (wins do, obviously), it’s always fun to look at where Geoff Collins lands on a list ranking all 130 FBS coaches. Even after a 3-9 season, Collins only dropped two spots from last year’s ranking, mainly because of the immense offensive transition he’s having to make. It’ll probably be a bumpy ride in 2020, but I would say that the future is still bright on the Flats.

The article above isn’t solely about Georgia Tech, but it does discuss the class of 2020’s highest rising recruit, current Jacket Jahmyr Gibbs. In just under a year’s time, Gibbs went from a low three-star player to the eighth highest-ranked running back in the class of 2020. Gibbs’ meteoric rise shows just how much can change in a recruiting cycle, three-stars can skyrocket and five-stars can plummet. A lot of the movement is a result of high school games and recruiting service evaluation camps, which might not happen this year. It’ll be much tougher on everyone to evaluate high school players with a very limited amount of game film and few opportunities for them to showcase their abilities. This 2021 recruiting cycle will show who the real talent evaluators are.

Pat McAfee spent a little time on his show discussing Tech’s most recent commit, Irish punter David Shanahan. Enjoy!

Jakiah Leftwich is a top offensive line target for Tech in the 2021 recruiting class. He’ll be committing with a video on his Instagram account (@247Kiah) later today. Hopefully it’ll be good news for Tech fans!

Question of the Day: What do you think of the basketball team’s non-conference schedule?