Mailbag 3/3

Are we in? - Partywaggin

Ben: I’m going to go with yeah, probably.

Akshay: MBB - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯; WBB - absolutely, yes

Carter: Oh, yeah, for sure. How are you going to deny the #3 team in the ACC? Wait, you meant MBB, didn’t you?

Drew: Women yes. I am writing this before the Duke game. Ask me after.

Jake: I have the fortunate position of writing this one after the Duke game. And to that I say we freakin’ better be!

Also, will Notwima13 ask the first question this week? - Partywaggin

Carter:

How far do we have to go through the ACC Tournament to make it in (both men’s and women’s teams)? - Anuj Bhyravabhotla

Akshay: Women are already firmly in their field; I’m cynical and think the men need to beat Wake Forest and win at least one game in the conference tournament to be a lock.

Carter: The women are a lock. The men probably need to win at least one. Unless they lose on Friday. Then they probably have to win three.

Jake: I think we control our own destiny. Beat Wake and there’s not much more we’d need to do. Though, why not turn a five game winning streak into ten and win the whole ACC?

How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood? - Notwima13

Ben: This is a question that has long plagued me, so I decided to do some research. I fired up the old Google machine and typed your question. And then, like with all valid research, I just looked at the first thing that popped up and ignored everything else. Here’s what I found! There’s a website called MyLandPlan.org. I have no idea what they do, but they had an answer to this question. So, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Well here’s what they had to say:

New York state wildlife expert Richard Thomas found that a woodchuck could (and does) chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Thomas reasoned that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equivalent to the weight of the dirt, or 700 pounds.

So there you go. I hope you’re satisfied with finally knowing the answer. I know I am.

Aksay: Lots.

Carter:

Draft predictions for Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright: Do they get drafted? If so, how high? If not, do they stay in the US or do they play professionally abroad? - Anuj Bhyravabhotla

Drew: Jose definitely does not get drafted. He is a great college player, but he doesn’t have the size and skill set for the NBA. I predict he goes abroad. Moses at least has the size and athleticism. I don’t think he gets drafted, but I could see him in the G-League.

Jake: Or, they both come back? Maybe?

Are the jackets that good? - Bill Brockman

Ben: I think they have the potential to be that good, and they have been that good so far. The real question is whether they can keep it up.

Akshay: I’m really, really, really, really tempted to say yes, but I still think it’s unclear. However, if Tech were to win the Louisville series this weekend, you could make a case for them as the top team in the ACC.

Jake: Or is NC State that bad? I think it’s a combination of both. Whereas we have some great hitters and good pitching, I worry about the overall staff as well as day-to-day lineup construction. The realities of both of those things shade my answer from HECK YES to, uh, yeah.

Is this the best you can do? While it’s great to have back-to-back winning seasons in ACC play, I would expect an even better record considering the wealth of talent we have this year. Is this the best Josh Pastner can do? - Neal Royal

Ben: I think it’s a matter of what your expectations are. Personally, for Georgia Tech basketball, there’s not much of a reason to have high expectations. They haven’t been consistently good at basketball in a long time. I saw something on ye olde Twitter yesterday showing the Georgia Tech MBB coaches who have had ACC seasons above .500 since 1990. Josh Pastner was the only one with more than one. Is he perfect? No, but I think he’s done a good job as Tech basketball is in a place where we can start to have this conversation of “Is this team actually going to make the tourney?” I call that a win.

Akshay: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — here’s the thing: making the tournament the first time is the first step. Keeping us in the conversation and making it consistently is the next. Pastner has scrapped his way to the precipice of the former; it remains to be seen if he can do the latter. We’ve said for most of the season now that this has to be the year that Tech makes the tournament, but I don’t think any of us has really thought through what the future looks like if and after they did.

Drew: This season is both exciting and disappointing. The team really should be better. The recruiting class next year is also exciting, but it looks like a step back after a single bubble season. That shouldn’t be good enough.

Jake: I think this year validates the Josh Pastner experience ™ and his “get old, stay old” mantra. They finally did that. I think the recruiting is there to reload, and I think that we can expect this more frequently than every five years with him. The guys clearly love him, and he’s a good guy, and barring a few anomalies, we’re a top 25 team. I see no reason to complain and I have every expectation to be in the ballpark of that again in the coming years.

Carter: I was thinking some of the stats I’ve seen thrown out after last night’s game could use some added context, but I realized people don’t really like when you do that. So don’t do it. The numbers conference records don’t lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice the ACC in Greensboro.

What are you/y’all Streaming/Binging/Watching now that we should look in on since sports seems to be a little hit and miss these days? - DressHerInWhiteAndGold

Ben: I’ve been rewatching Community lately on Netflix. If you’re looking for something a little more serious, though, all three seasons of Hannibal with Mads Mikkelsen are on Netflix, and he is hauntingly wonderful. And then of course WandaVision is also really good!

Akshay: Ted Lasso. Find a one-week trial of Apple TV+ and binge it. It’s good — very good.

Drew: Chernobyl on HBOMax.

Jake: Just finished Disenchantment on Netflix (Matt Groening wrote a fantasy show). Wish I could watch Ted Lasso. Waiting on new seasons of The Great on Hulu. Otherwise, been getting too into podcasts.

Carter: Archer is very, very funny and worth the time if you’ve never seen it. The Boys is a very cynical take on the superhero genre and I love it. The new Sabrina series was good right up until the end, which was very bad. The Crown is good if you like history and want to hate the British royals (and Margaret Thatcher) — which, IMO, you should. Second Ben on WandaVision, the finale releases Friday and you can watch the whole thing in under six hours.

Hello Everyone,

Good news with the sweep and the results from the swimming tournament. Good things happening for Tech. Not used to that feeling. Can we get some more GT baseball pictures? I love football but y’all keep posting pictures of the football team in the offseason despite use seeing good results in other sports. At least for the mailbag or tidbits sections... That’s not my question this week, just something I felt obligated to annoy you about.

So with the sweep of NC State (which I would’ve gone to see if they were selling tickets), My question this week is what is your favorite cleaning activity. seems silly to enjoy a cleaning activity, but some of them are just relaxing in a way. The one I enjoy most is pressure washing. watching the dirt get pushed away, and the nice ways you can play around while pressure washing is pretty fun. Sounds silly to enjoy a cleaning activity for work, but I find some of them to be relaxing and fun once you get past the “oh man, do I really have to do this today?” mentality.

Have a good week,

Mary Poppins (submitted via email)

Ben: It wasn’t your question, but I’ll give you an answer anyway. SB Nation has agreements in place to use photos provided by USA Today and Getty affiliates. Neither of those are typically at Georgia Tech baseball games unless it’s CWS stuff. So instead, we use pictures directly from GTAA because we have access to a dropbox they have provided. I tend to go with the stuff that is already uploaded to our system because it’s more convenient.

As for your actual question, I really enjoy handwashing dishes. I live by myself and don’t use that many dishes, so it doesn’t normally take that long, and it’s just good to occupy the mind.

Akshay: Cleaning the kitchen — mostly because it’s all simple manual labor that requires little-to-no active thinking.

Jake: I feature my favorite Danny Karnik shot of the week every week! He has a bunch of great shots from basically every spot. So there’s that. As for your question, I do also enjoy power washing, but I used to fold a lot of towels when I was a lifeguard and sweep the pool deck, so probably one of those. Nothing quite like a good sweep, except shoveling snow, which rules, but goodness knows that’ll never actually be a chore in Atlanta.

Carter: Unloading the dishwasher. Not loading it, just unloading. A place for everything and everything in its place.