Baby steps for a young Jackets team

I need to start by saying that my roommates think I am completely crazy in thinking that this young Jacket team has any chance of making March Madness.. And honestly, due to the fact that I have been drinking the Brian Gregory Kool-Aide for some time, I have been very hopeful and might be blind to this. The fact is, this will definitely be a stretch, but I am still confident that this team can be successful this season. Check THIS out for more of my projections for the rest of this season.

Using kenpom.com, I have been able to put some of the statistics in layman's terms. Not up to gagne's standards, but good enough.

Basically, I am breaking our stats into Good, Bad, and Last to make it easy. **(Rankings in the ACC)

Good: Defensive Efficiency, Defensive FG%, Defensive 2P%, and Defensive FT%.

Bad: TO% (8th), Offensive RB% (9th), Offensive 2P%(11th), Offensive FT% (10th)

Last: Offensive Efficiency, Effective Offensive FG%, and Offensive Block %

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Now onto the game tonight. The Jackets v. Clemson game is the longest running series for Tech against an ACC member, with 121 meetings all-time. This started streak back during the 1912-1913 when John Heisman coached. Since 1983, Tech has won 21 of the last 29 games at Home. However, Clemson has won the past 6 games between the two teams. Also, Gregory is 0-3 against Clemson, while Clemson Coach Brad Brownell is 5-0 against Tech all time.

Clemson is entering ATL on a 3 game losing streak, with their last win coming against Georgia Tech. They are also 0-5 on the road.

Tech has had quite a rough season, with 3 of their 7 losses coming by 5 points or less, and leading in 6 of the 10 ACC games at half. Some of the concerns early on this season was Offensive Rebounding and FT%- both of which have improved as the season has progressed. Rebounding more so, as Tech has out-rebounded Duke, UNC, Clemson, UVA, and VT and tied Wake. In comparison, Tech was out-rebounded in their first 3 games by an average of 9.3 rebounds/game- definite improvement.

Players to Look out for:

Tech

Kammeon Holsey - Kam has been a vital asset for the Jackets this season, coming off the bench and averaging just under 20 min/game. While he sees limited time, he ranks 3rd on the team in PPG, with 9.5. He scored 13 in the first half of the VT game last week.

Daniel Miller - Scored his season high of 16 against Clemson in their first showing of the season. Look for him to build on this tonight.

Clemson

K.J. McDaniels - Scored a team high 15 against Tech the first game of the season, and is averaging 11.1 PPG this season. He also hit the two FT's with 17 seconds left in the game to push ahead and defeat Tech earlier this season.

Tech(13-9, 3-7) will host Clemson(12-11, 4-7) tonight at McCamish Pavilion at 9pm. The game can be seen in the region on Fox Sports South, or radio at 790AM and 106.7FM. Hopefully when the buzzer sounds tonight, Tech will have one more win under their belt.

Let me know what y'all think! Questions??