Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets Finish Homestand Against Miami

The theme of the narrative surrounding this game is as follows:

Miami's entire starting roster from last year has left the program in some fashion or another. Now the defending ACC champions are going to be terrible! LoL!

That's the theme of the narrative surrounding every Miami game this year, actually. If it wasn't for their affiliation with the Miami football team, I would feel bad for them. But at 9-7, the Hurricanes aren't exactly in a piteous position, either. The two teams are fairly similar if you're talking about victories, Miami is a win short of Tech in the overall W column and possess the same ACC record. They're even similar insofar as they're both rebuilding, albeit for different reasons. Tech's a team looking for an identity (something reader JohnHeisman rather astutely pointed out during the Pitt game during a period when Tech was just kind of "derping around with the ball") after losing its seventh man and starting PF. Miami, on the other hand, is a team struggling to do anything at ALL, though they may have found a nut with at 63-57 win over a sporadic UNC team. We'll see yet if they're a blind squirrel.

Overall, Miami is a pretty small team. Of their normal starting five, only one of them checks in over 6'7" (F Donovan Kirk), so they move the ball around the outside a lot and then cut in hard only when the moment is right. They take about 6 threes a game, which tells me that their game plan is based more on ball movement and cuts than it is anything else. The Hurricanes don't look freakishly athletic, so Tech should be able to dispose of this offense rather easily if it can avoid falling into the foul pit it did against Pittsburg.

On defense, the Canes are only allowing 60 ppg, which is pretty good for a team of their size. I think if Tech can get the ball inside to Daniel Miller and establish a real post presence early it would really get things rolling. Get Miami off their men and make them bite on the help defense only to have Dan kick back out to say, Marcus Georges-Hunt for an easy three or two. Our traditional ball movement offense just isn't going to get it done against these guys, they're too quick for that. Tech should look to keep the ball away from Garrius Adams' man if they're going to be moving the ball around, he's got 26 steals on the season.

Do you think Tech can down Miami and close out the homestand on a high note?