Heath set to return to Georgia Tech lineup
The young Georgia Tech basketball team will add a much-needed measure of veteran leadership to its lineup Saturday when it plays the finale of a five-game homestand to open the season.
Senior point guard Josh Heath will return to the lineup when Tulane comes to McCamish Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. Heath had to sit out the first four games of the regular season because of a violation of team rules.
Heath can’t be seen as a savior — he averaged 2.7 points in 18 minutes as a junior — but he does have experience that is much needed on a young, inexperienced team. Heath has played 65 games during the past two seasons at Georgia Tech and started 25 games.
“We had a lot of standards that he was going to be a big factor for us to start the season,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “Guys held the fort down for us, and he’ll come in, and we’ll just take it game-by-game. I believe he will help us. Josh is a fine young man, and he’ll do good things for us, and he’ll help make us a better team.”
Heath could help the development of freshman Justin Moore. He has started the first four games and is averaging 6.0 points and 6.0 assists. He has only 11 turnovers for the season, but five came against Sam Houston, four in the second half.
It is uncertain how Pastner will parse out the minutes. He has shown the willingness to work with a seven-man rotation and ride his starters as much as possible. Through the first four games, center Ben Lammers (35.2 minutes), forward Quinton Stephens (31.3 minutes), guards Josh Okogie and Corey Heyward (27.8 minutes each) and Moore (27 minutes) are working overtime. Tadric Jackson averages 22.3 minutes but has been somewhat protected because of his ongoing hamstring issues.
“I’ve said it to everybody, I play usually seven or eight guys,” Pastner said. “I don’t play 10, 11 guys. It’s hard, so I’m usually playing seven to eight. I would love to have a game where it’s not possession-by-possession, but that’s who we are, and we’ve got to be able to create with what we’ve got to create the lead and even extend it so we can get everybody in.”
Pastner feels he can push the starters to play extended minutes because of their conditioning. The Yellow Jackets are in great shape physically because of all the running they’ve done in the offseason.
The odd man out for playing time against Sam Houston was Abdoulaye Gueye. The sophomore had started the first three games but played only six minutes against the Bearkats. It remains to be seen how domino effect of Heath’s return will have on him.
Tulane (1-4) has played a much tougher schedule than the Yellow Jackets. The Green Wave, under first-year head coach Mike Dunleavy, have lost three straight games, getting swept by Oklahoma, Arizona State and Missouri in the Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando. Tulane opened the season by losing to North Carolina.
The Green Wave have been led by Cameron Reynolds, who averages 17.6 points, and Kain Harris, who averages 12 points. Both are extremely good 3-point shooters.
Georgia Tech’s Moore had made a verbal commitment to play at Tulane before changing his mind when offered by Pastner.
After the Tulane game, the Yellow Jackets face three straight road games — at Penn State on Nov. 29 as part of the ACC-Big 10 Challenge, at Tennessee on Dec. 3 and at Virginia Commonwealth on Dec. 7. They return to McCamish on Dec. 18 to play Alcorn State.
This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Heath set to return to Georgia Tech lineup."