Tech needs Lammers to return to old form

It was more obvious than ever Tuesday night why Georgia Tech needs center Ben Lammers to return to form. The senior had one of his worst performances against rival Georgia, leaving coach Josh Pastner no choice but to turn to tough love.

“No matter how you dissect it, we need the old Ben back,” Pastner said. “If not, we’ve got to completely change how we’re playing.”

Lammers scored only four points – making 2 of 10 from the floor – with eight rebounds and no blocked shots in the 80-59 loss to Georgia. It was the third time he’s scored six or fewer points since suffering an ankle injury against Texas-Rio Grande eight games ago.

Lammers certainly hasn’t looked like he did in the season opener against UCLA, when he had 24 points and 10 rebounds. That’s the Lammers that was expected, the All-ACC player known as “The Lamminator.”

“We’ve got to get Ben back to being Ben,” Pastner said. “Our entire offensive scheme is centered around Ben and it’s hard when he’s not playing better. I’m not blaming him, but everything centers through him on both ends of the floor. We’ve got to get him back to how he played against UCLA. We’ve got to get that Ben Lammers back. Bottom line.”

Lammers admitted the ankle injury has him very frustrated. He’s unable to perform in the manner he did a year ago en route to being named first-team All-ACC.

“It’s very frustrating,” Lammers said. “It’s one of those things you can’t control. It’s one of those things you have to play through, no matter what.”

With that in mind, Pastner said the Yellow Jackets would practice twice on Wednesday and twice on Thursday to get ready for Friday’s game against Wright State. With classes over for the semester, Paster is trying to get as many practice reps as possible to turn around the 5-5 season.

“He’s got an injury. He’s got a legit reason, his ankle,” Pastner said. “But we’re at the point where we’ve got to get through it. We’ve got to get back to where he was.”

Pastner said part of the reason may be mental. “It’s probably more between the ears,” he said. “He’s been (medially) cleared. He just needs to go full throttle.”

Lammers was outplayed on Tuesday by Georgia’s inside tandem of Yante Maten and Rayshaun Hammonds. He got pushed around a bit and became frustrated, especially in the early stages of the second half when Georgia began to expand its lead

“Especially in the second half, we weren’t making our shots and I think we went into panic mode and started playing selfishly,” Lammers said.

Georgia Tech did get 21 points from Josh Okogie and 17 from Tadric Jackson, who wasn’t expected to play but told Pastner after Tuesday’s shootaround that his ankle was healthy enough to play. Pastner said Okogie was better offensively on Sunday against Florida A&M that he was against the Bulldogs.

Georgia Tech’s defense was skewered by Georgia’s hot shooting. The Bulldogs made 58 percent of their shots and hit 9 of 19 on 3-pointers. Georgia Tech shot only 36.7 percent and was 2-for-13 on 3s, 0-for-7 in the second half.

“Give Georgia credit,” Pastner said. “That second half they just kicked our butts. They punched us in the mouth and kept punching us. We didn’t respond very well. The loss falls squarely on my shoulders. I didn’t do a good enough job getting our guys to do what we needed to do.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 8:04 PM with the headline "Tech needs Lammers to return to old form."