Georgia Tech steps up in competition against Tennessee
ATLANTA -- Now it's time for the Georgia Tech basketball team to pick on someone its own size.
After opening the season with a 116-81 win over Cornell, the Yellow Jackets tangle with Tennessee on Monday at McCamish Pavilion.
"Offensively, we're much improved, and we're going to keep getting better because our guys are just starting to feel their way on that," Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory said. "We've got to get a lot better defensively, but this was a good step."
The Yellow Jackets take a lot of positives out of the season opener. The 116 points are the fifth-most in program history and the most since they scored 120 on Texas in 1991, and it was the first time the Yellow Jackets have scored triple digits since 1991. There were times a year ago when Georgia Tech would have struggled to score 116 points in three games.
"I said on the radio that I guarantee there wasn't one person that was at the game or listened on the radio that ever thought they'd hear a Georgia Tech team coached by Brian Gregory just scored 116 points," Gregory said. "That's a guarantee."
Senior Charles Mitchell played the best game of his career. He scored 21 points, making 10-of-11 shots from the field, and had 11 rebounds.
Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 17 points, and Quinton Stephens scored 13. Newcomers Adam Smith (13 points), Nick Jacobs (12 points) and James White (14 points) all were in double figures. Tadric Jackson scored 11, giving Georgia Tech seven players in double figures.
Another positive takeaway from the opener was the limited number of turnovers. Georgia Tech committed only six, matching its low under Gregory.
The challenge will get tougher when Tennessee comes to town. The two teams haven't played since 2004 when Georgia Tech broke an eight-game losing streak against the Volunteers.
Tennessee is in its first season under Rick Barnes, who won 400-plus games at Texas and led the Longhorns to the NCAA tournament in 16 of 17 seasons. He spent four years at Clemson before that and went to the NCAAs three straight years.
Barnes is Tennessee's third head coach in three years, following Cuonzo Martin and Donnie Tyndall. But Barnes has refused to label this a rebuilding season.
"We've told those guys from the beginning, I've coached teams with less talent, and we've done pretty good," Barnes said before the season.
The Vols are led by seniors Armani Moore, who led the team with 6.9 rebounds last year and blocked 39 shots, and Kevin Punter. Both averaged 10.3 points last season.
Tennessee opened the season with an 82-78 win over UNC-Asheville. Punter scored a career-high 31 points, Robert Hubbs III added 18 points and Moore had 12 points and eight rebounds.