Georgia Tech looking to reverse close losses

ATLANTA -- With half of the conference schedule left to play, there's still time for the Georgia Tech basketball team to reverse its fortunes and get things turned around. But with each game the conference tournament gets nearer, meaning there's no time to waste.

"There's a lot of games still in front of us," Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory said. "There's time to change this whole thing around."

It starts Sunday with a game against No. 17 Miami. It's the second game of a three-game homestand for the Yellow Jackets, who are 12-10 and 2-7 in the ACC.

"There's nothing we can do about where we're at," Gregory said. "You have to concentrate on where you want to get to. It's a great opportunity to change things around quite a bit."

The Yellow Jackets continue to play close games, only to find a way to lose. Their seven ACC losses have come by a total of 39 points, an average of 5.6 points per game.

They have been competitive in virtually every game, but they went on a cold spell in the second half against Duke on Tuesday and wound up losing by nine. Gregory said the team looked a bit weary in the second half against Duke, which was its third game in a week.

Miami is the fifth ranked conference team that the Yellow Jackets have faced. The Yellow Jackets have held their own against the Hurricanes lately, winning two of the past three meetings -- both at Miami. Gregory is 2-4 against Miami.

The Hurricanes (17-4, 6-3) are led in scoring by Shelton McClellan (16.1 points) and Ja'Quan Newton (11.9). McClellan has the top shooting percentage (52.7) for guards in the ACC and has made 61.4 percent of his 2-point attempts. He is on the watch list for three national player of the year awards. Newton has been called the best sixth man in the country by analyst Dick Vitale.

Miami is coming off a 79-70 win over Notre Dame. Freshman guard Anthony "Amp" Lawrence Jr. scored 18 points after totaling only six points over the previous six weeks.

Barring an unexpected run in the ACC Tournament, the Yellow Jackets must win as many of the remaining nine ACC games as possible and remain above .500 to have any chance at playing in the postseason for the first time since 2010.

There are winnable games that await, like Wake Forest (1-9 ACC) and Boston College (0-9 ACC). If the Yellow Jackets are able to win both of those, they would be in the position to pick off a couple of wins against teams that are coming to McCamish -- Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Clemson.

Georgia Tech's remaining road games aren't impossible, either. There are trips to Clemson, Florida State, Boston College and Louisville, which just learned it would be banned from playing in the postseason.

There's no question that this Georgia Tech team is much improved. The Yellow Jackets are 47th in the power rankings. But time is running to make a move.

"We have to take a look at resetting a few things heading into these nine games," Gregory said.

That includes deciding what to do at point guard, where Gregory has used Josh Heath and Travis Jorgenson but also gone with Marcus Georges-Hunt.

"What we've done is gone with a hybrid to get another scorer in there," Gregory said. "Basketball is changing where the traditional point guards are few and far between. But I think (our lineup) is a game situation, it's matchups, it's different things like that we have to look at."

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech looking to reverse close losses ."