Turnovers a blight on Georgia Tech’s season
ATLANTA – Even though Georgia Tech broke its three-game losing streak on Sunday, it continues to have trouble with turnovers. That issue has hindered the Yellow Jackets all season.
The Yellow Jackets had 14 turnovers against Florida A&M, which didn’t have any real effect on the one-sided outcome. But Georgia Tech has committed 124 turnovers in nine games — 13.7 per game, third-most in the ACC — and coach Josh Pastner sees that as a problem.
“We need to take care of the ball better,” Pastner said.
Georgia Tech (5-4) will need to watch its turnovers Tuesday night against Georgia (7-2). The Yellow Jackets gave it up 16 times, leading to 14 points, in last year’s 60-43 loss to the Bulldogs and have lost two straight games to their in-state nemesis.
Pastner took an unusual step toward battling turnovers. On the eve of Sunday’s game against Florida A&M, Pastner compiled a video that contained each of the team’s 110 turnovers. The team got together and watched them as a group.
“We watched every single one,” he said. “We did it more as a teaching tool. What are these errors?”
Many of them are unforced errors, like throwing the ball out of bounds and not making good decisions. It was an eye-opening session.
“Our transition defense has been good, we’re way ahead of where we were defensively last year,” he said. “It’s just our turnovers. When you’re missing 18 points a game (before guard Josh Okogie returned), you can’t afford to give away a possession without getting a shot up.”
At least Okogie is back from the six-game suspension and concurrent finger injury that kept him out for the first eight games. He scored 19 points and didn’t turn the ball over in his 28 minutes on the floor against Florida A&M in his return. His presence will help the Yellow Jackets in many ways.
“We’d probably be 9-0 if he’d played all nine games,” Pastner said. “But sometimes you have a plan, and then it doesn’t go accordingly so you have to adjust. We’re a better team with Josh Okogie than without him. I thought he was pretty good for his first game of the season. There’s still some things that he can work on, he got a little winded at times, and defensively he’s got to get a little bit better, but he’s a good player.”
Georgia Tech made a defensive move against Florida A&M by giving Abdoulaye Gueye some time at center to relieve Ben Lammers. Gueye played 15 minutes and produced four points and four rebounds. His spot at forward in the starting lineup was taken by freshman Moses Wright, who was 8-for-9 from the floor, scored a career-best 19 points, and added seven rebounds. Gueye’s move allowed the Yellow Jackets to play freshman Evan Cole for 18 minutes. He had four points and four rebounds.
“We weren’t getting enough production at the four spot, so I told A.D. (Gueye) to go the five to backup Ben,” Pastner said. “I wanted to invest in Evan and Moses, see how they do there. Moses was our second-leading rebounder per minute behind Ben, so we need more production out of him. I thought A.D. did some really solid things for us. We’ll just have to continue to work with him.”
Despite Okogie’s return, the Yellow Jackets were not back to full strength. Forward Curtis Haywood II missed the last game with an injury, as did little-used forward Sylvester Ogbonda.
This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Turnovers a blight on Georgia Tech’s season."