Improving Georgia Tech takes aim at No. 14 Notre Dame (Jan 28, 2017)
ATLANTA -- Notre Dame had plenty of problems with the defensive approach taken by No. 12 Virginia in a loss earlier this week. Now the No. 14 Fighting Irish have to face a team with a similar style on Saturday when they travel to Georgia Tech.
"That's a really good (Virginia) team, better than us right now," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "It counts as one and we've got to go on the road now and bounce back."
Notre Dame (17-4, 6-2 ACC) now squares off with pesky Georgia Tech, fresh off Wednesday's shocking 78-56 win over No. 6 Florida State. The Yellow Jackets (12-8, 4-4) were picked to finish 14th in the ACC, but have instead been one of the league's biggest overachievers with three wins over top-10 programs.
Georgia Tech has the No. 5-rated defense in the ACC, allowing 67.4 points and limiting opponents to 40 percent success from the field. The Yellow Jackets, who play with relentless effort, on Wednesday held Florida State 26 below its season scoring average and limited the Seminoles to 28.2 percent from the field, including 17.1 percent in the first half.
The Yellow Jackets are 4-4 in the conference for the first time since 2009-10, when they went 23-15 and make their last appearance in the NCAA tournament.
"We continue to get better," Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said. "I don't ever forget the first game, in the first exhibition game, we had to go to overtime to beat (Division II) Shorter. We've come a long way in year one of a major rebuild job, (the Florida State win) is another great win for us for people to see what we're trying to do and the vision for what we are trying to accomplish here in the long term."
Notre Dame has the balanced, intelligent team that can give Georgia Tech trouble. The Fighting Irish have three seniors in their starting lineup and each one averages 14 or more points, the first time that's happened since the 2001-02 season.
Notre Dame's V.J. Beachem needs 10 points to reach the 1,000 mark and join teammate Steve Vasturia, who reached the milestone earlier this season. Bonzie Colson leads the team in scoring with 15.6 points and leads the ACC with 10.5 rebounds.
Georgia Tech has two main scorers: guard Josh Okogie and center Ben Lammers. They each had a double-double in the win over Florida State. In that game Okogie scored 35, become the school's third freshman to score 30 points in multiple games -- joining Mark Price and Kenny Anderson. Lammers has 10 double-doubles.
Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 8-6, but Notre Dame has won four of the last five meetings. Georgia Tech beat Notre Dame 63-62 in the most recent game on Feb. 20, 2016.
Since Notre Dame joined the ACC, the games have been close. The margin of victory in their six conference games has been 4.5 points and includes one double-overtime game.
