#157 R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #57 R.P.I. Georgia Tech:

Virginia Tech men’s basketball is coming off of nearly four flat tires; after backing the uva rental backwards into the anti-theft or Vietnam War looking the spike-rack in the commercial rental lot with a real harsh looking L @Duke on Wednesday night. As such is the postexllic or exiled nature of trying to usurp @Duke.

The Hokies now sojourn 410 miles down to the ATL or HotLanta to face the 11 up and 15 down Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a intra divisional Coastal scum at high-noon (12pm) on ESPN2/ESPN3 streaming Saturday. As (hopefully), this is our best remaining hardwood match-up until we hit the cupcake city of out of conference gimmes again in the fall of 2018 A.D. Although who will win? Read on, to find… out!

Georgia Tech Head Coach: Joshua Paul Pastner: Age=40, 199–100 (.66) overall, first year 32-27 so far at Georgia Tech.
$1,870,000.oo

Kid, Josh Pastner, is a Glen Dale, Wv., native and the son of Marla and Hal Pastner. Hal is a high school/A.A.U. coach and basketball promoter in the Houston (Tx.) area. Josh Pastner knew he wanted to be a coach since he was in the 5th grade. By the age of 13 he was publishing the Josh Pastner Scouting Report of local high school talent in the Houston metro’ area | at the age of 16, the Houston Hoops A.A.U. squad was turned over to Josh Pastner by his father/coach Hal; as this was Josh’s first job as a head coach! While a teenage A.A.U. coach, Josh Pastner coached future NBA players such as Emeka Okafor, T. J. Ford and Daniel Gibson. WOW!

Baller Josh Pastner was a walk-on freshman on the 1997 N.C.A.A. Championship University of Arizona basketball team. After winning the NC2A title, Pastner was able to finish his degree in only two and a half years, taking as many as 33 credit hours per semester. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Family Studies from Arizona in December 1998. He finished his master’s in Teaching and Teacher Education in December 1999 before beginning work on his doctorate and starting his coaching career in 2000 as a graduate-assistant under Lute Olson at Arizona and later at the University of Memphis under John Calipari.

On April 6, 2009, Josh Pastner was selected to replace John Calipari as head coach at the University of Memphis. At Memphis Coach Josh Pastner only won five conference titles in his seven years as the big whistle; including one C-U.S.A. Coach of the Year award in 2o13. Josh made the March Madness big dance at Memphis his first five seasons; then declined lesser post-season invites in his final two shotgun to Coach-Fu tenured years. Josh is known to be one of the best young hotshot recruiters in the land, including inking the #1 recruiting class nationally for Memphis in 2010. To put it mildly, Josh Pastner is a basketball coach and nothing other than a basketball coach. Coach Josh Pastner also courts a rep’ for lack of post-season success with a lot of one-n-done high roster turnover early entry type talents.

Then we see that… Georgia Tech basketball coach Josh Pastner filed a civil lawsuit Friday in Arizona against Ron Bell and Jennifer Pendley, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting and injurious falsehoods and attempts to blackmail and extort. WoW!

Then some more… as a counterclaim has been filed against Georgia Tech head men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner in Tucson, Ariz., where he’s accused of sexual assault.

The alleged incident happened in February of 2016 while Pastner was still the men’s basketball head coach at Memphis. The counterclaim comes after Pastner filed a civil suit against former booster Ron Bell, who provided impermissible benefits to Yellow Jacket basketball players Tadric Jackson and Josh Okogie, who were both suspended three and six games respectively by the NCAA for the violations. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pastner’s suit alleges that Bell and his girlfriend “defamed him and attempted to extort and blackmail Pastner and his family.”

Geez! And may St.Joshua & St.Paul bless and sing: “kum-ba-ya”

Six of Pastner’s former assistant coaches have (already) gone on to their own careers as head coaches.

Daddy Josh’ is (still) married to Kerri Lamas; they have three daughter’s: Payten, Sydney, Pastner, and one stepson (Ethan); Lord have mercy.

Wrambling Wreck at a glance:

• 20th in blocks (5 bpg)!
• 45th in scoring D (66.8 ppg).
• 86th in steals (7 spg).
• 310th in 3-point shooting (32.2).
• 328th in scoring O (65.6 ppg)!

Yellowjackets Returning Starters=2

Georgia Tech Strengths:

• 2nd-string all-A.c.c. with 11.3 ppg and flirting with a double-double at 8.6 rpg does not suck; and neither does one #44, Ben Lammers. Ben is the Jackets third leading scorer and rebounder and FG percentage leader at a decent looking 44.9% this season. And that’s pretty much code for how far down medium+++ Ben is this year; 0r down ~4 ppg and a stunning ~10% in FG percentage to the bad. As the 6′10″, 234 lb. San Antonio, Tx. native is making a helluva a case for Atlantic Coast Most Least Improved after posting -pardon the positional pun- after posting a relatively meager 3.4 ppg two years ago. Can you say a whopping 452% betterment in scoring from his first year to last? Or how about an A.c.c. Top-5 in swats with 2.8 blocks per game. Now mix in being off by –9% down to 22% from downtown and –10% down to 73% from the charity-stripe and you suddenly have a formally very keen all-around baller who played both ends of the court pretty damn good. Who has now gone slump-city population: senioritis Ben. The whispers say that Ben and his boy next door looks -which will get him carded to buy beer until he is well into his 30’s –stacked up 25 lbs. of right-mass these last two off-seasons. The book says he has step-out to the elbow range and that he seals the lane well enough, and finishes like a stud at the rim. Ben is a National Honor Society member and honor roll student studying Mechanical Engineering when he is not pursing his interest(s) in studying WWI and WWII on the side. And no, I’ve never read that before in a ballers bio’, either. Not half bad for a senior year high school’er who had to have his knee cleaned up and was not VHT (very highly touted) coming out of Texas; (only 19th ranked C in the land). Ergo, to wit, therefore, Ben’ may still be a Pro’, albeit prolly more parts an exported one. Or a Te/De as he had gridiron offers as well. (UPDATE: behind the scenes whispers hint at a: “bum ankle” here, may St.Servatius bless! As poor Ben’ did not need that; not at all; as something just ain’t right per big-Ben’ here.)
• 6′4″, 213 lb., Josh Okogie (pronounced: “oh-KO-gee”) is a sophomoric baller with a big time scholastic Georgia homespun scoring rep’. The book says that Josh is an overall versatile perimeter player with the length; athletic ability and basketball I.Q., which enable him to compete at all three perimeter positions. Okogie can impact the game at both ends of the court and is a multi-dimensional offensive threat, able to create scoring opportunities for him and teammates. Right now Josh is netting you much improved first best 19.1 ppg on 3.7 boards to boot. He shoots a just serviceable 43.5% overall, a nifty 39% from range and a solid 82.4% on his FTA’s. Yes, there is room for some shot-selection betterment there, although a lotta other 18 year old debut collegiate ballers wish they had Josh’s foibles and ceiling; alike. The Lagros Nigeria native won an AAAAAAAA (octa-A) championship in Georgia as a senior and has a very springy/athletic build and look to his game; and Josh also ties for the lead in swipes at 1.7 spg if you need him. And right now Georgia Tech needs all of him that they can get; although Josh may have quietly played his overall game into Ben’s former all-A.c.c. 2nd-team seat. Just needs some fingertip reps on his handles (2.3 tpg) as Okogie can score from all 3-layers and he’s a versatile backcourt though lowercase S/F three way defender.

  

• Tadric Jackson is a 6′4″, 203 lb. final year Koufax or southpaw left-handed pseudo Pt.G. with the ability to score in a variety of ways. Tadric can explode to the basket, create for others, and defend with intensity. Jackson has made the A.c.c. all-Academic team two of his years at Tech after coming to the Jackets on the heels of winning a AAAAAA (hexa-A)  state championship with Tift County High School and being named all-class Player of the Year in the state in 2o14. Jackson is said to be more parts distributor and less parts shooter/scorer from the edge. Though 11.3 ppg, 1.9 dimes, 3.8 rebounds and yet down a brutal 20% to 25% from distance is yet another regressing GeeTee roundball kid as I type. Jackson’s Top-10 Qb (football) ranking in-state (Georgia); and his 68th basketball ranking nationally outta high school according to ESPN.com; kinda make you wonder if he could be doing more, here? (Or did he choose the correct; sport?) As his masonic or bricky FT-shooing (59.7%) is a real live bugbear at the moment.

Georgia Tech Weaknesses:

• Some whispers were less than 100% enthused by the Josh Pastner hiring after such a slipping, almost: defunct Exodus @Memphis.
• Georgia Tech Pt.Guard Jose Alvarado is variously listed as: “out indefinitely” and: “out for the year”. Either way, he seems highly unlikely to run ball vs. us on Saturday with a fractured left-elbow. Gone away are Jose’s second leading 12.2 ppg and his classic penetrating and distributing game at the Point. Jose’ is said to be a tough (little) 6′, 160 lb. wiry, sharp-elbowed kinda One that is NO fun to guard. Gone as well are his well hewn winning attitude and perhaps some minor lack of shooting range. 45% overall, 80% FT’s and 38% deep with 3.7 boards and the team lead in dimes dropped (3.9 apg) and in swipes (1.7 spg) all done for a while– if not for the year… may St.Jose bless!
• Only 3 Jackets had appeared in all 25 games at the time of this opining thus far this campaign. As this Jacket starting line-up had been dinged, dented and in flux —if not a revolving anti-synergy driven door or all fluxed-up.

Jackets Bench: (depth=1 to 3)

Abdoulaye Gueye and Curtis Heyward II at least give you some spot minutes here and there off the Jacket pine. Abdoulaye Gueye by way of Dakar Senegal fame is a 6′9″, 214 lb., r-Jr., 7′ 3” wingspan frontcourt rebounder and defender who is pretty under-cooked everywhere else. 6.6 ppg with 4.8 boards and a block, a steal and an assist on 46% from the floor and 61% (up from a horrific 25%) on FTA’s says, so; although the book here reads that Gueye is developing and that he is a natural leaper who runs the court well enough. As a 660% improvement in scoring off of a broken wrist (St.Julia bless) makes you wonder what this kid can do with full health/matriculation?

Curtis Heyward II s a 6′5″, 198 lb. nugget or debuting Wing who looks like he’s at least 30, maybe 33-35 years young. Gerg Oden syndrome 1o1 if you will… nevertheless, this Heyward ( ) has a 6-11 wingspan and a very rough-n-tumble attitude. Bet the under on guys who pick on this Heyward. As this Heyward has a tag for driving hard, a high hoops I.Q. and his bio’ says he: “specializes in: hard-work.” So there you go, a high octane, calorie burner extraordinaire. As every team needs a lead-pipe worker-bee to drone on. Curt and his blossoming game get you 5.3 ppg, on 2.9 rpg and 2.3 pockets-picked. Mix in 39% long and 83% on 15′ set-shots with 10 seconds to uncontested shoot and you have a glue guy who will, will his way to low teens in scoring come 2021. As Curt knows how to win, an Oklahoma state title then a full fledged scholastic national title upon transfer to the NJ. hoops factory of Brewster Academy both says so. (Apparently no relation to R.I.P. Craig “Ironhead’s” kid who just graduated last year that I could find)

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Jackets who could start @Tech=2.

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… did we put all our applied sports psych eggs in the upsetting @uva basket?

As the one science-fact thing me and Coach Spock are sure of is… it was not the zebras with all those historic whacky ticky-tacky -or outright phantom Cameron calls- that left us all cracked up. As Buzz and company just went out and laid a Mrs. K.Kong sized egg in the final 25 mins. of play. And not all the kings horses or all the kings men had enough Velcro, SuperGlue or staples for putting anything back together again.

As that was one rotten or sulfuric looking effort @Duke on national telly on Wednesday night folks.  To compound fracture all of that all the more, me and Nick Anderson are on an o for 4 tear of late and that is my all-time TSL.com schnide. So something has gotta give here as getting our swagg back and back on track is eggzactly what me and Buzz and VeeTee all three need.

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the skinny...
Georgia Tech is a .625 host whereas Virginia Tech is a .555 visitor. For the season the Gobblers are +8% from the floor, +11% from deep, though the Jackets are +1 in rebounding margin. The Home/Away splits say that the Hokies are still +8% overall and +2% from 3-point land though –9 rebounds on the boards. In each teams’ most recent five games, the Gobblers are +8 on FG’s and up a crazy +15% from behind the arc, with the quintessential -5 rebounding deficit. The Wreck is 1/10th better on FT’s for the year.

Virginia Tech is a hard to look at –41 points on their A.c.c. Margin; and yet Georgia Tech is a spring-broke –65 in A.c.c. Margin hole. (This has me really wondering if V.Tech is a helium or inflationary type team?)

the call…

So in other words… when reviewing the Gah.Tech schedule, it sure looks like something broke (scandal wise or other) in and around their hosting of virginia back on 18 January. And whatever that something was that gave way, Georgia Tech has not been the same statistical nor outcome hoops team ever since. Then the most recent 5-game trends aver that the Georgia Tech defense of the opposing 3-ball’s has really gone to pot. As the Jackets are virtually ~17% worse in defense of the 3-pointer in just the last fortnight of play… plus they are actually gone negative in rebounding margin by 4 boards (–4 rpg) over the same most recent five runs… (lame-duck syndrome, anyone?)

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…still yet, Stranger Things have happened out on the A.c.c. road in the roundball version of the upside-down.

Don’t believe me? Just ask Netflix, beating uva @uva, and the little guy with no-name Montreal Expos’ 1980’s baseball cap and the Aqua Net Farrah Fawcett pushover mullet’hawk ancestor Snow Ball ‘fro.

Though I, tangent… as I hereby gar-ron-damn-tee (a) Tech win on Saturday.
(and this just in… rain is still rumored to be… wet)

Nevertheless, suffice it to say… the last three limping teams we played? Well we beat all three of those gimping teams. So here’s picking the fo’ for fo’ Moses Malone looking quadratic clean sweep vs. hurting teams. Or so we all, hope…

As I’m hopeful we are catching Georgia Tech at a good time in what could possibly be our final “W” away from home, this campaign.

(59% confidence interval)
Virginia Tech=77, Georgia Tech=70

“LETS GO!”

“Hokies!”

 bourbonstreet**