Wake Forest vs Georgia TechBasketball Recap

Wake Forest 75, Georgia Tech 64

One of the most consistently overrated aspects of college basketball is a place in the Associated Press top 25 national rankings. Saturday night in Winston-Salem, N.C., hoops junkies were reminded of that reality.

Sure, Georgia Tech - and not Wake Forest - brought a number in parentheses next to its listing in the box score, but a ranking really doesn't mean anything in a larger context. A Texas team in freefall is still rated 14th (though that number will drop in the next set of rankings). North Carolina was still in possession of a national ranking when its losing ways had begun to become apparent, and only now are the Tar Heels safely removed from the top 25. After this ACC encounter at Lawrence Joel Coliseum, it's safe to say that Georgia Tech will no longer be ranked, but this game didn't need to prove that the Yellow Jackets were unworthy of elite status in Division I-A hoops. A larger assessment of coach Paul Hewitt's team shows that this club is much more of a "Wreck" than it is "Rambling."

Georgia Tech - despite being ranked - owned a sketchy resume heading into this duel with coach Dino Gaudio's more consistent Demon Deacons. The Jackets did accumulate some modestly impressive wins in non-conference play, topping George Mason, Siena, Charlotte, and Southern California, but none of those teams are in line for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. ( Southern California was made ineligible for the event, but even if the Trojans had not imposed sanctions on their basketball program, it's unlikely they'd qualify for a bid at 14-9 on the season.)

While Tech did claim some reasonably good scalps, a pair of losses - to Dayton on a neutral court and, even more harmfully, a loss at lowly Georgia - dragged down the Yellow Jackets' portfolio. Yes, this team defeated Duke - the biggest poker chip in its pocket - but a pair of losses to Florida State and a general inability to win on the road in the ACC will hurt Paul Hewitt in the weeks to come. The Rambling Wreck came to the Carolinas with a 5-5 ACC record, so the presence of a daunting road environment and a quality opponent gave Georgia Tech a chance to achieve something of consequence away from Atlanta.

True to form, this immensely gifted but mentally frail team couldn't come through.

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With 8:52 left in regulation, Tech was staying the course and trading punches on even terms with the Deacs, who - though unranked and somewhat under the radar - have steadily climbed the ladder in the ACC and entered this tilt with a 7-3 league mark. The visiting Yellow Jackets owned a 62-60 lead just past the midway point of the second half, and with roughly nine more minutes of high-grade hoops, an NCAA Tournament ticket would have become much more likely.

But the promise of a premium prize was just too much for this up-and-down team to handle. The ballclub that could lose at Georgia one week and then dump Duke the next was stymied and staggered by the magnitude of the moment... and by some ferocious Demon Deacon defense.

After owning a one-bucket edge just past the nine-minute mark of regulation, the Yellow Jackets abruptly stopped scoring. Tech had made 10 of its first 18 3-pointers, but missed its last seven long-distance tries in the final 8:52. Hewitt and the rest of his coaching staff looked on in disbelief as their charges missed all 13 field goal attempts in that very same span of time. With the exception of two lonely free throws from Glen Rice, Jr. with 3:17 left, the Jackets didn't score a single point during a nightmarish turn into the home stretch. With Wake Forest feeding off each successive defensive stop, the Deacons - though hardly spectacular from the field (a modest but tolerable 43 percent) - certainly owned enough offense to move to 8-3 in the ACC. When Wake's Tony Woods tipped in an Ishmael Smith miss to give the Deacons a 66-62 edge with 4:36 left, few in the building could have guessed that that score would have been enough for the home team to win.

Ah, but it was, and now Georgia Tech - for the moment, still ranked at No. 20 - stands at 5-6 in the conference, in eighth place just ahead of North Carolina.

There are lies, damn lies, and college basketball rankings. Georgia Tech is defense exhibit A in the world of college basketball.

By: Matt Zemek
ACC-Fans Staff Writer