Mmm, Cupcakes are Tasty!

So the snacky beginning to GT's basketball schedule is now over, with the Yellow Jackets having consumed it without so much as a burp. What do four blowouts against lesser opposition have to show us?

1. Javaris Crittenton is everything we needed, and then possibly some more on top of that. He's long, smooth and looks completely in control. Unlike the two other hyped freshman PG's in this class (Sherron Collins at KU and Tywon Lawson at UNC) he looks steady and ready for the big time. This was my biggest fear, this very talented team could be destroyed by poor play from Crittenton and a slew of freshman errors - but he's been extremely good right out the door. 100+ in the past two games isn't a mistake when your point guard has 19 assists combined.



2. Lewis Clinch is more muscular, has improved his handle and is making "the leap" into a big time ACC scorer. He has the soul of an assassin and he's super smooth with what is turning into a lethal mid range game to go with his solid outside shooting. Anthony Morrow led the team in scoring and 3pt shooting last year, and yet Clinch is playing so well he's going to turn Morrow into a weapon off the bench. Plus, #0 as shooting guard is just sweet. Clinch has hit 21-29 shots in 3 games, scoring 50 total points - that's one impressive line.



3. Thad Young is really good. We already knew this, but he hasn't dissapointed in the least. His passing and defensive are possibly more impressive than his offensive skills - prodigious as they are. More about Thad in a couple of points.



4. Overall defense has been spectacular because of the ridiculous length of this team. Any time Crit, Thad and Faye are on the court at the same time there's more arms on the court than I've ever seen. Those three in particular are just everywhere and getting fingers on every pass. We extend the floor like the '04 team, forcing opponents to set up even farther away from the basket and creating easy scoring opportunities over turnovers. This is a fun, fun group to watch.



5. Interior defense is still a bit spotty, and I'm not sure it's going to get better. When your two best shotblockers appear to be wings (Faye and Thad) and your two "post" players are a bit undersized in one case and slow to move their feet in the other, you're going to have a soft spot there if people can beat the pressure on the wings and backcourt. This might just be an area that Hewitt has to scheme around to overcome, though I'm scared what Hansbrough might do to us.



6. This isn't the Hive, we have a #6 here - and it's Faye. He's been very impressive on the defensive end, and while he's a bit raw on the offensive end he's clearly got a large skillset and will only improve. Nice jumper, decent handles, good court awareness and a willingness to pass the basketball. It's on the other end where he's spectacular though, the guy is just everywhere and his hands seem to be on every ball. He goes from pressuring the PG on one possession to guarding the center the next under the hoop. He's going to play a ton because Hewitt loves defense and he's the best defender on the team.



7. The best lineup so far is Crittenton, Clinch, Thad, Faye and Dickey and it's not even close. So athletic, so long and so able to pressure on the perimeter. As long as Dickey exerts effort on the defensive end of the court, he's clearly our best post presense and I love Jeremis Smith but he's more limited in what he can do defensively than Faye. Smith seems to work better with the second unit, and will still be one of the team leaders in minutes - but the group I listed is so fast and fluid and will give people fits all season long.



8. This is the most talented Tech team I've ever seen 1 through 9, and while there will be growing pains (maybe as soon as Maui) there is enormous potential for the end of the season. The fact that Anthony Morrow isn't more prominently featured in this review says something ... the guy is still a heck of a player but he's no longer the "go to star" of this team, heck he's probably not even a starter even when healthy. That's ridiculous. Hewitt is slowly building a monster program in Atlanta.
   

Basketball ... Already?!?!

While football season is going full speed over at the AOL Fanhouse, we can't forget that basketball practice has started around the country, and Tech's young team is gearing up for a run through the ACC in the very near future.

There's been a lot written about the pair of McDonald's All-American freshman that Paul Hewitt brought in this past off-season, but lets not forget about the guys who are already on the roster. Ra'Sean Dickey is still the man in the middle (and one of DraftExpress.com's 15 NBA draft prospects to watch in the ACC), Jeremis Smith is still the enforcer and fiery heart of the team and Anthony Morrow and Lewis Clinch are 25 point games waiting to happen. Throw in other proven performers like Mario West and you have a lot of talent on the roster with experience already - this isn't going to just be the Thad and Critty show like some in the media have been making it sound.

To get you at least a tiny bit excited about basketball (I know it's hard with the football team ranked #13 and heading to Death Valley this weekend), here's a couple of videos to remind of just how much fun this season is going to be in the Thriller Dome.


Jeremis Smith dunks all over Nelson of Duke as Dickie V goes nuts


Jeremis with another vicious dunk against BC


Montage of 4 dunks (including electric ones from Mario and Jeremis) against NC State


Oh yeah, that Thad guy is going to be really good too

The Ugly Side of Winning

Dan wrote a great piece about GT fans earlier this month, and while it explains a lot - I'm not sure it even went far enough, as evidenced by the internet fan behavior of the past 24 hours. Since the moment GT went up 38-13 against VT and the game was basically over, there's been a sea change in the attitude of GT fans and it's very disturbing.

First, we've got "everybody back on board" effect. Sorry, you can't dedicate your existence to bad mouthing the coach, the program, the players, the quarterback, the OC, the stadium and the groundskeeper and then suddenly jump two feet on board the bandwagon when it's those same folks driving it. If you had a poll on your message board in the last two weeks seriously asking if the AD should fire the head coach in the middle of the season, you're off the bandwagon and not welcome back on. If you said you no longer consider yourself a GT fan, that's it - you're off. If you said you were cheering for ND in the opener because you openly hate our coach and want him gone, you're off. If you've mocked everyone who's said "you know, this offense isn't going to be half bad this year", don't come here now and start talking about ACC Championships with that very same offense you wasted so much time ripping.

Yes, I know fans are "fanatical" and do stupid stuff like this all the time, but come on. We claim to be a great educational institution, but I'd swear reading GT message boards and the AJC.com comment sections for the past several years that there's plenty of evidence that even absolute morons are capable of getting a GT degree. The constant backbiting and whining has given the entire program a sour note, and if you've dedicated your past several years to undermining anything good that GT accomplishes, you can keep right on doing that. Don't suddenly change your attitude because of one win by the EXACT SAME PEOPLE YOU HAVE SPENT 4 YEARS SPEWING VEMON AT. Georgia Tech won in Blacksburg because of Reggie Ball, Chan Gailey and Patrick Nix. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

It's one thing to raise legitimate complaints about performance and issues with the program. But it's a whole different ball game to openly root against "your" team, which a number of GT "fans" have done. I've been critical of individual items during Gailey's and Ball's tenure on this blog (after the Utah game, for example), but I've never gone even remotely close to the level of bile displayed by a disgracefully large portion of our fanbase. I have a pretty happy overall outlook about the program (basketball, baseball or football) because I want to enjoy cheering for sports, not spending my weekends making myself and everyone around me miserable. I can't imagine what it's like for guys like Ball, who I secretly hope takes in the applause on senior night after a great final year and just throws the bird to half the stands. If he doesn't, he's a bigger man than me. Heck, during Gailey's post game interview I'm surprised he didn't just say "this was for all the **** that kept calling for me to be fired".

Secondly, and maybe more disturbing - the trash talking element of GT fans is suddenly out in full force. Check out the Maryland board, there's a bunch of people "informing" UMD of just how badly they will be beaten this weekend in Atlanta. Of course, these guys are also the same folks claiming a couple of weeks ago that Chan should be fired because he "always loses to one inferior team" - so I'm not sure how that logic works in the first place (again with that morons graduating from Tech thing). We as Tech fans talk all the time about what unsportsmanlike boors Georgia fans are, but give us one tiny taste of success and it's the same crap. Seriously, stop freaking shaming the majority of us who have three brain cells to rub together and realize what jackasses you are making us look like. The VT win was the biggest of Chan's career, to be sure - AU x2 and UM were nice, but never put us in the ACC drivers seat or in contention for a BCS bowl - but it doesn't suddenly make this football team some sort of invincible force. This isn't mid-90's Nebraska here, and we're supposedly great fans who don't act like fools, so just keep your yapper shut for a few more weeks, ok? I love Tech sports, I'm ambivalent about Tech fans. The "little brother" phenomenom is just so tightly woven into the fabric of the average Yellow Jacket fan I'm afraid it's nearly impossible to remove, and it's an ugly, ugly sight when it gets into the light of day.

/rant off

(oh yeah - actual coverage and commentary on GT is over on AOL now, if you care to read it)

Avast Ye Lanlubbers!

It's national "Talk Like a Pirate Day" again today, and in honor we have "Pee Dee" the ECU Mascot as the image of the day. Nothing says "Argggg, walk the plank you scumsucking bilge rat" quite like a pirate dressed in purple!


So crawl out of your bungholes you filthy maggots and spread some pirate cheer (or jeer) to your office today. And remember, real pirates don't care what they wear - because a big cutlass is a language of it's own.

"A source of harm or ruin"

That's the American Heritage Dictionary definition for "nemsis" though they might as well have put it under "University of Virginia Cavaliers". For whatever reason, those blue and orange uniforms have been kryptonite to the white and gold over the past several years. Reggie Ball and Calvin Johnson haven't beaten them - as a matter of fact, GT has lost 3 straight and in mostly dominating fashion.

This year would appear to be different, as Virginia is in very poor shape right now and GT is playing well. Throw in what appears to be a young QB making his very first start on the road under the lights and you can hear Tenuta's maniacal laugh all the way here in New York. That being said, stranger things have happened in this series and there's nothing about Virginia week that makes me comfortable.

On the positive note, Tech's two best recent seasons have been propelled by wins over UVa (1990, 1998) - so maybe that's an omen for a season where Tech is suddenly looking like a solid threat to make a trip to Jacksonville. Ian Cohen of Sexy Results! fame and I will be engaging in some question and answer banter over on AOL this week leading up to the game - check it out and drop your comments in. This is a huge chance for GT to make a statement on national TV as a serious contender and get the league season off to a solid start.

Changes Coming

As you might have noticed, I haven't covered the football season quite as actively on this blog as I did last year - and there's a couple of reasons for that. First off, moving and changing jobs (blah, blah, blah, nobody cares). Secondly, and more suprising - I have been invited to write for the new AOL Fanhouse, which is a collection of sportsbloggers which AOL has assembled to keep a touch on the pulse of the fans. I guess they've seen the explosion of the "blogosphere" in the past couple of years and with the popularity of Brian's BlogPoll and other sites - they wanted to get a piece of it.

So, while I will be writing a fair amount there (game previews and recaps each weekend, other items of note and editorial type pieces) - I will not completely abandon this blog. Expect random silly stuff like mascot reviews, YouTube videos, long rants about crappy bowl games and other content not neccessarily applicable for the AOL site to be here. The AOL site will be more regular and will feature more frequent updates than this site has in the past - getting paid to do it makes it a bit more like a "job" than this has ever been.

To read me on AOL (including my expectations for the upcoming Troy game) use [this link]. Thanks to everyone that's read my blog over the past year+, I started doing this just to keep out of my wife's hair and never had a clue that anyone beyond my immediate family would give any care about what I had to say.

Blog Poll Ballot - Week 3

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	25
2	Notre Dame	24
3	Southern Cal	23
4	Auburn	22
5	Louisiana State	21
6	Florida	20
7	Georgia	19
8	Louisville	18
9	Michigan	17
10	Texas	16
11	Oregon	15
12	Tennessee	14
13	Florida State	13
14	West Virginia	12
15	Iowa	11
16	Oklahoma	10
17	Nebraska	9
18	Boston College	8
19	TCU	7
20	Georgia Tech	6
21	Arizona State	5
22	Rutgers	4
23	Boise State	3
24	Texas Tech	2
25	Missouri	1

Dropped Out: