Duke Basketball: Yellow Jackets are competitive, but not ready to compete

The Duke Basketball team will host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday afternoon, and the Yellow Jackets have been competitive this season, but are not ready to take the next step.

Ahead of Satuday’s game between the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils and ACC foe, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the team at Ball Durham got a chance to catch up with Dylan Callaghan-Croley of FanSided’s Georgia Tech account, Yellow Jacked Up, for a Q&A.

Q: Jose Alvarado and James Banks III seem to be the most two dominant players on this Georgia Tech team. If the two of them get hot on Saturday, how dangerous could this Georgia Tech team be?

A: When Jose Alvarado and James Banks III are on their game, Georgia Tech is a dangerous team. They won’t upset anyone in their path but they’ll give opposing teams a tough game. That being said, the Jackets this year have had a tough time of keeping up momentum and staying hot especially on offense. Alvarado so far in his career has shown to be 13-15 points per game player who the Jackets could mostly count on any given night but besides him, the Jackets really don’t know what they’re getting out of everyone else including Banks. While Banks will always be strong on the boards, he tends to struggle underneath the basket especially against teams with strong forwards and centers, it will be interesting to see how he does on Saturday against the Blue Devils. But back to the original point, if those two get hot on Saturday, it will surely give the Jackets a great chance to make a game out of it but they simply lack the scoring depth to probably truly have a chance to take down Duke.

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Q: Is there a player that Duke fans might not have heard of that has the potential to have a breakout game against the Blue Devils?

A: There are two players that come to my mind for this one. The first is former Lehigh guard Brandon Alston, Alston has been out for the last few games for personal reasons and it’s unclear if he will return to action on Saturday. That being said, Alston has a chance to really provide a great deal of scoring for the Jackets from someone not named Jose Alvarado. When Alston is on his game, he can get hot and easily drop upwards of 20 points in a game. That being said, he can also get cold. His first year with Tech wasn’t too great but he has seemed to bounce back strong so far this season. The other name is freshman Michael Devoe, like any freshman Devoe has had an up-and-down season but has a ton of potential that he can tap into and he’s just starting to scratch the surface, once he gets confidence in his game at this level.

Q: Aside from the game against Louisville, Georgia Tech has been in most of its ACC games and truly hasn’t gotten “blown out” this season. How important will that be for the confidence of this Yellow Jackets team on Saturday in Cameron Indoor Stadium?

A: I think that’s a very important factor, the Jackets have been competitive in almost all of their games this year which I didn’t expect coming out of the gate this season. I think the Jackets will enter Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday with a good deal of confidence but they have yet to play in front of a crowd like that this season and I think it may get to them early on. Overall, in my opinion if the Jackets don’t come strong out of the gate in attempt to silence the crowd even in the slightest, it’s going to be a long day for the Jackets.

Q: As Josh Pastner enters his third season at Georgia Tech with still no NCAA Tournament appearances with the Yellow Jackets, there was a regression from year one to year two, are fans becoming more restless and is Pastner’s seat becoming hotter?

A: There is definitely a portion of the fanbase that is getting restless with Josh Pastner, the regression from year one to year two certainly didn’t help and the ups-and-downs of this season so far have some fans worried about the future of the program. Pastner has been known for being a strong recruiter but he is yet to land any true game-changing four or five star players in his tenure which hasn’t helped the fanbases’ thoughts towards him either. That being said, when Josh Pastner signed with Georgia Tech, he received a 7-year contract due to the effort it would take to rebuild the program in the eyes of Pastner and the athletic department. The goal is to make the NCAA Tournament by year 7, so either way, it doesn’t seem Pastner is going to be fired any time soon unless things really truly begin to go south for the Jackets and in a hurry. The team is competitive this season and is one Josh Okogie type player away from possibly only being a 3-4 loss team but even then the Jackets would be struggling with scoring depth which has been their Achilles heel over the last two and a half seasons. So yes, the fanbase in parts is becoming restless but I believe the athletic department will allow his contract to play out.

Q: Not just for this game against Duke, but with about six weeks left before the ACC Tournament, what are the expectations going forward for this Georgia Tech team?

A: I’m not sure anybody really knows what the expectations are at this point. Obviously, they’re not a team that’s going to upset the elites of college basketball but it appears they’re a team that if they play to their capability could finish the regular season with an above .500 record overall and just around .500 in ACC play, give or take a few games going either way. During the Josh Pastner era, showing up for the games against the big time opponents have not been the issue. It’s been showing up against the teams the Jackets should beat or have a good chance of beating such as the Jackets loss to Garnder-Webb this season. That should never have happened and somehow it did, of course, this comes one year after losing to Grambling State. Personally, I expect the Jackets to finish around .500 in ACC play but not really make a deep run in the ACC Tournament. Perhaps an NIT birth is in sight with a quality finish to the season.

The Duke Blue Devils and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will tipoff at 12:00 pm ET from Cameron Indoor Stadium, and the game can be seen on the ACC Network.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham on Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

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