The best parts of the season for Georgia Tech and Notre Dame seemed to come late on the schedule.
After disappointing weekends, these teams will try to revive the good vibes when they meet Tuesday in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Washington.
Notre Dame and Georgia Tech tied for 12th place, so each team needs to win five games in five days to keep its season going.
No. 12 seed Notre Dame (12-19) had a strong late-game stretch, winning five of six games before losing its past two games. No. 13 seed Georgia Tech (14-17) produced a three-game winning streak that included last week’s upset at Wake Forest before falling at Virginia to end the regular season.
“We tend to, when we don’t make shots, we don’t stay aggressive,” said Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire, whose team won four of its last six games.
Notre Dame won both regular-season meetings, prevailing 75-68 in overtime in Atlanta and then claiming last month’s rematch by 58-55 at home.
Irish freshman Markus Burton is sixth in ACC scoring at 17.3 points per game. He averaged 15 points in the two games vs. the Yellow Jackets.
Notre Dame, which lost its last two games at first-place North Carolina and at Virginia Tech, has shot a league-worst 40.6 percent from the field this season. It’s a tough path in games like Saturday, when the Irish gave up 15 offensive rebounds to Virginia Tech.
“They wanted it more,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “All those offensive rebounds killed us.”
Miles Kelly is Georgia Tech’s leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, but he has been laboring through an injury at times.
“He has had a bad back for like the last two weeks,” Stoudamire said. “He’s out there and he’s limited at times.”
In the only previous ACC tournament matchup, Notre Dame defeated the Yellow Jackets in 2019’s first round in Charlotte. The Irish are still relative ACC newcomers, but their .579 winning percentage ranks third in ACC tournament history.
The winner meets fifth-seeded Wake Forest in Wednesday afternoon’s second round. Both teams defeated Wake Forest across the final two weeks of the regular season.
–Field Level Media