There are many fresh faces on the Georgia Tech squad, and they need to have an immediate impact for the Yellow Jackets to be successful.
Georgia Tech lost roughly half of its scoring, half its rebounding and a lot of experience when five players graduated last year. Shaun Fein was the team's best shooter, Alvin Jones the career leading shot blocker and best rebounder, T.J. Vines the best defender, and Darryl LaBarrie a key element off the bench.
Georgia Tech's five incoming freshmen will try to compensate for the loss in experience with improved athleticism. Freshmen guards B.J. Elder and Anthony McHenry should add accurate outside shooting, and Isma'il Muhammad (6-foot-6), Ed Nelson (6-8) and Luke Schenscher (7-0) will beef up a thin frontcourt that lost all three starters.
"We couldn't have gotten a better class," said Yellow Jackets senior guard Tony Akins, the team's leading returning scorer. "They don't have any problems on or off the court. They're athletic. They're just great basketball players."
Of Georgia Tech's losses, the biggest is Jones, who was an imposing defensive force in the paint and made both the all-ACC first team and the all-ACC defensive team.
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"We're going to be different from last year," said Paul Hewitt, a second-year coach who went 17-13 last season and won the ACC coach of the year award. "We don't have an Alvin Jones, which makes a big difference offensively and defensively. What he did, we're going to have to make up by committee this year."
With the loss of Jones' presence underneath the basket, the Yellow Jackets will be forced to adjust their offensive strategy.
"We have to go more up-tempo," Akins said. "Last year, our strength was Alvin [Jones], so we went down low every time. This year, it's our guards and our speed, so we have to focus on that."
Akins will provide the young Yellow Jackets with the necessary senior leadership. The 5-11 guard from Lilburn, Ga., asserted himself as Georgia Tech's floor leader last season by leading the team in scoring with 14.5 points per game. Akins also shot 41.9 percent from three-point range and ranked sixth in the ACC with 4.2 assists per game. He earned honorable mention All-ACC honors for his play. Akins needs to continue to be effective in order to give the freshmen time to adjust to playing in a major college program.
Despite being picked to finish eighth in the conference last year, Georgia Tech finished fifth and won a berth to the NCAA tournament. Bench contributions made a big different to the Yellow Jackets' success. In wins, the bench averaged 24.5 points compared with 15.5 points in losses. This season, with so many new faces in the program, Hewitt hopes to build depth and versatility to allow all of his new players to develop.
"We're going to play the same way" as last season, Lewis said. "We're going to bring 40 minutes of trouble. Bring it to you [and] try to make everything havoc"
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