Holiday schedule prepares hoops for ACC play

Tech defended their home court over the holiday break, but couldn't remain amongst the undefeated as they lost to a hot Gonzaga team in Las Vegas.

They fended off admirable challenges from James Madison, Charleston Southern and Lafayette despite playing unimpressively over extended stretches. Tech took care of business at home despite some bumps, but it could not overcome good shooting by Gonzaga on the road and had to settle for a 3-1 record over the Christmas holidays.

The non-conference slate, which ended with a heartbreaking overtime loss at Kansas, helped prepare the Jackets for ACC play and set a rotation. The injury of freshman standout Jeremis Smith early in the season was also smoothed by the non-conerence schedule.

Tech opened the break with a game against a familiar face but on the other side of the court. James Madison's coach Dean Kenner was an assistant on Coach Paul Hewitt's staff until last season.

Hewitt credits Kenner for bringing the tough defensive play for which Tech is now known, and Kenner has brought the same mentality to James Madison as evidenced by their first half performance where they held Tech to just 36 percent shooting from the field.

However, Tech responded with its own tenacious defense and shut down JMU's offense as well holding them to just 17 points and 18 percent shooting from the field in the first half. Eventually, superior athleticism and talent came through, and Tech won by a comfortable 25-point margin, 72-47. Hewitt, pleased with the defensive performance, said "Defensively, we're very good and we'll get better."

However, he was not too pleased with the offense, particularly the passing ball.

" We've got to pass the basketball better. When we pass the ball, we're a very good offensive team. When we don't pass the ball, we have some trouble scoring," Hewitt said.

No Tech player had a particularly strong offensive showing, but a balanced attack with 4 players in double digits led by Isma'il Muhammad's 14 points, secured the win.

After seeing off James Madison, Tech flew out to Las Vegas for their only road game during the break, against Gonzaga. This time round, despite an excellent game from Will Bynum, Tech was unable to remain among the nation's unbeatens as they fell to the Zags 85-73.

Despite an admirable job of holding down Gonzaga's talented forward Ronny Turiaf, who was battling some nagging injuries, Tech was unable to contain Gonzaga's duo of Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio. Morrison put up 24 points despite the Jacket's best defensive efforts and Raivio chipped in with a career high 21 points to hold off a late rally.

Morrison and Raivio combined to shoot 18 for 29 from the floor. Even more impressive was the fact that most of Morrison's and Raivio's points came tough outside jumpers. " I don't want to give anyone the idea we were giving up layups. Morrison made a lot of tough shots, Hewitt said after the game.

Coming off that tough road loss, Tech responded by turning in their best performance over the holidays with a 90-48 win over Charleston Southern. In true Hewitt style, this was a complete team effort as all 12 Tech players got minutes and five players scored in double digits.

The only black mark of the game was the benching of senior B.J. Elder in the second half. Hewitt was tight-lipped about the whole situation, saying it was just a decision he made.

Amongst the many bright spots of the game though, it was the play of Tech's freshmen trio, Ra'Sean Dickey, Anthony Morrow and Zam Fredrick, that stood out. They combined to score 26 points and pull down 10 rebounds, going nine for 17 from the field. Hewitt was full of praise for the freshmen after the game.

" You're going to see those guys play a little more because the one thing [they] can do is score. They can really score: Zam, Anthony, Ra'Sean. I've just got to find a way to get them into the lineup, Anthony in particular, " he said.

Hewitt's words were prophetic as Tech closed out the year with a 92-58 win over Lafayette, led by Morrow's career high 20 points. On paper, everything went as expected in Tech's 34 point win. Lafayette's a non-scholarship program with just one returning starter who happens to be coming back from an injury.

The final score indicated it was indeed a blowout, what it failed to show was how tough Lafayette played and how the game was not in the bag until the last five or so minutes of the game. Tech turned in one of their least impressive performances during the break, but thanks to the continual improvement of Morrow and Dickey, and just an overwhelming edge in athleticism, this game turned into a blowout in the waning moments.

Morrow's career night was punctuated by big shots that deflated the valiant Lafayette Leopards rally. Dickey also continued his impressive play with 15 points in 15 minutes. Anchored by the strong performances by the freshmen duo, Tech's bench actually outscored the starters 47 to 45 in this game.

Hewitt was effusive in his praise for Coach Fran O'Hallan and his team," Fran's team played very well today.

They put on a clinic on how [run] to that motion offense that we [also] run.

The final score was certainly not indicative of how well Lafayette played. They played extremely well, they ran their offense to a T. They got whatever they wanted for 35 minutes and finally Morrow made some shots and deflated them. "

Morrow was more excited about his defensive play than his career night on offense after the game.

He deflected much of the attention on his shooting after the game by saying, "I just want to make sure I make better defensive plays than offensive plays. That's what I go into the game thinking. "

Tech faced its final non-conference test of the break in a highly anticipated New Year's Day matchup against the Kansas Jayhawks. The Jackets ended Kansas' season last year, winning a thriller in the Elite Eight.

This time, Kansas returned the favor, defeating Tech. The Jackets pulled out to a quick lead, but could not hold it.

Tech seemed to lose its momentum after Elder, one of the team's senior leaders, and most productive scorer from the wing, left the game due to injury in the first half.

Despite 26 points from Jarrett Jack, Kansas, who never held a lead until overtime, rallied for a 70-68 victory in front of the deafening crowd at Allen Fieldhouse.

Effects of Tech's run to the title game last year could be seen over the break as all three games were played at almost full capacity, with crowds of over 9,000 for all three home games.

While Tech dropped its only tough games over the break to Gonzaga and Kansas, the impressive play by the freshmen is an encouraging sign.

Tech will need to see continual improvement from Morrow, Dickey and Fredrick to survive the brutal conference schedule and make another run come March.

All three of the freshmen were able to gain valuable playing time in the non-conference schedule to help prepare them for the rigors of ACC play.