All Yellow Jackets

Behind GT Basketball's Road Win Gas Station Tradition

"We're going to the gas station!"

Matthew McGavic

Georgia Tech's win against North Carolina in Chapel Hill was big in many different facets. The 96 points scored by the Yellow Jackets was the most they had ever scored at the Dean E. Smith Center since it was built in 1986, and it was the most that UNC had given up at home since 2003. It also improved them to .500 both on the season (7-7) and in ACC play (2-2).

Additionally, the victory away from McCamish Pavilion allowed the team to carry on their newest and perhaps one of their quirkier traditions: a trip to the local gas station.

Since last season, every time that the Georgia Tech men's basketball team goes on the road and emerges victorious, they take a trip to a gas station in the area and proceed to get all the candy and snacks that their hearts desire. But, how exactly did a tradition such as this get started?

It all began from the program's inability to win such games under the tenure of newly hired head coach Josh Pastner. In his first two years at the helm, Pastner went 3-20 in regular season road games, including winning just 1 in the 2017-18 season.

Facing pressure from the local media, heading into his third season Pastner admitted that the program's "next step was to win some road games". The 2018-19 season started out 1-2 on the road with losses to #5 Tennessee & Northwestern, but then finally landing in the win column against Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena.

However it was their next game away from McCamish that got the gas station tradition started. The Jackets traveled up to the Carrier Dome to face Jim Boeheim's Syracuse Orange, coming out on top 73-59. Unfortunately for them, their chartered plane was late picking them up, leaving them stranded in upstate New York. To kill time, Pastner and Co. decided to head to a gas station adjacent to the airport to kill time. It was here where he came up with the idea as an incentive for winning on the road.

"You know what? From now on, every road win we're just going to the gas station," Pastner said.

Since then, the Jackets have gone on to raid the local gas station convenience store after two wins against the NC State Wolfpack in back-to-back seasons, and most recently against the Tar Heels. The only time they have not followed through with the traditional was their victory over the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors earlier this year in the 2019 Diamond Head Classic. The reason? 

"No, we're already in Hawai'i," Pastner quipped

By sheer happenstance, there's yet another twist to this tradition. Because of who they have beaten on the road, all of their road victories in the contiguous United States since their inaugural trip in Syracuse have ended with a visit to the same gas station: a Sheetz next to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

"I don't know who [the owner] is, but they must love Georgia Tech."

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Matthew McGavic
MATTHEW MCGAVIC

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