What To Watch For Vs. Georgia

Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate makes its return to the court.

Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

The Ramblin' Wreck has their 105th basketball season off on the right foot, with a road OT victory over NC State and a defensive show-of-force over Elon putting them at 2-0 on the season. Hoping to go 3-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season, Georgia Tech heads to Athens, GA for some Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate against the Georgia Bulldogs. Tipoff is set for this Wednesday at 7:00pm on SEC Network Plus. Here are a couple of the more significant storylines to follow ahead of the rivalry matchup with the Dawgs.

High-Flying Offense

The Georgia Tech defense will have their hands full this Wednesday, as the Bulldogs have one of the highest scoring offenses in all of Division I. Their 95.3 points per game is good for 6th best in the nation, and 2nd best in the Power 5 behind Utah. They're led by freshman phenom Anthony Edwards, who was the #2 overall player in the Class of 2019 behind Memphis' James Wiseman. While only putting up 6 in Georgia's last outing against Delaware State, the shooting guard from Atlanta still leads the Dawgs in scoring with 19.7 points per game.

Georgia so far has maintained a consistent and deep offense. They have gone with the same starters in all 3 of their games, with 4 of them averaging double digits on the season. Head coach Tom Crean has also been able to rely on his bench, with a total of 9 players getting involved on at least 16% of UGA's possessions as opposed to GT's 7. Freshman guard Savhir Wheeler has established himself as Georgia's go-to sixth man, as he is the fourth leading scorer on the roster despite not having started a single game. In fact, according to KenPom, Wheeler has actually taken more reps at point guard than Edwards.

Defensive Liabilities

While the Bulldogs have one of the best offenses in the nation, it's a completely different story on defense. So far Georgia has relied on outscoring opponents, as they are currently ranked 265th in scoring defense. Prior to their 100-66 win over Delaware State this past Friday, that metric got to as low as 295th in the nation. It's not attributed to a complete lack of defensive effort, as Georgia is 15th best in the nation in steals per game with 11.7. The biggest defensive pitfall for the Dawgs is at the three point line, with their 3 opponents going a combined 34.9% from beyond the arc (254th in nation)

Meet Me At The Rim

The biggest factor in this matchup will the play down in the paint on the defensive side of the ball for Georgia Tech. Offensively, the Bulldogs have the 6th best 2 point field goal percentage in the nation at 63.1%. Conversely, the Yellow Jackets have the 2nd best 2 point field goal defense at 33.3%. As always, F/C James Banks III will play a crucial role in defending the lane penetration by the Bulldogs.

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