Georgia Tech (5-3) dropped both of its games in the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Fla., losing 75-61 to DePaul and 84-74 to Drake.
An area of concern for coach Damon Stoudamire is the Yellow Jackets’ slow starts. Georgia Tech trailed at halftime in five of its eight games, including outings in which it had to rally to beat Southeastern Louisiana, Georgia Southern and West Georgia.
“We got to figure that out, no question,” Stoudamire said. “We can’t put ourselves in a hole moving forward. But what I take from this team is that we have a backbone. I think that we’ve got guys that care. I’m in the locker room with these guys. They’re a connected group. They know we have things to figure out, and we talk about it all the time. We’re going to figure those things out.”
Kowacie Reeves Jr. leads Georgia Tech with an average of 12.4 points per game, but the senior missed the Drake loss with an undisclosed injury. Baye Ndongo adds 11.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per contest.
Mississippi State (3-4), meanwhile, currently owns the SEC’s only losing record. After falling to Kansas State and New Mexico on Nov. 20-21 in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo., the Bulldogs needed Amier Ali’s banked-in 3-pointer to stave off New Orleans 81-78 in overtime on Nov. 24.
Coach Chris Jans’ team then lost 87-81 at home to SMU in overtime on Friday, marking the program’s worst seven-game start since beginning 2-5 in 2012-13.
“I’m still not happy about the result of Friday night’s game,” Jans said. “We made some strides, but at the end of the day, we didn’t get the win. … We treat every game like the Super Bowl, and that hasn’t changed since we arrived in terms of the time we spend scouting and the urgency that we have with our players and our team on a daily basis.”
Mississippi State makes a return to Atlanta after falling 67-59 to Georgia Tech in the first edition of the ACC/SEC Challenge in 2023.
“(Georgia Tech) has a big lineup all the way across, but they’re very athletic, especially at the four and the five,” Jans said. “We’ve got to play better, we’ve got to compete better, we’ve got to play the full 40.”
The Bulldogs are paced by preseason first-team All-SEC guard Josh Hubbard’s 23.3 points per game, an average that ranks fourth in the nation, and Jayden Epps’ 15.0 points per game. They combine to hit 5.5 3-point attempts per game.
