Jackets prepare for NIU, aim for 3rd straight win
Georgia Tech men's basketball host Northern Illinois on Thursday night aiming for the first 3-0 start under head coach Josh Pastner. The Jackets' trend of starting slow and finishing strong is something Pastner is hoping to buck with a win against the Huskies.
Pastner was unaware of the odd trend of not winning three games to open a season under his tenure.
"Honestly I did not know that until you just said that," he told JOL when asked about the trend. "We've talked about (starting faster this season) and I've tried the best I can to set that up meaning the stuff we did in the summer and in the fall and in the preseason and all that work was to put us in a position to be better early. One of the great things about our program here is every year our teams have gotten better as the year goes on, but we haven't started well. That is why I made the decision to play private scrimmages instead of having one (exhibition game) and one scrimmage."
Pastner said that he expects to continue with a nine-man rotation with backup big man Jordan Meka being a potential tenth piece.
"Right now we are playing nine and I think that is a benefit for our team that we can play deeper and even Jordan Meka can play too. He just hasn't had the availability due to him being injured a little bit so our strength is going deeper to different guys and different groups could step up for an individual game. The star of the team is the team," Pastner said quoting his team mantra for 2022-23.
The Jackets will play four games in 10 days and three games in just seven days as they head down to Fort Myers over the weekend for a tournament starting with Utah on Monday and then will face either Marquette or Mississippi State on Wednesday. Tech returns home on Saturday to host North Alabama. In the past, Pastner said he would have to manage player loads in practice heavily based on that schedule, but having a deeper rotation this season changes that.
"We are able to practice harder and even longer in shoot around and practice because we have more depth where maybe in the years past I've had to be conscientious on that because you are only playing maybe six or seven and you have to be careful about wearing them out especially when you have three games in seven days or four games in nine days to keep them fresh," he said.
The Jackets will aim to improve to 3-0 for the first time since Brian Gregory's final season at 8 pm in McCamish Pavilion. This will be the first meeting on the hardwood of the two teams.