GREENSBORO, N.C. — It wasn’t pretty, but the Georgia Tech men’s basketball team beat North Carolina 62-58 tonight at the Greensboro Coliseum to earn a date with the Terps tomorrow at the ACC Tournament.
The No. 7 seed Yellow Jackets rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to nip the Tar Heels and earn a spot in tomorrow’s quarterfinal against the No. 2 seed Terps at 7 p.m.
Coach Paul Hewitt wasn’t too interested in talking about the Terps, who used a miraculous buzzer-beater to knock off the Yellow Jackets in College Park on Feb. 20, minutes after his team survived the struggling Tar Heels.
“We just want to get settled down after this game,” Hewitt said when initially asked about the rematch.
Eventually, Hewitt mentioned his respect for the Terps, especially ACC Player of the Year Greivis Vasquez, and said his team played good defense that day in holding the Terps to 43 percent shooting.
One of the bigger storylines coming into this meeting is if Georgia Tech has done enough to safely secure an NCAA Tournament bid. The Yellow Jackets struggled down the stretch and were abysmal on the road in ACC play.
But they had one of the league’s toughest schedules and avoiding an upset against the Tar Heels might have been enough to stamp their ticket, especially with some of the other upsets happening throughout this Tournament. (The Yellow Jackets were the lone favorite to advance in Thursday’s first round.)
North Carolina coach Roy Williams said he believes Georgia Tech has done enough to be in the 65-team field.
Once again, Hewitt wasn’t too interested in commenting.
“Let’s just see how the [ACC] Tournament goes,” Hewitt said.
Either way, you can bet the Yellow Jackets remember their loss at Comcast Center, after which Hewitt lamented that his squad played one of its best games of the season and still came up short.
A win against the streaking Terps would make the Yellow Jackets’ NCAA resume, which already features a win against No. 4 Duke, even more enticing.
Tonight, the 10th-year coach was just thankful to stay alive in the tournament, which is more than four other teams could say when the night was done. Hewitt will likely have more to say about the Terps after tomorrow’s rematch.
Here’s guessing he won’t be spending a lot of time until then focusing on this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmmnA8WVqW8.
YELLOW JACKET NOTE: Probably the best moment of the Yellow Jackets’ postgame press conference came when a reporter asked Favors if he thought the team’s season was on the line with his team trailing the struggling Tar Heels into the second half. Favors asked for the question to be repeated and then sought counsel from Hewitt, who was seated two spots away on the stage in the Greensboro Coliseum interview room.
Favors never did answer the question. Hewitt interrupted the laughter in the room by offering some insight into Favors’ mindset. (Read: He called him out a little bit.)
“Derrick doesn’t pay attention to a lot of basketball,” Hewitt said. “You have to understand something. He doesn’t watch a lot of basketball. I promise you, he has no idea the ramifications of this game. I absolutely promise you. He’s not being naive or anything. That’s just the way he is. That’s one of the things I love about him. He comes out and plays and doesn’t get whatever. That’s what he does. He might have thought we had another game tomorrow night if we lost.”
With a big second half, Favors, whether he realized it or not, earned a second shot at the Terps.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.