Georgia Tech men’s basketball heads to Virginia Tech

Release from Georgia Tech Athletics:

Coming off a solidly-played home-court win over Wake Forest Saturday, Georgia Tech goes back on the road for the seventh time in Atlantic Coast Conference play in a 9 p.m. contest Monday night against Virginia Tech in Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va.

Tech, in its fourth season under head coach Brian Gregory, improved to 11-12 overall and 2-9 in the ACC Saturday with a wire-to-wire win over Wake Forest, 73-59, at McCamish Pavilion. The Yellow Jackets, who have lost eight of their ACC games by a total of 32 points, have won their two conference games by 34 points.

Virginia Tech (9-14, 1-9 ACC) is coming off a 73-65 home loss Saturday to Florida State. In their first year under head coach Buzz Williams, the Hokies defeated Pittsburgh in overtime for their only ACC win on Jan. 27, and their last four losses have come by a total of 16 points.

• Monday’s game is the back end in the first of three consecutive Saturday-Monday turnarounds for the Yellow Jackets, following a Saturday home game against Wake Forest. Next weekend, Tech is home for both games against Florida State (Saturday) and Clemson (Monday). The following weekend, Tech visits North Carolina (Saturday) and hosts Louisville.

• Tech’s strength of schedule is ranked No. 15 in ESPN’s RPI rankings, and its non-conference strnegth of schedule is ranked No. 66.

• Tech ranks 14th in the nation in rebound margin (+8.0) and 11th in offensive rebounds per game (14.0).

• Virginia defeated Tech by 29 points, but the Yellow Jackets’ other eight conference defeats have come by a total of 32 points (4.0 points per game), two of those in overtime. Tech’s other eight ACC losses have come by seven, one, seven, three, five, two, one and six points. The seven-point loss at Notre Dame was a double-overtime defeat.

• Tech has a minus-0.49 “Luck” rating, KenPom.com’s measure of a team’s number of close games and its success in them. The Jackets rank No. 285 in that category, or to look at it another way, the 69th unluckiest team in the country.

SERIES NOTES VS. VIRGINIA TECH

Virginia Tech has won 14 of 20 all-time meetings with Georgia Tech, including 10 of 15 as a member of the ACC.

Georgia Tech has won the last two meetings, however, including a 62-51 win at McCamish Pavilion in the teams’ only regular-season meeting of the 2013-14 season, and a 64-54 win on Feb. 9, 2013, in Blacksburg.