Georgia plays its second game of the regional round of the Legends Classic tonight, as the Jacket host the visiting Niagara Purple Eagles of the MAAC.
The teams have never faced each other before. Coach Paul Hewitt used to be a coach in the same conference at Siena, who the Jackets face December 22. Tech is 8-6 all-time against MAAC members.
Tonight is only Niagara's second game of the season. They lost their opener at home to Milwaukee, 90-73. Looking at their only game so far (small sample size warning), the team has three to four good scorers on the starting rotation, and then a dropoff after that. Kashief Edwards scored 22, Antoine Mason had 18, Skylar Jones tallied 15, and Marvin Jordan added 10. After that, the rest of the team only had 8 points combined. The interesting thing of those numbers is that three of those scorers - Jones, Jordan, and Mason - are freshman.
Tech is led by Iman Shumpert with 16.3 points per game. The junior guard really had a break out game Wednesday against Albany, and has the talent and ability to dominate a game if he wants to. He also leads the teams in rebounds with 7.3.
What I am watching for tonight: I want to see the hard-nosed scrappy play continue from Wednesday, the shooting percentages continue to improve, and for the team to work on the good passing that they showed against Albany while limiting turnovers.
The game starts at 7:30, and can be heard on 790 the Zone.