Hoops Fix

TARVER READY TO STEP UP FOR JACKETS
Nothing against the freshman, but THIS is the guy I really want to see step up and elevate his game. He is a very likable guy and let's face it - next year he will be one of the key team leaders as a senior. We need him to add that depth and become that leader.

TECH PLAYS GAME SHORT OF FRESHMAN
We will be without Jeremis Smith in today's exhibition as reported already. Also the first public comments about why Anthony Morrow did not play the last game. Honestly, these comments only make the thing even more mysterious.

Freshman guard Anthony Morrow was held out of last week's exhibition against Kennesaw State for what Hewitt called a "coach's decision."

Hewitt would not divulge any more details, but added that Morrow would play against LeMoyne.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL OUTLOOK
Finally someone picking us as a Final Four candidate:

GEORGIA TECH: Had G B.J. Elder not been hobbled by a sprained ankle in last season's Final Four, the Yellow Jackets might have upset UConn for the championship. He's back for his senior year along with Gs Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum to put that "what if" to the test.

BACKCOURT BONANZA HAS ACC A CUT ABOVE
Comment on this year's team:

Georgia Tech merely returns guards B.J. Elder, Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum, the star of the Final Four run, and ever-improving Australian Luke Schenscher, one of the nation's few legitimate old-school centers.

And a nice comment from Jay Bilas about Maryland's team this year.

"Are those guys any better than Mark Price and Bruce Dalrymple and Duane Ferrell at Georgia Tech in the 1980s or Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker at Duke? The answer's probably, no," ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. "But this is the kind of year you would have when guys stuck around a little longer. It's kind of an extraordinary happening.

QUICK LOOK AT THE JACKETS

QUICK LOOK AT BULLDOGS AND JACKETS

CURRICULUM CHANGE AT GT?
I don't think so, but interesting anyhow. Thanks for the link Chad:

As supporters of former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry will be glad to hear, several Europeans countries have already gotten behind the movement and held conferences and even set up college curriculum to educate and train coaches. Officials say the United States has been a bit slower to react, though Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State are planning a United States Olympic Committee-endorsed international sports summit for next October. And Kennesaw State has signed onto a three-year partnership to develop a sports leadership curriculum.

EXPANSION SPLITS RIVALRIES, UNEVENS SCHEDULE
Hewitt not afraid to state facts:

Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt probably put the freshest spin on the subject. He compared it to the NFL, saying that you could see a day when a team that has what is like a fifth-place schedule in the NFL, make it to the Super Bowl. Or for these purposes, win the ACC with an easier slate of games.

Hewitt is convinced that expansion will help level the travel burdens, a hidden fact that isn't always discussed among league members.

"The schools in North Carolina always had a tremendous travel advantage," Hewitt said. "Three games a year, they could sleep in their own beds the night before a game. Expansion will spread the travel burden out a bit and create more parity."

Even Dave Braine gets his thoughts in on expansion:

"Nobody can tell you that it's going to work, because they don't know," Georgia Tech athletic director Dave Braine said. "The TV people aren't happy because a lot of the big games will only be once a year. It's a tough league so some coaches won't mind playing only once a year. TV wants us to play more conference games but the coaches would want less. My feeling is that ultimately TV will win out over the coaches because that's why we expanded -- to make more money. Otherwise, we would have stayed where we are."

AROUND THE ACC

FELTON SUSPENDED FOR ONE GAME

CLEMSON GUARD'S BAN CUT

POWER LEAGUES MAY PINCH MID-MAJORS

FSU: FROM PROJECT TO POWER?

A TOUGH LEAGUE, ESPECIALLY FOR NEWCOMERS