Tonight the men's basketball team travels south to face an emotionally charged Georgia Tech squad on its home court. Both teams need a win tonight for very different reasons.
The Blue Devils (25-2, 13-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) are hoping to wrap up the ACC regular season with a win tonight and a victory over arch-rival North Carolina Saturday in Durham. By winning both , Duke can earn a number one seed for the ACC tournament next weekend in Greensboro.
The Yellow Jackets desperately need a win to solidify their position as a legitimate candidate for an NCAA Tournament berth. Right now, Georgia Tech could be considered as "on the bubble". It has an overall record of 17-10 and a conference mark of 6-8.
Usually ACC teams need at least seven conference wins to have a legitimate chance of receiving a bid from the NCAA. The Yellow Jackets need to beat Duke at home or beat Clemson, another "bubble" team, on the road to lock up a seventh ACC victory.
A win over the top-ranked Blue Devils would be very impressive in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee and would strengthen the Yellow Jackets' chances for locking up a highly-coveted bid. The tournament selection committee puts a lot of stock in schedule strength and in quality wins against ranked opponents. Georgia Tech has faced the tough competition of the ACC and non-conference foe Kentucky but has failed to beat a ranked opponent this year.
Another incentive for the Yellow Jackets is the fact that it will be the last game for senior Matt Harpring in Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The Georgia Tech faithful would love to send Harpring and fellow senior Michael Maddox off with a victory on Senior Night.
Harpring, a fourth-year senior, endeared himself to the Yellow Jacket fans by spurning the big bucks of the NBA to return to school for his senior year. An All-America candidate, Harpring leads the Yellow Jackets in scoring and rebounding, and is also the team's best free-throw shooter. He is a virtual lock to earn first-team All-ACC honors for the third straight year.
Tonight, his number will be retired as a tribute to him and his storied career at Georgia Tech. For Harpring and the Jackets, the stage is set for an upset of top-ranked Duke.
Another important aspect of tonight's game is the progress of freshman center Elton Brand. Number forty two returned to action against UCLA on Sunday in dramatic fashion by scoring 14 points while seeing only limited action.
Whether or not Brand can re-establish himself as the dominating force that he was in the paint earlier in the season remains to be seen. Though he played well against the Bruins, he faced a depleted UCLA front line and had the added advantage of playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in the Blue Devil rout. Brand will face a tougher test tonight against Tech's frontline veterans in the unfriendly confines of Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Standing directly in his way is freshman center Alvin Jones, who leads the ACC in blocked shots with over four per contest.
"For me, it will be another test to see how I can react and how I can play and it will be another tough test for the team." said Brand.
Indeed, coaches and Blue Devil fans alike will be closely following the progress of Brand over the next few games. With a healthy and productive Brand, Duke will be more difficult to defend in the postseason. He would give the Blue Devils the inside presence that they lacked last year when they were regularly outrebounded during the stretch-run of the season.
For many teams, the return of a player like Brand would disrupt the team's flow and alter the team chemistry going into the final stretch of the season. The Blue Devils, however, know how to play with or without their big center and have made the necessary adjustments for tonight's game.
"I think our team is mature at this point that Elton can come in without creating too many waves," said freshman Shane Battier. "I don't think it will cause too much of a disturbance."
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