By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

We have about one month left in the college basketball season. There are a few teams that have underperformed and will not make the NCAA tournament unless they win their conference tournament. Georgia Tech is poised to be one of those teams.

Tech used to be one of the few programs that were consistently successful in football and men’s basketball. They have fallen on hard times in recent years. The Yellow Jackets have not played in the NCAA tournament since 2010.

They currently are 11-11 and are ranked 11^th in the ACC. Head coach Josh Pastner is not only struggling on the court. His longtime friend Ron Bell has told the media he provided benefits in violation of NCAA rules to players Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson. Tech self-reported the violations to the NCAA in November and suspended both players.

Pastner filed a civil lawsuit in Arizona against Ron Bell and Jennifer Pendley, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting and injurious falsehoods and attempts to blackmail and extort both Pastner and his family, according to a statement from his attorney.

Pastner was a player on the 1997 Arizona Wildcats national championship team. He was also an assistant at Arizona under Lute Olson and at Memphis under John Calipari. After becoming head coach at Memphis he was named the 2013 Conference USA Coach of the Year.

He was hired as head coach at Georgia Tech in April 2016. He showed promise in his first season. During the 2016-17 regular season the Jackets knocked off Top 5 North Carolina at home, in his first coached ACC game at Georgia Tech.

They also enjoyed quality wins at Virginia Commonwealth, at home against Top 10 Florida State, and Top 25 Notre Dame. Further improving throughout the season, Tech knocked off Syracuse and Pittsburgh late in February to finish 8-10 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets were projected to finish last in the conference and to not win a single conference game. He was named the 2017 ACC Coach of the Year.

This season there have been several bad losses against teams like Grambling, Wofford and Wright State. The NCAA violations could be one of the reasons for the sub-par season. They also lost four consecutive games in January.

There are eight regular season games remaining and it doesn’t look like things will get much better. The next few games are at Louisville followed by at home versus #9 Duke. Those are both probably bad losses.

Later this month there are back-to-back road games against #2 Virginia and #16 Clemson. The Yellow Jackets already lost to both teams and I cannot imagine them being able to get revenge.

NC State is also having a great year and they are one of the last regular season games. The Wolfpack have beaten Duke, North Carolina and Notre Dame so I expect them to dismantle Tech.

The best chance for victories is two games with Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. If they finish with a losing record (they certainly will) Tech needs to move on from Pastner and hire a new coach.