Boston College Vs. Georgia Tech Preview With From The Rumble Seat

Pretty big ACC men's college basketball game tonight that will force me to step away from the Twitter machine for a few hours. Oh, and there's Boston College-Georgia Tech, the undercard to the Duke-UNC game at 9. Wednesday night ACC hoops, y'all!

To preview tonight's epic showdown between the Eagles and Jackets, we swapped notes with Chas Plaisance of From The Rumble Seat. Our questions and Chas' answers below.

BC Interruption: Georgia Tech has some close losses but only one win -- a 77-70 victory over Wake Forest back on February 1 -- since these two programs last got together back on January 21. What was the key to victory against the Demon Deacons?

From The Rumble Seat: The victory against Wake was the Jackets ability to simply endure long enough for the clock to hit 0:00. Unfortunately this season is all about falling apart the last 7 minutes of the game. And honestly it isn't us falling apart as much as not having enough in the tank to go 40 minutes. We have a great team, HUGE potential. The difference is we don't have the bench due to injuries throughout the season. If we want to win, we have to get good games from more than two players. With Robert Carter Jr. injured until last game, it has been very difficult for Golden, Miller and Georges-Hunt to be successful with so much pressure day in and day out.

BCI: Trae Golden lit up the Eagles in the first meeting. What other players should BC keep an eye on tonight.

FTRS: Two guys for sure -- Daniel Miller and Marcus Georges-Hunt. I'd throw Robert Carter Jr. into the mix too, but this game will be his second ACC game of the season due to injury so I can't rely on him really right now. MGH is a threat around the perimeter and in the paint and Miller is one of the best centers in the ACC right now. He is ranked second is blocks/game and total rebounds in the ACC, which is the same as last season. If those two can play well and Trae controls the ball well, watch out.

BCI: Brian Gregory is in his third year in Atlanta. I think you're well aware how BC fans feel about their fourth-year coach Steve Donahue at this point, but curious how the Georgia Tech's fan base feels about the job Gregory has done through the first 2 1/2 years.

FTRS: I think the Tech community is mixed. He got dealt a tough hand, and that was risky as a young, developing coach. Personally, I love him. He is such a good coach and knows the game well. He was an assistant coach under Tom Izzo so he knows his stuff. He has done a great job recruiting quality, regardless of whether or not the fans are quite convinced of it yet. I can see at least three of the players that he recruited having a career at a higher level. I think he has a bit of a pass this season with injury, but next season he has to finish .500 in the ACC or he might raise some concern.

BCI: Where do you see this Georgia Tech team finishing the regular season heading into the ACC Tournament? How does your projection jive with fans' preseason expectations for this team? (In other words, let's get together again soon. Say, Wednesday night in Greensboro?)

FTRS: My expectations were much higher, along with the Tech community I think. Travis Jorgenson and Robert Carter Jr. got hurt early, two out of the Jackets top 7 or 8 players. Solomon Poole was released earlier and Trae Golden has been injured. Chris Bolden got in trouble early this season and hasn't been the same. This season has been full of surprises, but we have to live and learn.

The Jackets are currently 3-8, with 7 games left in the season. I only see the Duke and Syracuse game as games that we are a huge underdog for. So I think it is all up in the air. I'd like to say we finish on a 5-2 run and are just under .500, but I don't think that's realistic. So I guess we beat BC, Clemson, FSU, VT and lose to Notre Dame, Syracuse and Duke (with the Notre Dame and Clemson games maybe flipping) and finishing 7-11 in the ACC. Regardless, we will need a blessing to see a post-season right now unfortunately.

BCI: Atlanta, coming off a pretty bad winter storm a few weeks ago, braces for yet another winter storm on Wednesday. Three to five inches of snow and ice are in the forecast over the next 24 hours. Any chances this game doesn't get played? I'm assuming the crowd will be light if it does get played as scheduled. [Edit: The school says Game on.]

FTRS: I think there is a big chance. I don't even know when I'm going to get back to work. The thing is, most places don't deal with freezing rain, and bad rain at that. Most places deal with snow and they can sweep it off and get back to it. Atlanta doesn't have anything in place, because honestly, this happens usually once every 10 years. We are supposed to get at least 0.25 inches of ice on the ground by the end of the day Wednesday I believe, along with anywhere from 2-7 inches of snow in the city. I think it is much more dangerous than last time, especially with down trees and power lines. You could see power outages across the metro area.

BCI: Last one. Prediction time. Who ya got? What's the final score?

FTRS: I had Jackets last time and they took care of business. Both are coming off losing streaks, the Jackets with 2 and y'all with 3. The difference is y'all have played tougher games recently. That being said, I see the Jackets coming away with a home victory. I see a close game until about mid-1st half, where the Jackets run away. The Jackets get up with about 10 left in the game as usual, followed by a struggling last few minutes. They will be fortunate enough to fight off a Boston College surge and win.. Final score: 72-66, Jackets win.

For more on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, check out From The Rumble Seat.