ACC Basketball: Each team’s worst performance of the last decade

Georgia Tech

December 1, 2017 (Grambling State 64, at Georgia Tech 63) (GS: 6)

When examining the case of Georgia Tech, three games really stood out, and I feel like we need to take a moment to appreciate the two non-Grambling State games. On November 15, 2010, Georgia Tech lost 80-63 at Kennesaw State, falling pathetically to the fledgling A-Sun program by 17. This Kennesaw State team lost their next nine non-conference games after this, clearly playing out of their minds against the Yellow Jackets. On January 22, 2015, Georgia Tech traveled to Virginia, and as so often happens when one plays Virginia, their offense was completely absent in a 57-28 loss.

However, there’s a reason why this epic fall against Grambling State has earned the top spot. The very fact that a SWAC team could topple an ACC team (against whom they were 24.5 point underdogs) was an incredible feat, and that’s not even the worst part. A close game at the end, Grambling State won on an own goal before the Yellow jackets wasted their last possession, losing inconceivably at home. Georgia Tech lost despite a solid offensive night (22 points) from Jose Alvarado and forcing 18 Grambling State turnovers.

Grambling State was a solid SWAC team last season, but as so often goes, they were pretty abysmal in non-conference play outside of their win at Georgia Tech, with all their D-1 games on the road. They were destroyed by VCU, Grand Canyon, Seattle, and South Dakota but the stars aligned on that cool December night in Georgia.

For Georgia Tech, year two under Josh Pastner didn’t trend in the right direction (they’d lose a close game to Wofford five days later), but being dropped on an own-goal against a SWAC team is just about as bad as it gets.