Georgia Tech won’t have the services of sophomore Brian Oliver for about three weeks as he recovers from a thumb injury.
The Yellow Jacket swingman has shown a propensity to deliver big games, as he did a couple of weeks ago when he put up 28 points against Virginia Tech. Oliver was 11-of-18 from the field and hit four three-pointers. In an early season loss to Syracuse, Oliver did all he could with a season-high 32 points and 12-of-21 shooting.
However, those performances are more the exception than the rule for Oliver. He has the fourth-worst Total Impact Quotient among ACC forwards this season at 4.6 points per 40 minutes. Georgia Tech isn’t exactly a good shooting team at a little more than 41 percent from the field. But Oliver doesn’t help the cause, shooting 36.8 percent from the field and 29.5 percent from three-point range.
If coach Paul Hewitt wants to replace Oliver with decent size, he could tap freshman forward Kammeon Holsey to play more minutes. However, Holsey is only marginally more effective, with a TIQ of 5.9 points per 40 minutes. In his nearly 16 minutes per game, Holsey is a better shooter at 51.4 percent, but he commits as many turnovers per game as Oliver does but in half the minutes. If Holsey gets more playing time, he must take better care of the ball.
Hewitt’s best option might be to run with a four-guard lineup by giving senior Maurice Miller more playing time. That would leave the Yellow Jackets vulnerable to teams with multiple post players, but it would also create mismatches when they’re on offense. And Miller has played well in his 19 minutes per game with a TIQ of 10.2 points per game, No. 9 among ACC guards.
Miller’s strength isn’t shooting — but then that’s not a strength for any Yellow Jacket. He hits only about 39 percent of his shots. But he’s a good facilitator, averaging 2.5 assists per game, and he’s a stout defender with 1.5 steals per game. Those numbers should approach four assists and two or three steals per game if he logs about 10 more minutes per game.
Georgia Tech isn’t on pace to reach the NCAA Tournament — or even the NIT — this season, so Hewitt doesn’t have too much to lose by making a fairly drastic change in strategy. Oliver wasn’t the most prolific player for the Yellow Jackets, so replacing his output shouldn’t be impossible. It’s just challenging because of Georgia Tech’s lack of size available on the roster.
