ATLANTA — Hosting one of the most glamorous names in the entire National Football League on Saturday night, the Atlanta Falcons found themselves overwhelmed against the Green Bay Packers, losing 48-21 in NFC semifinals.
Hosting one of the most glamorous names in all of college basketball on Sunday night, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets fared a good deal better against the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Delivering a 78-58 victory that is certain to shock all of college hoops, Tech won its first Atlantic Coast Conference game of the season by beating UNC for the fourth straight time.
That’s right. The … fourth … straight … time.
“I’m mad at the world,” said UNC coach Roy Williams after watching his team fall to 12-5 overall and 2-1 in league play. “We stunk. I think I could fight somebody with a chainsaw right now. I’m that angry.”
While he’s probably most angry at his own team, which shot 27.6 percent (the fourth worst in Tar Heels history), he was also mad at himself for not signing Tech’s Iman Shumpert, who led the Jackets with 30 points.
“I tried like heck to sign him,” said Williams.
Countered Shumpert, who grew up outside Chicago: “What can I say? I’m a city guy. Georgia Tech just felt like a better fit.”
If you don’t believe history repeats, consider that the last time Shumpert scored 30 points was against these same Tar Heels exactly one year ago yesterday — January 16, 2010 — only that game was at Chapel Hill.
Not that Shumpert was the only Jacket lighting up the Heels. Glen Rice Jr. — whose father once shot UNC out of the Sweet 16 on the way to leading Michigan to the 1989 national championship — added 24 points on the strength of 9 of 14 field goals, including four 3-pointers.
“It seems like they make a lot more shots against us than anybody else,” lamented Williams, who quickly added, “I’ve got to become a better coach really quickly.”
Tech became a stunningly better team really quickly. Four days earlier the Jackets had ventured into Clemson and lost 87-62.
That came on the heels of a 86-75 loss at Boston College four days prior to that.
“Sometimes we come out flat, not giving the effort we could,” said Rice. “Tonight we were diving on the ground, hustling every second.”
The Tar Heels starters appeared to have trouble hustling the whole game, or at least the whole time they were on the floor.
UNC fell behind 10-2 to open the game, causing Williams to send in an entire new unit. Once upon a time, when the legendary Dean Smith was running the Baby Blue show, this sub unit was called the Blue Team.
And much like then, UNC’s backups twice got the Tar Heels back in the game, cutting the 10-2 deficit to 12-10, then slashing a 22-12 hole to a single point at halftime, 33-32.
“At the half, I was just dumbfounded,” said Williams, who has won two NCAA titles since 2005, but lost in the NIT title game a year ago.
“I thought we would really come out and play with intensity [in the final half], but then we came out lifeless again. We didn’t execute, we missed layups, and missed free throws. I have to do a better job of getting my kids to act like it means something to them.”
Until Sunday, a lot of Georgia Tech fans probably thought that should have been coach Paul Hewitt’s line. After all, this is a Yellow Jacket squad that entered this game with a 7-8 overall record, 0-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play and with non-conference losses to Kennesaw State, Siena and Charlotte.
So little was expected of Tech against the Tar Heels that nearly one-third of the seats in the Thrillerdome were empty at tip-off — and more than half of those that were filled were stuffed with UNC fans. Hewitt was even forced to endure a smattering of boos at tip-off.
But then the game began and Rice and Shumpert couldn’t miss, UNC couldn’t hit and Tech earned itself a fresh start for its remaining ACC games, beginning with Wednesday night’s visit from Wake Forest.
“If we play like we did today,” said Rice, “we can beat anybody.”
Too bad the Falcons couldn’t say the same this weekend.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwidmer@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273.