SATURDAY’S GAME

Pastner, players see promise after loss to No. 2 Duke.

Following Georgia Tech’s 69-57 loss at No. 2 Duke on Tuesday night, coach Josh Pastner offered a hope for the future.

“I never want to die,” the Yellow Jackets coach said at the end of his opening remarks about the game. “I want to live forever. I love life. I actually told that to the scorer’s table. I said, ‘Man, what a beautiful atmo- sphere.’ So I hope I can get to 100. I’d love to get to 110.”

The context, such as it was for the oft-scattershot coach, was Pastner expressing his appreciation for the atmo- sphere at raucous Cameron Indoor Stadium as the Jackets played their final scheduled game against Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, and also after he hailed Barry Jacobs, a longtime North Caroli- na-based sportswriter.

A little while later, two of Pastner’s players offered projections for a nearer-term possibility for their team, now 6-7 after the loss.

“It’s a long road (remaining), but I feel like we’re turn- ing the corner,” forward Khalid Moore said. “It’s been a tough little patch for us, but I feel like we’ve learned a lot, and we’ve just got to learn from it and get better from here on out.”

The Jackets’ recent patch has indeed been as nettlesome and barbed as perhaps a football with either foot.

In 1940, Moody scored a total of 109 points for Morris Brown, leading it to the SIAC conference title. Moody served in the Army and then played football professionally in Canada and for the AAFC before it merged with the NFL. He died in 1995.

Nicks was born Aug. 2, 1905, in Griffin and attended Morris Brown High School and Morris Brown College. In college, he played end and halfback and was the team punter in addition to being a member of the basketball, baseball and track teams.

After one year at Wash- ington High School, Nicks moved to Morris Brown College and was head football coach and principal from 1930-35, 1937-39 and 1941-42 and compiled a 66-22-13 mark and a 1941 Pittsburgh Courier Black College national championship.

In 1943-44, Nicks left foot- ball and was the USO direc680

Notre Dame Georgia 6 p.m.,

FM any in Division I. Tech has lost six of its past seven, its poorest seven-game stretch since losing seven ACC games in a row in the 2018-19 season on its way to a 14-18 record. Of the six teams that beat the Jackets in this stretch, five are in the top 35 of the Kenpom rankings (Duke, LSU, USC, North Carolina and Wisconsin) with a combined record of 58-7 going into Wednesday’s games. The sixth is Louisville, no slouch at 9-4 before its Wednesday game, 52nd in Kenpom and an opponent the Jack- ets faced in their first game out of their COVID-19 pause.

One bright spot for Tech (111th in Kenpom) is that, of the remaining 17 games (not counting postponed games against Syracuse and Ala- bama A&M), only three are against teams inside the top 40 of Kenpom.

Another is that, slowly, the Jackets are showing signs of improvement, even in defeat. It’s those indicators that gave guard Michael Devoe a sim- ilar hunch as Moore.

“I feel like we’re turning the corner, though,” said Devoe, asked if he was feeling frustrated. “I feel like we’re truly getting better. I feel like we’re adjusting to things and all that type of stuff. We’ve had a tough tor at Fort Stewart and then at Tuskegee Army Air Force Base. He returned to the gridiron two years later and moved to Prairie View A&M as head coach from 1945-47. Nicks stepped down and served as an assistant coach for four seasons but returned to his head coaching duties in 1952.

During his second stint at Prairie View, Nicks compiled a record of 111-27-5 and captured eight Southwestern Athletic Conference championships and five Black College national championships.

He recruited 15 players who eventually were drafted from Prairie View by either AFL/NFL clubs, most notably Pro Football Hall of Famer Kenny Houston and AFL standout Otis Taylor. His career record for 28 years was 193-61-21, a winning percentage of .763.

After football, Nicks served Prairie View as director of athletics and in some years coa hed baske ball and baseball. In 1966, he was named special assistant to the university president and

ctschedule this year. For us, we’ve got to get the young guys on board with what we do and what Georgia Tech basketball really is. I think they’re starting to buy into that.”

The Jackets have improved at holding on to the ball, trouble spot earlier in the season. The defense appears to be improving on the whole. While Duke obviously was rusty as it came off its own pause, the Jackets had some defensive breakdowns but played physical and clingy against the Blue Devils, who shot a season-low 37.3%.

“It was just a toughness thing, playing up on the ball, being aggressive on all the ball screens, reading the screens, getting up on ’em, making ’em have to think about their next pass, stuff like that,” said Moore, who at times guarded potential first overall draft pick Paolo Banchero, who’s 3 inches taller.

Tech’s two defensive issues against Duke were, first, losing the battle on Duke’s offensive glass as the Blue Devils scored 17 second-chance points to Tech’s eight. Second, officials called 27 fouls against the Jackets to 14 against Duke, allowing for a 40-12 discrepancy in freethrow attempts, the widest gap in favor of a Tech opponent since at least the 2010-11 season, according to sports-reference.com.

“We would prefer to get to the free-throw line more than just 12 times, but I’m going to take the high road on it,” Pastner said. “I know the officials have a tough job.”

aremained there until 1973. In 1975, Nicks was named direc- tor of parks and recreation for the city of Houston and held the position until 1984.

For his efforts, Nicks was honored by Morris Brown with Billy Nicks Day in 1964, the city of Atlanta in 1982 and the naming of the Prairie View A&M Athletic Complex in 1988.

Nicks died Nov. 2, 1999, in Houston at age 94.

at Tech, ACC, AM, 93.7

The Class of 2022 will be enshrined during the Black College Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony and Juneteenth celebration, presented by the Falcons on June 18. The ceremony takes place at the College Football Hall of Fame.

The Class of 2022 will make its first public appearance at the inaugural HBCU Leg- acy Bowl on Feb. 19 in New Orleans.

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AP 2008 Wide receiver Donald Driver (right, seen in 2008 with the Packers) played for Alcorn State and is one of seven inductees to the Black College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022. The seven were selected from a list of 29 finalists determined earlier by the BCFHOF selection committee.

ASSOCIATED PRESS 1998 Tight end Ben Coates (seen in 1998 with the Patriots) played for Livingstone College and is one of seven inductees in the Black College Football Hall of Fame class, which was announced Tuesday.