JACKETS TRY TO LOOK PAST STING OF SANCTIONS

Team hopes winning will help overturn postseason ban.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Georgia Tech center James Banks has a vision for the season. It includes the Yellow Jack- ets winning far more games than expected.

“I feel like if we earn that spot to the NCAA (tourna- ment) and we’re winning games, I feel like that’ll put pressure on the NCAA to make the right decision on what they’ll do with us,” Banks said Tuesday at the ACC’s Operation Basketball media event.

The “right decision” Banks referenced would be an overturn of the postseason ban the NCAA’s infractions com- mittee gave out two weeks ago for Tech’s rules violations, along with four years of recruiting and scholarship restrictions.

“In my mind, winning cures everything,” Banks said.

As Ba n ks and guard Michael Devoe (along with coach Josh Pastner) met with media in Charlotte, both spoke with optimism and enthusiasm in the wake of the ban. They offered their lofty expectations for the season and hopes for Tech’s likely appeal of the postseason ban to be successful. Devoe went so far as to paint a picture of the ban being overturned, followed by the Jackets getting in the NCAA tournament and advancing to the Final Four at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, about two miles from campus.

“It’s a story,” Devoe said. “A team that wasn’t supposed to go to the tournament goes to the tournament and (the Final Four) is at home. It’s a perfect story. It’s like a Cinderella story.”

Perhaps even Cinderella’s fairy godmother might ques- tion her capacity to summon such an outcome: The Jack- ets have had back-to-back losing seasons and haven’t been to the NCAA tourna- ment since 2010. In the first moments after Tech players learned of the ban, they weren’t so sure themselves. Players expressed their dis- appointment on group text messages, Banks said.

“You get kind of shocked,” Devoe said. “Like, wow, we really can’t go to the tournament.”

But disbelief and disappointment gave way to hope and resolve. Before practice Sept. 26, the day the sanctions were announced, Athletic Director Todd Stansbury gave what Pastner described Tuesday as a powerful and captivating message to the team. Banks said Stansbury told the team “that he was on our side, he was behind coach Pastner and that he was going to do everything in his power to allow us to play in the postseason this year.”

Given the events of the day, Pastner gave players the option not to practice. The team’s response, according to Pastner: “Coach, what are you talking about? We want to get on the floor and compete.”

Devoe and Banks said that practice quality has improved since the sanc- tions were announced. “I feel likethis adds fuel to our fire,” Devoe said. “A lot of people are talking about us, they don’t think we’re going to make it and things like that, but I think we’re going to shock a lot of peo- ple this year.”

Recent history would suggest the likelihood of Tech winning its appeal is low. Banks said he’ll just focus on his part and leave the appeal work to Tech’s administration.

“Let’s get better,” he said. “Let’s win games. Let’s shock people. Let’s be in the media every day. Let’s beat suchand-such in the ACC, let’s beat somebody else again. Let’s be a ranked team this year. And then what?

“People will want to see us play (in the NCAA tournament),” he continued. “At the end of the day, if we’re losing, it doesn’t matter anyway, so let’s make it matter by winning.”

The Jackets return the core of last year’s 14-18 team, which ranked 43rd nationally in defensive efficiency. To that prowess, the Jackets have added offensive firepower in two transfers, guard Bubba Parham (the leading scorer in the Southern Conference at VMI) and guard/forward Jordan Usher, a high-motor wing player from USC. Further, Devoe and Banks attested to the development that returnees have made in the offseason. Devoe added 10 pounds of muscle going into his sophomore season. Banks honed his shooting with his left (off ) hand.

“I feel like this is our year that it’s going to go in the basket,” said Devoe, following two seasons in which the Jackets finished in the bottom 10 percentile in Division I in 3-point shooting percentage.

Said Banks, “I think we’re one of the best teams in the ACC.”

It would indeed be quite a story, one that college basketball fans could latch on to and support. Could such a season sway the NCAA’s infractions appeals committee? Count Devoe and Banks as believers in the power of a good story.