Coming off the heels of a home-and-home series in football, Georgia State and Georgia Tech have announced one for men’s basketball. Unlike football, which will begin in 2024, the basketball matchup begins in late 2021.
Georgia Tech will host the first game at the McCamish Pavilion on Dec. 16, 2021. The games hosted by Georgia State have yet to be announced. While the two schools are only miles apart, they have played one another only twice this century.
Georgia State won the last matchup between the two in 2017, with a 65-58 win in the preseason. The Panthers and Yellow Jackets first met in 1970 and have since risen in prominence in the college basketball world. The Yellow Jackets are looking to rebound in the ACC and rise to prominence in the college basketball scene in Georgia.
This series is huge for both programs, as both are in transition. Yellow Jackets head coach Josh Pastner has a lot of pressure to return them to the tournament. After three seasons, that team has a disappointing 48-53 record.
Since Georgia Tech’s run to the 2004 national championship, they have only appeared in the NCAA Tournament three times, none since 2010.
Georgia State, on the other hand, has become the most consistent college basketball program in the state. They have won the Sun Belt Conference tournament three times in the last six years and won a March Madness game in 2015. But only one year into the Rob Lanier era under their belt, and the Panthers already boast a really young team heading into the next season.
Lanier has his work cut out for him going into the 2020-21 season. But a win over a crosstown rival would go a long way in solidifying the Panthers’ claim as the best basketball program in Georgia.
