Georgia Tech is aggressive. Georgia Tech is in-your-face. Georgia Tech doesn't back down.
And it doesn't surprise Iowa State women's basketball coach Bill Fennelly in the least. That's the kind of player Yellow Jacket coach MaChelle Joseph was when she played at Purdue in the early 1990s.
And the seventh-seeded Cyclones will see first hand how 10th-seeded Georgia Tech embodies the intense nature of their coach when the teams meet in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
"They are going to be in attack mode the whole time," Fennelly said. "They play like their coach. MaChelle Joseph was a phenomenal college player."
Joseph was an All-American and Women's Basketball News' player of the year in 1992. Her team will settle for making it into Monday's second round game.
If the Yellow Jackets (22-9) get there, it will be because of their pressure defense.
They rely on their athleticism, speed and guard Jacqua Williams to turn their NCAA-best 14.3 steals per game into easy layups and big leads. The lighting-quick Williams totaled a school-record 115 steals this year and spearheads a defense that can be just as effective, and aggressive, in the half court as it is in an up-tempo affair.
If Georgia Tech fails to get a transition layup off its press, the Yellow Jackets look for Swedish import Chioma Nnamaka (15.3 points) behind the 3-point line, where she shoots 39.0 percent, or forward Janie Mitchell (16.7 points), who can score in the post or from the top of the key.
But for Georgia Tech, everything comes back to their press.
"Their claim to fame and their calling card is pressure defense," Fennelly said.
The Cyclones (20-12) have struggled against pressure all season long. Vanderbilt forced ISU into 18 turnovers in November and the pattern continued until first-year point guard Alison Lacey became more comfortable running the Cyclone offense.
ISU's press break still can be improved - Texas A&M forced 15 turnovers in the Big 12 Conference Tournament semifinals - but matchups with Nebraska and the Aggies, who both implement a full-court pressure, in the last two weeks has the Cyclones feeling adequately prepared for the Yellow Jackets.
"We aren't freaking out," Lacey said. "We are more settled. We are more composed. We trust each other a lot more. We know where everyone is supposed to be and that helps a lot."
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