Jackets taking lumps on road

It is a rough road that leads to the height of greatness.

- Seneca

CLEMSON, S.C. - If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, the road to the NCAA Tournament is included in the TripTik.

Road trips have become road blocks at the highest levels of college basketball. In the ACC, any road victory is as common as a Duke bowl game.

From dingy old facilities such as Cameron Indoor Stadium and University Hall to modern arenas like the Comcast and RBC centers, any team wearing dark jerseys is a dark horse of astonishing proportions.

Ask Georgia Tech. After 20-point drubbings of North Carolina and Virginia at home, the Yellow Jackets discovered Wednesday that you can't even go to Clemson and count on winning anymore.

"This loss was a heartbreaker," Georgia Tech forward Ed Nelson said after the Jackets lost 69-67. "We were tuned up to come out and get our first road win. It's frustrating. We're still winning ballgames at home but we've got to win on the road if we want to play in March."

Basketball in the ACC has indeed developed into some sort of Grand Slam tennis match, with everybody so adept at holding serve that the service breaks have become all too rare and precious.

At the midpoint of the conference schedule, five of the nine ACC schools have perfect records at home (Georgia Tech, Duke, Wake Forest, N.C. State and Virginia). Three schools (Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State) are winless on the road in conference play. Even the gold standard for traveling immunity - former No. 1 Duke - has a 1-3 ACC road mark.

"Each team plays with that much more confidence at home, from Florida State to Duke," Georgia Tech junior Marvin Lewis said. "It's up to the visiting team to overcome that."

The ACC road winning percentage is 22 percent (8 of 36). By comparison, the SEC road teams have won 30 percent of the time (14 of 46). Only three SEC teams (Georgia, Kentucky and Florida) are unvanquished at home while five schools have been shutout on the road (South Carolina, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas and Vanderbilt).

The Yellow Jackets haven't won on anyone else's home court all season (0-7). They dropped a prime chance to exorcise that demon Wednesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum, one of only four vulnerable ACC venues this season after Maryland's stunning defeat to Virginia on Thursday.

Oh, to be home again.

"We've got to start worrying about it now," said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt of the road woes. "It's my job to get them prepared to win at home or on the road. We're confident every game on the road. Right now there is some concern."

With so few opportunities away from home and Maryland, Duke and Wake Forest still coming to Alexander Memorial, the pressure builds for each service opportunity. It's gotten to the point where any home defeat can be devastating, especially considering middling ACC teams have routinely been left out of the NCAA mix in recent years.

Staying on serve the rest of the way, the Jackets might find it hard selling a 15-12, 8-8 record with no road victories to the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

While it sometimes might seem like an unrelenting road to ruin, the rewards are great for the team that can hold serve and break occasionally. It's never easy. It's not supposed to be.

Even ancient Roman playwrights and Greek philosophers understood that.

"Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat. Long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning."

-Hesiod, Works and Days

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.