Tarver back with Yellow Jackets

ATLANTA - Theodis Tarver is back with the Georgia Tech men's basketball team.

Georgia Tech restored the senior center's eligibility Friday, four days after ruling he'd failed to meet the school's academic standards for student-athletes last semester. He remained eligible under NCAA rules. Details of the decision, made by the same committee that ruled Tarver ineligible Monday, were not disclosed.

Tarver can play in a noon game today vs. North Carolina State.

Tarver's return will bolster Tech's frontcourt. Without him, the Yellow Jackets have only one true center and three post players.

WOLFPACK WOES: For all Georgia Tech's success the previous two years, the one team former stars Jarrett Jack, B.J. Elder and company couldn't topple was North Carolina State.

The Jackets head to Raleigh, N.C., for today's game a loser of six in a row to the Wolfpack.

The Yellow Jackets are basically a new team this year. They lost all five starters and their sixth man from last season. Coach Paul Hewitt's not so sure that will change his team's fortunes against the Wolfpack, though.

"I don't think anybody's had any sort of negative mind-set or attitude," Hewitt said. "They've just been very hard-fought games that we've come up short on. They've all been close."

Four of Georgia Tech's defeats in the losing streak were by six points or less.