Georgia Tech? Their best player has a bum ankle, their second-best has a cool name: Jarrett Jack. Or, quite possibly, it's Jack Jarrett. Option No. 3 is a 7-foot-1 Australian whose game is so glamorously memorable his teammates call him ''The Big Fundamental."

In the Runner-up Bowl, the Yellow Jackets beat Oklahoma State by two for the right to be heavy underdogs Monday night. OSU had all that pathos going for it, and the soil-eroded face of Eddie Sutton to define their noble striving. The Yellow Jackets are everyone's favorite afterthought.

Here comes the Ramblin' Wreck, want 'em or not.

Georgia Tech's Will Bynum, center, is congratulated by teammates Jarrett Jack, right, and Isma'il Muhammad. (AP photo)

Very good teams don't have to have very good players, especially now, when all the very good teen-agers see college basketball as a red light on their cruise to the NBA. That's the way it is with Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets beat Oklahoma State Saturday because a kid named Will Bynum, who spent a year and a half at Arizona and wanted to transfer to, yes, Oklahoma State, ended up at Georgia Tech, with the ball in his hands at the top of the key with 10 seconds to play in the national semifinals.

The game was tied, OSU having completed a determined comeback with a John Lucas III NBA-length 3-pointer with 26.3 ticks left. Georgia Tech called a timeout. Guard Marvin Lewis called the play in the huddle. (What is it with guys named Marvin Lewis, having to call plays?)

"Get it to Will," Lewis said. "Screen and roll."

Bynum is a gutty kid who helped beat Nevada and Kansas last week with late shots that put Tech ahead for good.

"There was no doubt we were going to put the ball in Will Bynum's hands," coach Paul Hewitt said, "because of his heart and competitiveness."

And his, um, self-assuredness.

"Run the screen and roll," was Bynum's description of Tech's last play. "If somebody's open, hit him. If not, take the shot. I was thinking 'take the shot' the whole time."

For much of the game, it didn't look like heroics would be needed. Georgia Tech's guards controlled the first half; the Jackets' 7-1 center, Luke Schenscher, mopped up in the second.

Lewis hit his first three 3-pointers, five in all, had 15 points in the first 13 minutes and said later he really didn't want Warren Sapp on his defense after all. Jack buzzed the lane, creating shots and hitting free throws. At 6-3, Jack played Super-Glue defense on the 5-11 Lucas.

After that, Schenscher showed the value in being tall.

Every time the Cowboys nagged at the lead and suggested a turnaround, the long arms of Luke were there, to grab a flat-footed rebound or swoop a baby hook.

Just as we were about to bequeath the NCAA Tournament to little men, a pituitary case changed our minds.

Schenscher had 19 points, 12 rebounds and one mighty screen that freed Bynum.

Schenscher's from Australia. "We don't have the athletes you have in America," said The Big Fundamental, "so we have to go about things in a different way."

Such as play the game the way it was intended.

On Tech's last play, Bynum got the ball above the key, drove right and had the layup kiss the glass with 1.3 seconds left. "Biggest shot I ever took," he said. "Only pressure I felt was going into the locker room if I missed."

Bynum had the courage, made the shot and everybody on the Yellow Jackets' bench began dancing. Disco-Tech. And to think Bynum might have been on the other bench; OSU wanted him, but it didn't have a scholarship.

That's how it is in college hoops now. Anybody can win. Anybody can be the hero.

Georgia Tech is playing for the national title. Curb your enthusiasm.

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com