Atlanta ? Jarrett Jack used to sleep with a basketball. It was the last thing he thought about at night, the first thing on his mind when he woke up in the morning.

“He had these drills he would do in his bed,” his mother, Louise Jack, recalled. “He would lay flat on his back and do things with the ball on his fingertips.

“He would fall off to sleep with the basketball,” she said with a chuckle.

Not much has changed over the years.

Jack still is consumed by the sport, often heading over to Georgia Tech’s arena late at night to work on shots he might need in a game. He’s all alone. No coaches. No teammates. Sometimes, if the light switch is locked up, he’ll just practice in the dark.

“I can make do,” Jack said, “as long as I’ve got a basket and a ball.”

Gotta make 10 shots going to the left off the pick-and-roll. Now, 10 going to the right. OK, let’s do some pull-up jumpers off the fast break. All right, it’s time to work on the three-point shot. A couple hundred from seven different spots on the floor should do the trick.

“He’ll call me and say, ‘Hey Mom, I’m on my way home from the gym,'” Louise Jack said, marveling at her son’s dedication. “It’s 11 o’clock at night.”

Jarrett is the consummate gym rat, going almost everywhere with a basketball in his hands. Only recently did he stop traveling with his ball. Yep, he would carry it right on the plane, making sure it was never more than an overhead bin away.

Georgia Tech's Jarrett Jack hangs onto the rim as he dunks late in a 2004 NCAA Tournament game. Jack, shown during the Yellow Jackets' 57-54 second-round victory over Boston College in this March 21, 2004, file photo, is one of the best players on one of the best teams in the nation.

That single-minded devotion has paid off for Jack. He’s one of the best players on the one of the best teams in the country, starring at point guard for the No. 3 Yellow Jackets.

Last season, Jack guided Georgia Tech all the way to the national-championship game. Along the way, he was voted MVP of the St. Louis Regional, scoring 29 points in an overtime victory over Kansas University to ensure the school’s second trip to the Final Four.

Jack is determined to get back to St. Louis, where the Final Four will be held this year. He still thinks about the loss to Connecticut in the last game of last season. This time, he wants to be the one cutting down the net.

“I’m working to be the leader who gets us there,” he said.

Jack steadily improved during his first two years at Georgia Tech, but he has taken his game to a whole new level as a junior.

It started with the first practice of the season — and hasn’t let up. Coach Paul Hewitt said he never had a player maintain such a high level of play for such a long period. There have been no off days so far.

“I been around a lot of guys who put in the physical work,” Hewitt said. “But what separates Jarrett is he puts in the mental work. I’m talking about things like filmwork. He watches more film that any player I’ve been around. He’s almost like a Peyton Manning, breaking things down and trying to see how he can get better.”

In Georgia Tech’s first five games, Jack shot nearly 63 percent from the field, missed only one free throw and averaged 14.8 points. But that’s not all. He was averaging nearly six assists. He was third on the team in rebounds. He had six steals.

In a rout of Michigan, he was nearly perfect running the offense — 11 assists and no turnovers. In the next game against Georgia, he made all seven of his shots, including three from beyond the three-point arc.

Already, there is plenty of speculation that this will be Jack’s final season at Georgia Tech. He shrugs off talk of the NBA, saying he won’t even consider it until the season is over.

As he told his mother: “We didn’t win the championship last year. I’m focused on that and focused on making the dean’s list. If anything else comes up, I’ll talk with you and Dad about it.”

At 6-foot-3 and a solid 202 pounds, Jack is bigger than many of the point guards he faces. Whatever he concedes in quickness, he makes up with size and positioning. He’s able to post up smaller players, contest shots and play a major role on the boards.

“I’ve always felt that it’s hard to take a big guard out of the game,” Hewitt said. “He’s one of those guys who just fills up the stats sheet. If he’s not scoring, he’s getting assists, he’s getting steals, he’s getting rebounds.”

While basketball is Jack’s first love, his parents made sure it wasn’t the only thing in his life. He had to keep up his grades or he couldn’t play. Jack can laugh now about the time he brought home a less-than-stellar progress report on the same day he had a game.

“I was dressed and ready to go,” he said. “My mom says, ‘I don’t know where you think you’re going. You better change into your pajamas.”‘

Jack didn’t play. His team lost a close game. That was the last time he challenged his mom’s edict about schoolwork.

When Jack wasn’t studying, he usually could be found on a court in his native Maryland. It didn’t matter whether it was snowing or raining, he always was ready for a game. His parents got so tired of looking for him that they put in a hoop at their home.

“That limited where we had to look,” Louise Jack said. “Luckily, we live in a fantastic neighborhood. No one complained when he was out there shooting at 12 or 1 o’clock at night.”

Jack has revived Georgia Tech’s tradition of outstanding point guards, a lineage that includes Mark Price, Kenny Anderson, Travis Best and Stephon Marbury. In fact, Jack wears No. 3 in honor of Marbury, his favorite player.

“A lot of people say the only reason I came to Georgia Tech is because I wanted to be like Stephon, blah, blah, blah,” Jack said. “I didn’t come here to be the next Stephon Marbury. That’s not realistic. We have different styles, different coaches. It’s nice to have a tradition, but I wanted to come in here and make my own mark.”

He already has, joining Anderson as the only point guards to take Georgia Tech to the Final Four. If the Yellow Jackets win it all this season, Jack will be in a class of his own.

“Hopefully the season will end in April,” he said, “and we’ll have a big trophy.”