ACC Preview #10 – Georgia Tech

Damon Stoudamire is one of the more interesting ACC hires recently. Typically we’re skeptical of former NBA players who become college coaches. Many of them aren’t willing to do the hard work to master the college game. Chris Mullin flamed out at St. John’s. Patrick Ewing destroyed the Georgetown program he once helped to launch into the stratosphere. Larry Krystkowiak did okay at Utah but ultimately failed. Juwan Howard and Danny Manning were also dreadful college coaches.

The one guy who is a great exception to this is former Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who embraced and extended his father Tony’s system, ultimately winning the 2019 national championship and while Billy Donovan did play in the NBA, his greatest impact was at Florida, where he won back-to-back titles.

Typically, it’s a long-shot hire when you go for the NBA guy. Is Stoudamire an exception?

It’s still too early to say for sure, but you can say this for the man they once called Mighty Mouse: he was willing to pay his dues.

Stoudamire spent a year at Rice as director of player development. He then returned to the NBA for a couple of years with Memphis before taking a job with his old Arizona pal Josh Pastner, when Pastner was coaching the Memphis Tigers. He went back to Arizona for a couple of years then returned to Memphis (Tigers, not Grizzlies) before taking the Pacific job, where he did reasonably well. After the pandemic hit, Stoudamire worked for Brad Stevens with the Celtics and his successor, Ime Udoka. Stoudamire left Boston about a month after Udoka was booted for personal indiscretions, taking the Georgia Tech job.

So look at who he has worked with during his career: he played for Lute Olson at Arizona and Olson was, without question, one of the great coaches in college history. Pastner may have poor people skills, but no one doubts his brilliance. Stoudamire also worked with Stevens and Udoka, who was admired in Boston before poor judgment cost him his job.

He was also willing to do the dirty work at Rice and was doing reasonably well at Pacific when the pandemic hit, and that’s not an easy job. Clearly, this is a guy who understood he could not just walk in, flash an NBA wand and succeed.

That said, he hasn’t yet set the world on fire at Georgia Tech. In his first season, Stoudamire finished 14-18. Last season, he got to .500 at 17-17. But in fairness, that team was absolutely wracked with injuries, which makes 17-17 a significant accomplishment.

Kowacie Reeves went out with a foot injury in late November and never got back. He was a starter averaging 15.7 ppg.

Luke O’ Brien missed 24 games with a foot injury of his own and like Reeves, had been a starter.

Javian McCollum missed 14 games, Lance Terry missed three, Jaeden Mustaf missed six and Lance Terry missed three. Finally, Doryan Onwuchekwa missed eight for unspecified reasons.

There were games where Georgia Tech was without three starters and for a time basically had a six-man rotation with Ryan Mutombo coming in for five minutes or so to help out as much as he could. Most remarkably, the Yellow Jackets went to Clemson and pulled off a triple-overtime win where five players got at least 43 minutes.

At one point during the injury wave, Stoudamire said his team could still win and frankly, we thought he was blowing smoke. But to his immense credit, Tech did stay competitive and finished the season with a 4-2 run in the last six games.

Given the injury wave that affected the Yellow Jackets (and don’t forget, Duke lost two players against Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament when Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown went down), Stoudamire did a remarkable job. He kept his battered team focused and despite a near total lack of depth at times, they played hard and with confidence.

No one was going to give him Coach of the Year for a 17-17 record, not least of all when Pat Kelsey had done an astounding turnaround at Louisville, but Stoudamire did a superb job in a very tough situation.

So what’s up for Year 3?

Well, he loses a lot, like nearly every team does these days. Nait George and Ibrahim Soure are off to Syracuse. Duncan Powell, who was quite useful, is now at Georgetown. Onwuchekwa took his personal issues, whatever they were, to Tulsa, and Darion Sutton is at Missouri State. Terry and McCollum graduated.

On the bright side, Mustaf is back and he showed real promise. So are Reeves and Baye Ndongo, who at times has been a devastating big man (Stoudamire tried to use him more on the perimeter but Tech improved greatly when he moved him back inside). Dyllan Thompson, son of NBA great Tina Thompson, redshirted last season. He’s a 6-7 freshman.

The portal brought some talent: Lamar Washington (6-4 senior) comes from Stoudamire’s old school (Pacific) and hometown (Portland). Chas Kelley (6-3 senior) moves down the coast from Boston College. Kam Craft (6-6 junior) was at Miami of Ohio last season. Peyton Marshall is a very large man (7-0/300 lbs sophomore) who was at Mizzou last year. He’s a hometown kid, incidentally.

Washington started at Texas Tech where his minutes decreased in his second year. At Pacific, he averaged 13.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game and was Second team All-WCC.

He’s got a chance to become a solid point guard but he was apparently a bit turnover prone at Pacific.

Kelley we got to know at B.C. He got 18.8 mpg on a 12-19 team and averaged 4.4 ppg, 1.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists. If nothing else, he’ll provide depth and experience and a fresh start might do him some good.

Craft is a shooter: he hit 43.1 percent of his threes and that’s going to get a lot of attention in the portal. He got 13.6 points last season, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists. He spent two years at Xavier before moving on to Tech where he’ll open up the inside for Ndongo and friends.

Marshall is an enormous man and it remains to be seen how well he can play at 300 lbs. If he can manage that weight and play extensive minutes, he’ll be a huge (pun intended) asset for Tech. Among other things, he could allow Ndongo to expand his game. Stoudamire tried that last season but it didn’t work, partly due to Mutombo’s limitations.

Stoudamire brings in six freshmen: Akai Fleming (6-4), Eric Chatfield (5-11), Mouhamed Sylla (6-10/240), Cole Kirouac (7-0/199), Davi Remagen (6-3) and Brandon Stores (6-5).

Fleming has the potential to really be good. He’s an excellent athlete who is becoming a skilled basketball player. He can score and he’s a willing defender, which is going to get him minutes.

Chatfield is smaller but he has a scorer’s instinct and he’s not easy to guard. We’re not sure where he fits in yet, but like Fleming, he could really turn into a nifty player. We could see bringing Chatfield and Craft in for some offensive shock therapy.

Sylla, like Ndongo a native of Senegal, is physically mature at 6-10 and 240. His offense is probably behind his defense, but he should immediately help inside. Going up against Sylla and Ndonga is going to be a real challenge for Tech’s opponents.

Kirouac is very thin, but from what we hear, he’s still tough. He’s going to be going up against a lot of big guys this year in practice which should help him develop. We don’t know enough to say, but at 199, he might be a redshirt candidate. We really like his long-term potential, not least of all because he seems like a hard ass.

Remagen is a kid out of Germany who should be in the mix to start at point guard. He grew up in the European system and his skills may be more advanced than some of his new teammates. He’s also a reportedly a solid defender as well.

At 6-5, Stores brings a lot of versatility to the Yellow Jackets, not least of all defensively. A kid out of New York, he’s going to bring some toughness to Tech too. He was seen as a four-star recruit. When he committed, he said that he chose Tech because he believes in the culture that Stoudamire is building.

So what’s Mighty Mouse got to work with?

Looks like a lot.

He’s got four guys over 6-9 in Ndonga, Sylla, Marshall and Kirouac. Two are athletic, one is massive and the other has time to bulk up but might be able to help now anyway.

He’s got a lot of versatility with Reeves, Thompson, Mustaf, Stores, Fleming, Washington and Remagen, not least of all on defense. He’s got some talented scorers in Craft and Chatfield, but they’re not the only ones. He has two or three guys who can man the point.

He’s also got significant talent around Ndongo now which should make him more effective.

His biggest concerns may be how people adapt to roles and how the younger players fit in. Reeves and Mustaf will probably see their roles evolve and that could mean less minutes. Could they accept that?

And how the young guys adapt is important too. Some are going to get a lot of minutes as freshmen and some aren’t.

And obviously after last season, Stoudamire is hoping to avoid injuries.

If things go well though, he appears to have a talented roster and for our money, he really proved himself as a coach when adversity struck last season. However, like a lot of schools in the ACC, Tech could improve tremendously and not see it reflected in the record. The ACC is going to be a lot better, top to bottom, and not everyone is going to see a better record.

Whatever happens, Georgia Tech is likely to be one of the more compelling stories in the ACC this season. We’re really excited to see what they can do, and now that he has real talent, we’re also curious to see what lessons Stoudamire can pull out from his time with coaches like Olson and Stevens.

It should be a fun season for Yellow Jacket fans.

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It’s a bit early of course, but Tech has a 2026 commitment from Moustapha Diop, the #1 center in the class of 2026.

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One last thing to note: Stoudamire has six players from Georgia on his roster, including three from Atlanta. That’s a really good sign for his program. For years, other schools have raided Georgia for talent. There’s no reason why Georgia Tech should just concede backyard recruiting battles including guys like Stephon Castle, Isaiah Collier, Scoot Henderson, Walker Kessler, Jabari Smith, Jr., Devin Vassell, Jaron Blossomgame and not least of all Anthony Edwards. If Tech has an attractive program, they’ll have reasons to stay home.