Georgia Tech has received a letter of intent from forward David Didenko, a freshman at a junior college in South Florida. Didenko, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward, committed to Tech in October. Coach Josh Pastner made the announcement Tuesday.
In a statement, Pastner called him an elite shooter with a high skill level.
“He needs to gain competitive game experience, which he’ll get this year at a good school that plays good competition,” Pastner said. “But he’s physical, and he can shoot the ball.”
Didenko, from Boca Raton, Fla., was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. in 2010 at the age of 10. He does not have much organized basketball experience and had limited recruiting exposure playing AAU basketball in his high-school summers. He elected to attend Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where his shooting ability demonstrated in preseason workouts and scrimmages this fall quickly earned him attention from multiple power-conference schools.
In seven games at Palm Beach State, Didenko is averaging 5.1 points and 5.3 rebounds. He can enroll at Tech next summer and will have three seasons of eligibility starting next season.
Didenko can “really, really shoot it,” said Martin McCann, Didenko’s coach at Palm Beach State. “He’s got one of those strokes where it looks like it’s going in every time he lets it fly.”
Didenko is expected to be the only prospect to sign with Tech in the early signing period. Pastner has two more open scholarships for the 2019-20 academic year.
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