It’s something second-year Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire will stress publicly above all else: if his Yellow Jackets can’t be better defensively, they’re not going to be much better than his first Tech team at all.
“We’re an improved defensive team,” Stoudamire said Friday. “Now, obviously, fatigue breaks you down, so the habits are more important and I think that we’ve created a lot of good habits. I think as the year goes on I think we’ll get better with our D, but that’s important to me. I care about our defense more than anything.
“Games (last season) came down to a two-and-three possession game. A lot of ‘em we didn’t win because we couldn’t get a stop, we couldn’t stop somebody from scoring or, more importantly, we had a great possession, but we didn’t finish it with a rebound. That’s really important for me. And we’ve addressed it.”
Stoudamire’s first season in Atlanta was full of exhilarating wins, intriguing storylines, woeful inconsistencies and, generally, poor defense. The former NBA point guard had a team that won 14 and lost 18, finishing with a 7-13 ACC record.
Tech beat Mississippi State, Duke, Penn State, Massachusetts, Clemson, North Carolina and Wake Forest along the way. But it also lost to UMass-Lowell, Boston College, Louisville and Notre Dame (three times).
Stoudamire’s hope is that the ups and downs pertaining to the win-loss columns go by the wayside due to a nucleus of key players that have returned, the quality transfers that have joined them and the talented freshman infused to add a spark.
“I just think this roster’s more versatile,” Stoudamire said. “We got longer guys, we got length and we got depth. Last year we didn’t have a lot of depth. So you were relying on guys when they were tired. And that’s tough. In your mind, yes you want them to do certain things, but there’s only so much they can do.”
Guards Kowacie Reeves and Nait George and center Baye Ndongo highlight Stoudamire’s returning pieces for 2024-25. Tech also gets guard Lance Terry back on the floor after the senior missed the 2023-24 season with a leg injury.
They will be joined by guard Javian McCollum from Oklahoma, forward Luke O’Brien from Colorado, center Ryan Mutombo from Georgetown and forward Duncan Powell from Sacramento State. Freshmen Jaeden Mustaf, Darrion Sutton and Doryan Onwuchekwa comprised what was considered the No. 20 signing class in 2024, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Stoudamire said he sees Tech being 9-10 players deep ahead of the season-opener at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against West Georgia at McCamish Pavilion.
“There’s spacing on the floor. We can get in the gap, kick out, another drive, another kick out. It’s great because the defense has to rotate and they have to play on us,” McCollum said. “We got a lot of shooters, you gotta run us off the line – you run us off the line, now we’re finishing at the rim, now we got (Ndongo) to dump it off to. It’s well-rounded.”
Instead of playing exhibition games in October, Tech scrimmaged Louisiana State and Mississippi State behind closed doors. Stoudamire said he was able to get a good feel for his team during those closed-door workouts, but the Jackets had too many unforced turnovers that they’ll need to eliminate moving forward.
Working out the kinks shouldn’t be difficult through the first month of the season. The Jackets open with seven straight home games before playing at Oklahoma on Dec. 3, the team’s one and only nonconference road game. The competition ramps up in December with a trip to North Carolina, a game against Northwestern in Milwaukee and a home tilt against Duke.
Seventeen of Tech’s 20 ACC games are scheduled to be played between Jan. 4 and March 8. The ACC’s postseason tournament, in which only the top 15 teams will qualify, is scheduled to begin March 11 in Charlotte.
Doing a better job of navigating, and perhaps conquering that schedule, better than 2023-24 will come back to the defensive end for a squad predicted to finish 12th in the 18-team ACC.
“We got a lot of energy. We play with a lot of energy defensively. Very versatile on defense,” O’Brien said. “We can switch one through five with a lot of guys. And when we play fast, we’re really, really dangerous.”
West Georgia on deck
West Georgia, in its first season as a Division I program, will be playing its second game in three days when it takes the court against the Jackets. The Wolves made their D-I debut Monday in a 95-60 loss at Mississippi State.
Coached by Dave Moore, WGU went 27-6 and lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Division II last season. West Georgia and Georgia Tech have never met before.
Tech is paying WGU $90,000 for Wednesday’s game.
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