Georgia Tech’s maiden voyage with its new captain begins at 7:30 p.m. Monday when the Damon Stoudamire Era begins inside McCamish Pavilion. The Yellow Jackets host Georgia Southern in the season opener for both teams.
For Stoudamire, wins and losses won’t be how he measures success for his program. The former NBA star, NBA assistant and coach at Pacific actually took that one step further and declared that results won’t define his tenure.
“I don’t care about winning and losing. I ain’t scared to be fired,” he said in October during the ACC Tipoff. “When you’ve had jobs and you’ve had success, I’m not scared of that. At the end of the day, it’s about seeing kids succeed more than having my own individual success.”
Stoudamire went 71-77 in five seasons at Pacific, a mark which included a 9-9 record during the shortened 2020-21 season and a 23-10 record in 2019-20. He inherits a Tech team coming off a 15-18 campaign but one retooled with transfers and freshmen.
Brought to Atlanta to replace Josh Pastner and to return Tech hoops to ACC and national prominence, Stoudamire said he wants to stay the course with his plan to build the Tech back into a winner.
“Just keep honoring the process. I’m a process-driven guy, don’t skip steps and that process is just so important to me. It wouldn’t matter if I was 4-11 or 11-4, but you gotta honor that process,” Stoudamire said. “As a CEO, you gotta manage. If we were to jump out 11-4, now I’m managing success. If we’re to be 4-11, now I’m managing expectations. You gotta be ready to do both, but the process never changes. So whatever that looks like it’s all about the process.”
Stoudamire and Tech have already gotten positive results on the scoreboard, although neither wins have counted. The Jackets beat UAB in a closed scrimmage in October and then topped Clark Atlanta 91-75 in an exhibition Wednesday.
In both outings Tech showed a propensity to share the ball and to make – and take – a lot of 3s. But in the latter contest against CAU the Jackets had too many turnovers and were beaten too often on the offensive glass. Part of that was due to big men Baye Ndongo and Tyzhaun Claude being out with injury and fellow forward Tafara Gapare missing the second half with an injury concern.
Ndongo and Claude, along with guard Lance Terry, aren’t expected to be active Monday.
Stoudamire does have the luxury of having Miles Kelly back in the fold. A 6-foot-6, 180-pound junior guard, Kelly tested NBA waters in the offseason before opting to return to campus. Florida transfer Kowacie Reeves and Ole Miss transfer Amaree Abram gives Kelly some support in the backcourt.
“We’ve been training all summer for it, going through practices, going hard in practice, in the weight room,” Kelly said about the start to the season. “So we’re well-prepared for this.”
Georgia Southern, meanwhile, is also starting a new era of basketball with Charlie Henry in charge. Henry moved to Statesboro after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant at Alabama.
His tenure got off to a bit of a rocky start when the Eagles lost to Augusta, the No. 10-ranked team in Division II, in an exhibition Oct. 20. Henry added Eugene Brown, an Ohio State transfer and Southwest Dekalb graduate, to his roster in the offseason, but Brown did not play in the team’s exhibition loss as he’s recovering from injury.
Guard Tyren Moore, who averaged 9.7 points per game last season, is the Eagles top returning player.
Tech and Southern have played six times prior, first meeting in 1953 and last playing in 2021. The Yellow Jackets are 4-2 against the Eagles having lost in ‘53 and 1958.
Monday’s matchup is the first of five nonconference tests before the Jackets begin ACC play Dec. 2 against Duke. Tech’s December also includes a trip to rival Georgia, a game against Penn State at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii.
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