Georgia Tech transfer Lance Terry believes he’s an ACC-caliber player

Terry, who committed to Tech on April 10, will bring needed scoring ability to the Yellow Jackets, who are scouring the portal for players to replace the minutes and productivity of Michael Devoe, Jordan Usher and Khalid Moore. Tech coaches believe that Terry, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard who averaged 14.3 points per game this past season for the Runnin’ Bulldogs, can help.

“(Coach Josh Pastner and assistant coach Anthony Wilkins) both told me that they feel that if I go in there and I work as hard as I can, that they feel that I can be one of the main scorers out there or just in the ACC,” Terry said in an interview with the AJC.

It wasn’t only against the Big South that Terry showed his scoring prowess. This past season, he put up 16 at Arkansas and 15 at Duke in consecutive games in November, making 12 of 23 shots, including 5-for-14 from 3-point range. In late December, he dinged Georgia for 14 points in Gardner-Webb’s upset of the Bulldogs in Stegeman Coliseum.

He did his damage against the Razorbacks, he said, despite fans having singled him out to heckle.

“Every time I caught the ball, they would boo me,” he said. “Whenever I made a shot or something, they would get quiet. I always found that satisfying.”

Performances like those helped convince Terry that he could play in a more competitive conference for his final two seasons of eligibility. He might have been on that track four years ago. In the summer before his senior year at the Heritage School, Terry played on the same Atlanta Xpress team as eventual No. 1 overall draft pick Anthony Edwards and Chase Hunter, now at Clemson.

“People would be like, ‘Ant Man’s great, but Lance is pretty good, too,” Jerome said.

Terry said Georgia was among schools that showed interest. (Tech was not among them.) However, Terry broke the fifth metatarsal in his left foot in his final AAU tournament of the summer. Not sure how he would heal, schools backed off. Gardner-Webb was the only school that made a scholarship offer. Terry had the choice of not signing and playing his senior season and counting on his play to draw more significant offers. Jerome advised Terry and his parents to take the Gardner-Webb offer, lest he hurt his foot again and lose the Gardner-Webb offer, too.

“It was a little bit (frustrating), but I understood because most of (the college coaches) told me that I didn’t look the same after my foot was messed up, and I can’t really blame them for that,” Terry said.

Taking platelet-rich plasma injections to spur healing, Terry led Heritage to the GISA state championship, defeating Edwards’ Holy Spirit Prep team in the Class AAA championship.

Terry made an impression on Jerome as a dedicated worker, someone who came in before school to work on his shot multiple times a week.

“He didn’t have any other hobbies,” Jerome said. “His only thing was basketball.”

After coming off the bench in his first season at Gardner-Webb, he made it into the starting lineup as a sophomore, including a 23-point game against Florida State. But a torn ligament in the big toe of his left foot ultimately ended his season prematurely. But his first six games, in which he averaged 15.5 points per game and shot 52.8% from the field, began to tell him that he could move up the college-basketball ladder. That belief was only reinforced this year.

He made 35.0% of his 3-pointers and was 39.7% in his final 25 games after shaking off an illness.

He said he was nervous about putting his name in the transfer portal, not knowing how much attention he would draw among the hundreds of other players in the database. But, after he put his name in March 21, he said it wasn’t even a minute after his name surfaced before a coach from Georgia State texted him, and another from Arizona State a few minutes later. At least 30 schools reached out, Terry said.

Oklahoma and Cincinnati were among those expressing interest.

“But Tech was there the longest and the most,” he said.

The combination of Tech being close to home, being in the ACC and its record of developing players such as Jose Alvarado and Devoe proved key in his decision. Pastner and Wilkins’ ability to develop players, Terry said, “is better than anybody’s.”

“It was just all the pluses,” he said.

Terry can shoot from the outside but can also finish at the basket. He said he has a 42-inch max vertical (jumping from a running start), the same as former Tech star Josh Okogie. And he’ll bring to Tech the experience of having played three seasons. Jerome said Pastner has told him that Terry could have a role similar to Devoe’s.

After playing it safe on his college decision as a high schooler, Terry took a risk in the transfer portal, and it appears to have paid off.

Said Jerome, “It’s definitely going to be an adjustment seeing that speed now every day, but once he gets adjusted I think he’s going to be amazing in the ACC.”