Georgia Tech may be turning a corner, but long-term challenges remain

The Jackets, who play at Virginia on Saturday, won despite the fact that Stoudamire’s injury-wracked roster left him to play the final 25 minutes of the game with the same five players on the floor.

During the slide, “It looked crazy,” Stoudamire said. “It looked like we had lost our momentum and things of that nature. But guys kept fighting, guys got better, and I think that guys got more connected.”

As it pertains to Stoudamire’s second season, it is an encouraging turn, but probably only that. Only the hottest of streaks or an ACC Tournament championship will enable the Jackets to keep playing after their final game in the conference tournament in March. At 11-12 overall and 5-7 in a down ACC, Tech almost certainly has collected too many defeats to have a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. If that is the case, it will be the 13th season out of the past 14 that the Jackets will have failed to make the NCAA field.

Regardless, it seems as if Stoudamire and his team have figured something out.

“We’re competing right now,” forward Baye Ndongo said. “I feel like, the beginning of the season, we weren’t competing. We used to give up too easy. But now I feel like everybody wants to go in and do something.”

Ndongo, averaging 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, pointed to the team’s loss at Notre Dame on Jan. 28, in which the Jackets led or were tied through the game’s first 38 minutes, but lost 71-68.

After the game, “we had a little meeting in the locker room,” Ndongo said. Players resolved that they couldn’t let that happen again.

“Everybody locked in from there,” Ndongo said.

The wins over Louisville and Clemson followed. The latter was Tech’s first road win of the season. The Jackets have captured three of their past four. They’re playing harder and making better decisions.

“Last four games, we’ve done a great job of (playing situationally),” Stoudamire said. “We’re a couple possessions away from winning four in a row. And so I think that the guys are starting to understand that collectively. Not just one guy, but collectively.”

Maybe these are hints of Tech’s long-awaited revival?

The wheels already are turning in Stoudamire’s mind. After addressing the media Friday, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he needs to land some “all-conference guys” out of the transfer portal in the offseason. Borrowing from his past life in the NBA, he referenced the term for stars who can earn the largest possible contract.

“That’s kind of where I’m at with it right now for today is, I’ve got to go find me some ‘max’ players,” he said. “I’ve got to go find me a franchise player. Somebody that’s a little older. We’ve got a young team, but (a player with) a little maturity.”

And that’s the rub for Stoudamire and virtually every college coach in Division I. He likes his team. Point guard Nait George looks like a budding star. Ndongo could have an NBA future. Forward Ibrahim Souare is showing promise in his redshirt freshman season.

“We tend to want to get impatient,” Stoudamire said. “Souare, think of what he’ll look like when he’s a fifth-year senior.”

The challenge is, somewhere out there is a coach who’s also imagining what Souare will look like as a fifth-year senior, only in his uniform and not Tech’s. And a coach who wants a smart point guard like George.

Stoudamire’s vision is to build a program in the traditional sense and not recruit an entire team out of the portal. In his era of college basketball, that’s a tightrope act.

“You know the deal,” he said. “You’ve got to win, too. You’re trying to figure out your guys, you’re trying to manage the expectations, so you’re dealing with a lot. But you can’t panic. You’ve just got to keep doing what you’re doing.”