Unless Georgia Tech adds a player before school starts next month, basketball coach Paul Hewitt will have just nine scholarship players after fifth-year senior center Ra'Sean Dickey decided to skip his senior season and play professionally in Ukraine.

Hewitt, in Las Vegas recruiting, said Dickey's decision to leave the program was based largely on family issues.

"We wish Ra'Sean well as he starts his pro basketball career," the coach said by phone. "He certainly has every intention on finishing college. We have all mutually decided that it is in his best interests to start his pro basketball career."

Dickey's departure leaves four scholarship players - sophomore Gani Lawal, junior Zack Peacock, senior Alade Aminu and redshirt sophomore Brad Sheehan - in the Tech frontcourt. Senior forward Jeremis Smith graduated and forward Mohammed Faye transferred to SMU last winter.

"We'll be fine," Hewitt said. "There is a possibility that we may be getting another kid. We're probably not going to have as much depth as we'd like, but if everybody stays healthy, we'll be fine."

Hewitt would offer no more detail on the potential incoming player other than to say he is a graduate student.

Dickey, a 6-foot-10, 250-pounder who was academically ineligible for the first semester last season and redshirted in the second semester when a chronic knee problem bothered him, started 20 games as a sophomore and 23 as a junior. He was most effective as a sophomore, averaging 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Hewitt said he didn't know what team or league Dickey and former teammate Anthony Morrow will play for in Ukraine, but he said they'll be on the same team.

With the eligibility of Smith, Morrow and guard Matt Causey expired, the Jackets have signed one player - McDonald's High School All-America guard Iman Shumpert - to a letter of intent.

In the past two seasons, Tech has had 10 players graduate, transfer or leave school early for the NBA, with just four new scholarship players joining the team in that time.

The 2009 signing class is filling up, though, as Miller Grove High guard Mfon Udofia of Lithonia two days ago became Tech's third commitment. He joins forwards Kammeon Holsey of Sparta and Brian Oliver of Mouth of Wilson, Va.

Walton High guard Glen Rice Jr. is expected to announce his college choice Thursday, and Tech is believed to be his preferred school. The Jackets remain also are recruiting South Atlanta's Derrick Favors, widely considered one of the top two high school big men in the nation.