With another new roster, Stoudamire still aiming to reach NCAA Tournament
Another new season and another almost entirely new roster, but the same goal remains for Georgia Tech men’s basketball.
Coach Damon Stoudamire, still looking to take the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021, has only four players back from the 2024-25 roster. The third-year coach brought in four transfers and six freshmen in hopes of constructing a roster capable of returning Tech to March Madness.
“I think we’re right on point to where we need to be,” Stoudamire said in September. “It’s continuing to move the needle. I think we have a team that’s full of depth. We got numbers. We got competition. I think collectively we’ve got a group that likes each other. I think those are the biggest ingredients to having a good team.
“I haven’t had a group that has hung out together (like this group). We gotta kick them out of the gym. They go back to the locker room, and they hang out with each other in the locker room. They go out together. They were at the football game (against Clemson). So for me, that’s a joy because that’s half the battle. Now, we haven’t handed out any minutes or any of those things yet, but the process started at the beginning of the summer, and it’s just continued up to this point.”
Earning an annual salary of $2.3 million and in the third year of a five-year contract, Stoudamire has coached Tech to a 31-35 record overall, 17-23 against ACC competition. His 2024-25 squad was decimated by injuries but fought its way to a 17-17 record and 10-10 mark in league play and earned a spot in the NIT, where it lost at home to Jacksonville State.
Most of the nucleus of that team is gone.
Four seniors exhausted their eligibility. Guard Nathan George and center Ibrahim Souare transferred to Syracuse. Guard Duncan Powell transferred to Providence, forward Darrion Sutton transferred to Missouri State and center Doryan Onwuchekwa transferred to Tulsa.
Stoudamire believes he brought in six first-year players who can more than make up for that haul of departures.
“I have a freshman class that I think is elite,” he said. “I think that they will contribute. All of them will contribute over the course of time. I think we have some special ones in this class. It’s a breath of fresh air to have a group like that. Different personalities, but all the same — a group that’s gonna help us both on the floor and off.”
Stoudamire raved first and foremost about Mouhamed Sylla, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center from Senegal by way of Bella Vista Prep in Arizona, who Stoudamire hinted could be an NBA prospect sooner rather than later.
Center Cole Kirouac (originally part of the 2024 signing class before reclassifying) and guard Akai Fleming came from nearby Overtime Elite, guard Eric Chatfield Jr. is a Pace Academy graduate, and guard Brandon Stores Jr. hails from the Bronx, New York. Tech also went international to complete the class with the signing of shooting guard Davi Remagen from Germany.
Tech went less heavy in the transfer portal this go-round, adding guards Lamar Washington (Pacific), Kam Craft (Miami of Ohio) and Chas Kelley III (Boston College) and center Peyton Marshall (Missouri).
The newcomers join the quartet of Kowacie Reeves Jr., Jaeden Mustaf, Baye Ndongo and Dyllan Thompson, the only remaining players from the 2024-25 squad.
“It’s gonna be on them to talk to the guys about their expectations. I think that’s been the best thing so far,” Stoudamire said. “When you have Baye Ndongo, when you have Jaeden, when you have Kowacie, and even Dyllan, they know what the standard is. It makes it easier as a coach and the staff knowing you’re trying to create your culture and fighting for your culture, when you have people that’s in the locker room that understand the culture.”
Tech’s season opens Nov. 3 when it faces Maryland Eastern Shore at McCamish Pavilion. The Jackets play 10 of their first 13 games of the season at home and have only one road game in that stretch, a Nov. 14 tilt at Georgia. (The other two games are at a neutral site in Florida as part of the Emerald Coast Classic.)
ACC play is scheduled to begin Dec. 31 at Duke.
“The biggest thing is we’ve shown an ability —we can beat Top 25 teams, we can beat top-five teams. We have to beat the teams we’re supposed to beat. That makes a season,” Stoudamire said. “You’ve got to win the games that you’re supposed to win. If we can build our momentum going in the ACC play, to me, we have a favorable schedule going in the ACC play. We play a lot of home games. We just have to take one practice and one game at a time.”
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