March Madness remains goal as Georgia Tech basketball opens season Monday

Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Damon Stoudamire declared in 2023, before his first season leading the Yellow Jackets, that his goal — and his team’s goal — was to make the NCAA Tournament.

That has not changed ahead of Stoudamire’s third season with the program. But that goal still has not been reached.

“It’s never any pressure. I don’t look at anything as pressure,” Stoudamire said about setting out to secure that elusive NCAA Tournament bid. “I look at things as if it’s momentum. We need to keep building. For me, that’s what it is.

“It’s more about trajectory, and that’s the next step. We just have to continue to improve every day. It’s not going to happen in one day. So, we got to keep building, got to keep building brick by brick. We’ll be right there.”

Stoudamire’s first team went 14-18, including 7-13 in the ACC. His second team was 17-17 and 10-10 and lost in the first round of the NIT at home to Jacksonville State. But those results mean little considering the roster was remade and retooled and included only two players who have been in the program the entirety of Stoudamire’s tenure.

The former NBA standout brought in six freshmen and four transfers to try to get the Jackets, who open the season at 7:30 p.m. Monday against Maryland Eastern Shore at McCamish Pavilion, over the proverbial hump and into March Madness for the first time since 2021.

Stoudamire believes the level of talent those 10 newcomers bring to the table will be the boost Tech needs.

“I just feel like we have the pieces,” Stoudamire said. “The big thing is, don’t turn the ball over. We’ll have a chance in any game. Win the rebounding battle, win the 50-50 plays. It comes down to who’s the toughest team. For me, that’s got to be what we hang our hat on.”

From the outset, Tech will be relying on junior center Baye Ndongo (6-foot-9, 240 pounds) and guards Kowacie Reeves, a 6-7, 205-pound senior, and Jaeden Mustaf, a 6-6, 210-pound sophomore. That trio, along with guard Dyllan Thompson (6-7, 215), is all Tech has left from the 2024-25 roster.

Sophomore center Peyton Marshall (7 foot, 300) and freshman center Mouhamed Sylla (6-10, 240), a four-star signee and native of Senegal, will give the Jackets a different dynamic inside. Guards Kam Craft, a 6-6, 205-pound transfer from Miami (Ohio), and Davi Remagen (6-3, 193), a freshman from Germany, provide some more perimeter scoring options.

Pacific transfer Lamar Washington (6-4, 200), Boston College transfer Chas Kelley (6-3, 185) and freshmen Eric Chatfield Jr. (5-11, 160) and Brandon Stores Jr. (6-5, 210) give Tech some depth in the backcourt.

“Your team changes every year, and I think as a coach, you have to understand that you have a choice, right? You either be stubborn, play how you want to play, or you can play to the strengths of your team,” Stoudamire said.

“So, I just kind of let things evolve, and playing to the strengths of our team is playing to our bigs. Our perimeters, as they keep figuring it out, it’s a lot that they can do playing with great bigs, and that’s what I’m trying to tell them each and every day.”

Maryland Eastern Shore went 6-25 last season, including 2-12 competing in the MEAC. The Hawks, coached by Cleo Hill Jr., have had one winning season in the last decade.

The matchup with UMES is the first of three straight home games for Tech to open the season and the first of six in a row in the state (the Jackets play at Georgia on Nov. 14).

After a trip to Niceville, Florida, to play two games in the Emerald Coast Classic at the end of November, Tech has another five-game homestand before starting ACC play at Duke on New Year’s Eve.

Opportunities for victories over the first two months of the season appear to be plenty. But the pundits are not high on the Jackets overall: they’ve been picked 13th in the 18-team ACC in the league’s preseason poll and as the 11th-best team in the ACC by Field of 68.