Weekend Reflections: Stoudamire lost at Tech despite good in-state recruiting

Colben Landrew helped Wheeler beat McEachern on Saturday to advance to the Class 6A boys’ state championship. It’s no surprise Landrew will play college basketball at Connecticut.

Georgia’s top high school players routinely bypass the state’s two high-major programs, Georgia and Georgia Tech. The conventional wisdom says the state of college basketball in the state will improve once more homegrown recruits stay to play.

Well, Damon Stoudamire changed that trend at Georgia Tech but still didn’t win enough games to keep his job for a fourth season. Director of athletics Ryan Alpert announced Sunday he fired Stoudamire after the Jackets finished the season on a 12-game losing streak.

Stoudamire’s Jackets were 42-55 overall, including 19-39 in the ACC. Stoudamire’s good in-state recruits, plus touted out-of-state prospect Mouhamed Sylla (No. 17), formed the core of one of the worst Tech teams of all time.

Stoudamire signed one player from the state who was ranked among the top 100 nationally in his class by the 247 Sports composite: Jaeden Mustaf (No. 67 in 2024). Stoudamire signed two players in the 2025 class ranked just outside of the top 100: Akai Fleming (No. 101) and Darion Sutton (No. 102). Another top-100 player from Georgia, Peyton Marshall (No. 17), transferred to Tech from Missouri last year.

It was no small feat for Stoudamire to sign good in-state recruits. There were 24 prep players ranked among the top 100 in their classes from 2023 to 2026. Mustaf and Georgia’s Jake Wilkins are the only two to stay in state to play college basketball (Wikins’ father is basketball legend Dominique Wilkins, who starred at UGA).

Stoudamire wasn’t attracting the state’s very best recruits. I’m not sure that will happen at Tech unless the school hires a brand-name coach with a history of sending players to the NBA and/or invests more money in NIL.

Stoudamire did better with signing the state’s top prospects than predecessor Josh Pastner. Tech didn’t sign any national top-100 players from Georgia during Pastner’s six full years of recruiting.

The basketball talent drain from Georgia means lots of players have starred for programs in other states before making it to the NBA.

Since 2006, NBA draft-eligible players must be at least 19 years old and one year removed from high school. From 2006-07 until 2025-26, 65 players from Georgia entered the NBA, per Basketball Reference.

Just three of those played at UGA and four played at Tech.

Stoudamire did well to persuade players to to play for Tech. He signed two more good players from the state for next season: Tri-Cities forward Jalan Wingfield (No. 107) and Overtime Elite forward Moustapha Diop (No. 113).

Stoudamire won’t get to coach Wingfield and Diop at Tech because he didn’t win enough games with the in-state recruits he had before them.

College sports leaders enlist Trump’s help to deny athletes rights

Desperate college sports leaders went to Washington on Friday to beg President Donald Trump to help them get a federal antitrust exemption and a declaration that athletes aren’t employees. They were looking for ways to bypass pesky labor laws that prevent them from colluding to prevent athletes from earning their market value and collectively bargain for their working conditions.

All you need to know about the roundtable is that no current college athletes participated. Trump waved away this revealing fact by claiming athletes were represented by two ex-coaches, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, who care about athletes “more so than they care about themselves.”

That must explain why Saban and Meyer are asking the federal government to prevent athletes from having the same labor rights as everyone else.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips managed to stand out in his shamelessness. Give him credit. That’s hard to do in a room that also included Trump, Saban, Meyer and Republican leaders in Congress.

Phillips claimed no athlete has ever told him or any of the other conference commissioners they want to be considered employees.

“They’re smart enough to understand what that means,” Phillips said.

They would gain a host of rights by being designated as employees, including federal anti-discrimination protections for race, sex and religion. As employees, athletes would have stronger protections against abuse and harassment by coaches.

College sports leaders want to prevent athletes from gaining those rights while unilaterally imposing rules regarding compensation, eligibility and transfers. They could address those issues by negotiating in good faith with athletes as workers. Instead, they want Congress and Trump to give them an exemption from the law.

Trump said he’s going to help Phillips and Co. by issuing an executive order that will “solve every problem” in college sports. They couldn’t have expected anything better than a vague plan that’s doomed to fail once it reaches a court of law.

Atlanta United’s offense came to life in loss

Morgan Guilavogui, Real Salt Lake’s recently acquired Designated Player, made an immediate impact for his team against Atlanta United on Saturday. That made me start thinking about why United’s trio of high-priced attacking players has produced so little for their team.

Two of them finally provided a spark after United was down 2-0. Alexey Miranchuk scored two goals, with Emmanuel Latte Lath assisting on one of them. The Five Stripes lost, 3-2, but the play of their DP’s was an encouraging sign.

United failed to score in its first two matches this season and three of the final four games last season. Manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino inserted Miranchuk into the starting lineup for the first time Saturday and got instant results.

Both of Miranchuk’s goals were the result of creative, opportunistic plays. He started the three-pass sequence that led to his first goal. Latte Lath used his superlative speed to get behind his man in the box and set up Miranchuk for another goal.