Georgia Tech landed its most prolific basketball recruit since Derrick Favors in 2009 when Shiloh High School forward Robert Carter signed with the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-8, 250-pound Carter is ranked among the top 25 college prospects in the nation, picking Tech over archrival Georgia and Florida. North Gwinnett guard Chris Bolden and North Clayton swingman Marcus Hunt also signed with Tech in the early period.
“In your first recruiting class, it’s important to bring in the type of guys that you can build your program around. I felt like we did that with these three,” Tech coach Brian Gregory said.
When Gregory was hired from Dayton last March, he had almost no name recognition or recruiting connections within the state’s fertile recruiting grounds. Gregory and his assistants made gigantic gains to sign a class of homegrown talent that is ranked No. 14 in the nation by Rivals.
“We want to recruit the very best players in the country, and we want to protect our home turf first,” Gregory said. “That was one of our objectives when we got the job, to make Georgia Tech a viable option for the best players in the state.
“This state produces so much talent that we’re not going to get everybody, but we want to have a strong presence in that recruiting pool.”
Carter is a marquee name who may attract other local prospects to eventually play with him at Tech. Carter transferred this year to Shiloh from Thomasville High School, where he averaged 20.3 points and 14.3 rebounds as a junior.
Tech had a few connections working in its favor with Carter. He is friends with Bolden and Hunt, who both took their official visits to Tech on the same weekend as Carter to encourage him to sign with the Jackets. Carter also is friends with Pierre Jordan, the point guard who transferred from Florida State to Tech in August. Jordan’s father is Carter’s AAU basketball coach.
“Robert is a versatile big forward,” Gregory said. “With the way we play, he’s going to have a lot of opportunities to utilize that versatility. I love the fact he can step out and make plays on the perimeter. He’s got a really great soft shooting touch, and great feet, in terms of being light on his feet.
“The one thing that goes unnoticed is that he is a tremendous passer. I saw him making the winning pass in two different games this summer where he threw it on time and on target to a streaking guy who had to make the shot at the buzzer. But the pass was just as good as the shot.”
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