Gueye, Ogbonda to redshirt for Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech forwards Abdoulaye Gueye and Sylvester Ogbonda will redshirt this season, coach Brian Gregory announced Friday prior to the season opener. Gueye and Ogbonda both likely would not be able to contribute much behind four frontcourt players expected to play heavy minutes.

“I believe that A.D. (Gueye) and Sylvester have an opportunity to be tremendous players in our program,” Gregory said in a statement. “When you have a situation where you can red-shirt two players and help them get physically stronger, increase their skill level and compete every day in practice against three senior post players, it’s a good situation for them and their future, and it’s a good situation for our program. We now have the depth in the program that we can redshirt players that are going to make a huge impact down the road. We wanted to look at the big picture for both of these guys, and it is bright for them and for our program.”

Ogbonda is a 6-foot-10 freshman from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, who attended high school in Maryland. Gueye, a 6-foot-9 sophomore from Dakar, Senegal, played a total of 34 minutes last season as a freshman. Ogbonda will have four years after this season, while Gueye will have three.

Tech will start forwards Charles Mitchell and Nick Jacobs, with James White and Ben Lammers coming off the bench. Mitchell, Jacobs and White are all seniors.