With the loss of assistant coach Tavaras Hardy to the head job at Loyola (Maryland), Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner will designate a non-coaching staff member as an assistant coach to allow the staff to maintain its recruiting efforts.
NCAA rules permit teams to have three coaches off campus for recruiting purposes at any one time. With Hardy going to Loyola, Tech’s coaching staff is down to Pastner, assistant Eric Reveno and interim assistant Julian Swartz. Having a fourth coach would enable one of the coaches to come back from the road.
“I’ll have three guys on the road,” Pastner said.
Thursday, Pastner told the AJC that he had not yet decided whom he would designate. Likely candidates would be Mario West, the former Yellow Jackets guard and player personnel director, and scouting director Tyler Benson. Pastner has a little bit of time to decide, as there is a “dead period” – during which in-person contact between coaches and prospects is not permitted – that begins Thursday and ends next Thursday.
In the meantime, Pastner can begin the hiring process for a second assistant. He is already looking for a replacement for Darryl LaBarrie, who resigned in February after an NCAA investigation into an alleged rules violation became prolonged. Swartz, who was named interim when LaBarrie was put on paid leave in November, is a candidate for the job.
Hardy became the fifth coach to work for Pastner to take a head coaching job in college and the seventh overall. Hardy was the principal designer of Tech’s offense and recruited nationally. He was the lead recruiter for guards Jose Alvarado and Curtis Haywood and signee Khalid Moore.
“I’m really happy for him,” Pastner said. “He’s going to a great job there. It was a great opportunity for him, and I think it’s more of a feather in our cap that we’ve hired good people.”
As he said regarding the hire to replace LaBarrie, Pastner said he wants to hire someone who can coach and develop players and also evaluate and recruit talent. He said he also will be cognizant of staff chemistry. His original staff of Hardy, LaBarrie and Reveno was unusual in that none of those three had previously worked together or with Pastner, but their personalities meshed well together.
He again said that it won’t be imperative that one of the two hires be connected to the AAU and high-school circles in Atlanta and the state.
“It’d be nice to have somebody, but I’m not putting that all or nothing,” he said. “I want someone who’s good, and if you’re good, you should be able to relate and connect to people.”
Pastner said he will not rush the hires, just as he was deliberate in putting together the original staff.
“How will it impact (the recruitment of rising seniors)?” he asked. “We’re on guys, we’ve got to stay on guys.”
Tech is still also trying to fill the final available scholarship for the 2018 class.
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