Notes: Past Tech stars weren’t recruiting studs

With national signing day Wednesday, attention to recruiting rankings and stars is climbing to its annual frenzied peak. With that in mind, it might be a useful exercise to examine how some of Tech’s most recent stars were evaluated as high school prospects. In some cases, not very highly.

Judging by his 24/7 Sports composite rankings, few could have guessed that Jeremiah Attaochu would go on to become Tech’s all-time sack leader, an All-American and the No. 50 overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. In the 2010 signing class, was ranked the No. 5 player in the Washington D.C., area, the No. 67 outside linebacker in the country and the 934th best overall prospect in the country.

Former Tech safety Jemea Thomas, one of the most popular Yellow Jackets players in recent history, was the No. 36 player in Georgia in 2009, the No. 26 athlete in the country and the No. 509 player in the country. He was a sixth-round pick of the New England Patriots and finished the season with the Tennessee Titans.

Tech All-American guard Shaquille Mason takes the prize for completely botched recruiting ranking. In the 2011 class, the player voted to five All-America teams and an indispensable force of the Jackets’ record-setting offense in 2014 was the No. 21 player in the state of Tennessee, the No. 75 guard in the country and the No. 1,141 player in the country.

Men's basketball: The Tech men's basketball team will play at Duke, ranked No. 4 through last week, Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN2). Aside from the Jackets' 1-8 record in ACC play, the Jackets will be fighting considerable history at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Tech has lost its past seven games there and 14 of the past 15. In fact, it's taken some of the Jackets' best teams to win there. The last two Tech teams to win there won the ACC regular season title (1996) and went to the national championship game (2004).

The team will play in the Las Vegas Classic in Dec. 2015. The athletic department signed an agreement in late December to participate in the tournament. The contract was obtained through an open-records request. The agreement calls for two on-campus games Dec. 14 and 19 and two games in Las Vegas the 22nd and 23rd.

Baseball: The Tech baseball team has taken occupancy of its new locker room, part of a $4.5 million renovation project that included the excavation of earth behind the home dugout to make room for a 3,000-square foot weight room. The space beneath the stands of Russ Chandler Stadium includes the new locker room, mud room, coaches locker room, training room, players lounge, equipment room, study lounge and the weight room. Yankees first baseman and Tech great Mark Teixeira was among those making significant gifts to the project. The locker room will bear his name.