FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Never one to mince words, Damon Stoudamire told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was caught off-guard when starting point guard Nait George decided to transfer to Syracuse in April.
“You live with it,” Stoudamire said Tuesday after he had wrapped up meetings with fellow ACC coaches at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island. “I don’t have nothing but love for (George). He’s a really good ballplayer. He’s gonna do well. It’s just part of it, man. It’s the business. So, for me, when I look at it, it’s just the business of it, and you just move on.”
George spent two years with Stoudamire and the Yellow Jackets. He was a virtually unknown prospect out of high school and had planned to play for Seattle University before Stoudamire signed him to become Tech’s point guard of the future.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Canadian totaled 356 assists in two seasons with Tech while averaging 11.2 points per game.
George wasn’t the only surprise departure of the offseason for Tech. Duncan Powell, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward, left to continue his career at Providence (after first announcing he would play for Georgetown).
“After a while, you gotta make really tough decisions when you’re trying to manage rosters and everything. It gets tough with a guy like Duncan because he exceeded all expectations, but at the same time, too, that’s a credit to him. I’m happy for him. We’re good, too,” Stoudamire said. “It’s just business for me. The relationship is the same, and you move on, and you just try to fill in the holes.”
Thus, with two significant deflections, Stoudamire’s third roster will again consist mostly of new faces.
Junior center Baye Ndongo and sophomore guard Jaeden Mustaf are the lone regulars who remained with the program. Stoudamire also confirmed guard Kowacie Reeves Jr., who missed the 2024-25 season with a foot injury, will be part of the 2025-26 roster.
Six freshmen are expected to arrive on campus this summer: guards Akai Fleming, Brandon Stores Jr., Eric Chatfield Jr. and Davi Remagen and centers Cole Kirouac and Mouhamed Sylla. Former Missouri center Peyton Marshall, former Miami (Ohio) guard Kam Craft and former Pacific guard Lamar Washington have announced their intentions to play for Tech, too.
Stoudamire said he expects his third team to be bigger and more athletic and to have multiple ball handlers. He also has higher expectations for Ndongo, a junior center who has averaged 12.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 63 games.
“Me and him have talked, no gloves on,” Stoudamire said. “He has to not only advance his game and get better — he’s gonna talk to the media and do different things (like that). I’ve seen a change in him in the maturity level. A guy as valued as he is within the program, it’s important that he gets out and not only plays, but he talks, he articulates and gets everything that he deserves.”
Stoudamire is 31-35 in two seasons leading the Jackets and is 17-23 against ACC teams. His 2024-25 team was improved markedly and fought through a multitude of injuries to earn an invitation to the NIT after 17 wins and a .500 mark in ACC play.
But for the second consecutive season, the Jackets had too many bad losses, such as at home to North Florida in November, at Boston College in February and in the NIT opener against Jacksonville State, when only 1,623 fans showed up at McCamish Pavilion.
“I always say this: I never worry about the critique of me or the criticism because there’s never a critique or criticism nobody can ever tell me that I don’t already know,” said Stoudamire, now making a salary of $2.3 million in the third year of a five-year contract. “It’s no different than the way we started this year. Had to pick it up, and we did, we got better. But early season losses hurt you big picture. If you look at some of the early season losses that we had, if we get them back, it’s probably a different season. We would have put ourselves on the bubble for the tournament this year. Two years running, outside of the top three or four teams in the league, we have some of the best victories in the conference.
“But our problem isn’t that. Our problem is we gotta start beating teams when we’re the favorite, when we’re playing with a bull’s eye on our back. That’s where we gotta get better. That’s maturity. That’s respecting the game and not playing with the game, and that’s your approach to how you’re preparing for each opponent. That’s something we gotta get better at, and it starts in the summer. It starts now when we get everybody on campus.”
Tech is still looking for its first winning season since 2020-21, when it finished 17-9 (also the last time it made the NCAA Tournament). The program hasn’t had a 20-win season since 2015-16.
“I think we made steps, but in year three, regardless of what we lost (on the roster), that doesn’t really matter,” Stoudamire said. “We have an infrastructure, we have a system, we have a base in what we have, and so we gotta continue our momentum.”
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