Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire made two assistant coach hires – Rutgers associate head coach Karl Hobbs and Kennesaw State assistant coach Pershin Williams. The latter was confirmed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the former reported by Stadium, both Wednesday.
Hobbs has been at Rutgers since 2016 and was at Connecticut before that (2012-16). He also was a head coach for 10 seasons at George Washington, where he led the Colonials to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments, a first in school history. Since his dismissal at the end of the 2010-11 season, George Washington has earned one NCAA bid. His experience in the head-coach seat undoubtedly will serve Stoudamire well.
At Rutgers, he was part of one of the more significant program builds in recent history in the sport. When he was hired as an associate head coach in 2016 as part of coach Steve Pikiell’s initial staff, Rutgers had not been to the NCAA Tournament since the 1990-91 season and had recorded 10 consecutive losing seasons.
The Scarlet Knights won 20 games in Pikiell’s fourth season (2019-20) and likely would have made the NCAA Tournament if not for the pandemic. They have made two NCAA appearances in the three years since. In two separate tenures as an assistant at Connecticut (his alma mater), Hobbs aided two national titles and was a part of eight NCAA Tournament teams.
That Stoudamire had the budget to hire Hobbs from Rutgers speaks to the financial commitment that athletic director J Batt has made to Stoudamire and his program. Hobbs made $375,000 this past season, according to NJ Advance Media.
Williams was a part of former Kennesaw State coach Amir Abdur-Rahim’s staff, helping build the Owls from a one-win team in the 2019-20 season into the ASUN Conference champions this year. Williams is closely tied into recruiting circles in Georgia and played a key role in building an Owls roster stocked with players from the state. He figures to be central to Stoudamire’s plans to improve Tech’s recruiting in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
After playing at Columbus State and graduating from North Florida, Williams began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Tech during the tenure of former coach Paul Hewitt. He also coached at Georgia Southern (2009-13) and Columbus State (2016-19), as well as at Hardaway High in Columbus (2014-16).
Stoudamire has one more assistant-coach hire to make.
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