Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire announced Wednesday two additions to coach his staff.
James Forrest, a Yellow Jackets legend in the early 1990s, and Greg Gary will be a part of the program for the 2024-25 season. Forrest was assigned the role as special assistant to the head coach, and Gary will be a quality-control specialist and analyst.
The most outstanding player in the ACC tournament, Forrest averaged 26.7 points and seven rebounds and made 69% of his shots from the floor to claim the Everett Case Award in 1993. He led Tech to victories over Duke, Clemson and North Carolina to win the program’s third ACC title at the time and became the first player in 17 years to score 20 or more points in three consecutive tournament games.
A product of South Atlanta High School, Forrest made the all-ACC first team in 1994 and earned third-team honors in 1995. By the time his career ended, he had scored 1,978 points, grabbed 846 rebounds and averaged 17.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game over his four-year career. Forrest may be best remembered for his 25-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Tech a 79-78 victory over Southern California in the second round of the 1992 NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A few months later, he stunned Louisville with a half-court heave that beat the horn in an 87-85 victory in the first college basketball game played at the Georgia Dome.
Forrest’s son, Jalen Forrest, had intended to transfer from Presbyterian to Tech for the 2023-24 season but opted to enroll at South Plains College in Texas instead.
Gary comes to Tech after five seasons as the coach at Mercer, where the Bears won 81 games and nine players earned all-Southern Conference honors during his tenure. He has made 16 postseason appearances as a college assistant and player, reaching the NCAA Tournament nine times.
Before his arrival in Macon, Gary spent eight seasons working under Matt Painter at Purdue. He helped the Boilermakers reach the Elite Eight in 2019 and make back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in 2017 and 2018.
Gary arrived at Purdue after two stints at Duquesne, where he spent the 2007-08 and 2010-11 seasons as an assistant coach, sandwiched around two seasons as the head coach at Centenary. Gary also spent three seasons (2004-07) as an assistant coach at South Florida and was at Miami from 2000-04 and at Tulane (1993-97, 1998-2000). At Tulane, he was an assistant to Perry Clark, who was an assistant coach on the Tech staff of Bobby Cremins from 1982-88 before taking over the Tulane program in 1989 and coaching the Green Wave for 12 seasons.
Gary served as an assistant coach at McNeese State for the 1997-98 campaign.
After graduating from Anderson, Indiana’s Highland High School in 1988 and spending a year at Aquinas College, Gary transferred to Tulane. Gary finished his career as Tulane’s all-time leader in assists (370) and now ranks fifth. He is second in career assist-to-turnover ratio (1.97).
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