ATLANTA — The pinnacle coach bent over on the waist and rested his forearms on the press desk, seemingly urgent all of his weight into his elbows. His ears lined by headphones as he prepped for a postgame interview, he hung his head, peering up solely together with his eyes to reply questions. His physique language screamed of a person who had been wrung dry of emotion, as if the incredulity of what simply occurred was merely an excessive amount of to bear.
Behind him, college students danced in delirium at midcourt. Damon Stoudamire, the primary Georgia Tech coach to win his first sport in opposition to Duke, is a mighty profession 1-0 within the ACC. That’s it. However so far as debuts go, that is about nearly as good because it will get.
Taken by itself, Tech’s 72-68 win over No. 7 Duke doesn’t a renaissance make. Dig into the precise sport, although, and the substance reveals itself. The Yellow Jackets led for all however 1:38, coughing up the sting on the most precarious level — with two minutes remaining. But down 4, they rallied again, in the end scoring the game-winner on a daring alley-oop, They secured it with not one however two successive defensive swarms. Again that stalwartness as much as a win in opposition to No. 21 Mississippi State 4 days prior, and the seeds of what Stoudamire is sowing start to point out.
This season marks the twentieth anniversary of Georgia Tech’s look within the nationwide title sport. Thirty years in the past final season marked the tip of a program-defining run of 9 consecutive NCAA Event berths that included 5 Candy 16s, two Elite Eights and one Ultimate 4.
However for the reason that 2004 nationwide championship look, Tech has had two successful seasons within the ACC and earned 4 event bids. Every ended within the first weekend, the dearth of protracted success ultimately costing Paul Hewitt, Brian Gregory and Josh Pastner their jobs.
Stoudamire got here into the job properly conscious of the excavation that wanted to be completed. He additionally arrived with totally different bona fides from everybody who sat within the Georgia Tech head basketball coach’s chair. He’s not a training lifer who has spent his total maturity climbing the ladder. He’s a former lottery choose and NBA Rookie of the Yr who, as a coach, has jumped backwards and forwards from the professional sport to varsity.
The shift is just not unintentional. Within the final twenty years, Georgia Tech had been one thing worse than mediocre; it had turn out to be irrelevant. When new athletic director J Batt went looking for his subsequent coach, he needed somebody who may assist the Yellow Jackets get their groove again.
“Swagger, some coolness, juice, these are all good phrases,” says Daniel Parker, the vp of Atlanta-based Parker Government Search, a agency specializing in faculty hires. “That’s what he’s. He exudes swagger. He’s a man that may say, ‘I used to be on the Celtics bench final yr.’ He can stroll into the 4 Seasons, the place Charles Barkley is holding court docket, they usually’re associates. That’s what he brings. That’s what Georgia Tech wanted.”
It’s just a bit previous 8 a.m. in early October and the Yellow Jackets are hugging — within the arms clamped/chest bump/slap on the again/bro hug type of approach — however hugging nonetheless. That is how they begin every apply. What appears like a handshake line is, the truth is, a hug line. “There’s not sufficient hugging on the planet,” affiliate head coach Karl Hobbs says. “Apart from, today you gotta present these guys you care about them. We’re within the enterprise of constructing relationships.” Hobbs has been within the enterprise of basketball for greater than 30 years, reducing his tooth as an assistant within the Nineteen Nineties as Jim Calhoun’s prime recruiter at UConn. Suffice it to say, Calhoun didn’t open apply with hugs.
However basketball evolution is fixed, and spinning on an particularly fast axis today. The switch portal, mixed with identify, picture and likeness alternatives, has shifted the facility dynamic. There may be all the time, if not a assured greener plot of grass, no less than the attract of 1. The place as soon as gamers fretted over their coach’s contentment, now the roles are reversed. Protecting gamers pleased is just not a aim; it’s a necessity. Stoudamire, 50, makes use of his relative youth, relatability as a former participant, and NBA cache to maintain in line with his roster, sharing his personal experiences and providing recommendation he discovered the arduous approach.
Had been it solely really easy to require a bro hug and some heart-to-hearts. It’s not. Exhibiting them you’re keen on them helps, however it higher be packaged with the “Jerry Maguire” present them, too. “They’re behind (on NIL alternatives) they usually understand it,’’ Parker says of Tech.
Atlanta boasts 16 Fortune 500 firms and, due to a tax incentive, a multi-billion-dollar leisure trade. It’s a vibrant, albeit transient, metropolis crammed with younger professionals, previous cash and new. Individuals have loads of disposable revenue; additionally they have loads of choices.
Again within the day, when head coach Bobby Cremins was usually making the NCAA Event, many followers and gamers selected Georgia Tech. The native New Yorker began a pipeline of level guards from his stomping grounds (Mark Worth beget Kenny Anderson, who beget Stephon Marbury), turning a moribund program (1-29 in two years earlier than Cremins arrived) into the recent spot to be. Again when he was Prime Time, not Coach Prime, Deion Sanders was a daily. Spike Lee made a couple of cameos, too.
However issues started to falter after Cremins toyed with a suggestion from South Carolina in 1993. The Yellow Jackets’ NCAA streak ended the next yr, and in February 2000, Cremins introduced his plan to retire. Hewitt, employed from Siena School, revived this system with one other run to the Ultimate 4 in 2004, however within the one-and-done period, Hewitt couldn’t construct any continuity, with gamers akin to Chris Bosh and Derrick Favors bolting for the NBA after a season. Hewitt was fired in 2011.
Since, success has been sporadic at finest, Pastner’s ACC event title in 2021 rating as one of the best run in many years. Because the wins dwindled, so did the cache. Final yr, the 8,600-seat McCamish Pavilion averaged simply 4,713 followers.
However this weekend, greater than 7,000 arrived on a Saturday afternoon when somewhat faculty soccer sport of significance — the Southeastern Convention championship sport — additionally was being performed in Atlanta. Whereas little question a few of the Tech devoted arrived extra as rubberneckers, anxious to get an up-close take a look at Duke, they left with the present of surprising victory, and maybe the curiosity to come back again once more. That’s precisely what Stoudamire wants.
As we speak, house crowds are extra than simply benefits; passionate fan bases usually result in profitable collectives. Earlier than coming to Georgia Tech in October 2022, Batt labored beforehand as Alabama’s govt deputy director of athletics, chief working officer and chief income officer. Elevating cash for Crimson Tide athletics is the proverbial goal apply in a barrel, however he’s made capital enhancements a precedence for Georgia Tech, too. The varsity’s aggressive drive initiative, launched not lengthy after Batt arrived on campus, raised $4.8 million in two months. He agrees that the college’s NIL potential was “restricted to begin,’’ however eyes the newly launched Tech Manner collective as a strategy to preserve Yellow Jackets aggressive.
Loads of Georgia Tech grads have deep pockets. What’s a problem for recruiting — specifically attracting gamers to a selective, excessive tutorial STEM-rich college — provides as much as financially profitable graduates. In response to the college’s most up-to-date profession survey, graduates earn a mean wage of $85,000 upon receiving their levels; these with their grasp’s prime out at plus-$100,000.
Hardly ever has that cash flowed into the athletic division coffers with the identical aggressive urgency of different ACC colleges. Per the 2 colleges’ athletic basis stories, for instance, Virginia obtained $18.3 million in contributions in 2019; Georgia Tech simply $3.5 million.
Within the NIL period, that gained’t compute. Stoudamire is neither shy nor passive when recognizing the necessity for NIL offers to draw gamers. As a former participant, he views it as lengthy overdue; as a present coach, he sees it as mandatory.
The better Atlanta-area has all the time been wealthy with basketball expertise — three top-10 gamers within the final two courses (Ace Bailey, Isaiah Collier and Stephon Fortress). It’s much more affluent now, with Time beyond regulation Elite parked lower than a mile from the Tech campus. Time beyond regulation gamers Robert Dillingham (final yr), Kanon Catchings and John Bol (this yr) all rank as 247Sports consensus prime 50 gamers. None of them, although, selected Georgia Tech. Bailey is headed to Rutgers, Katchings to Purdue and Bol to Ole Miss. Collier is at USC, Fortress at UConn and Dillingham at Kentucky. Parse by way of the present High 25 rosters and also you’ll discover much more gamers who opted to not keep house — Coen Carr (Michigan State), Damian Dunn (Houston), Matthew Cleveland (Miami) and Eli Lawrence (Texas A&M). Even Tech senior Kyle Sturdivant, a Norcross native, began at USC earlier than coming house after the dying of his father.
“What we have now on this nice metropolis of Atlanta, it hasn’t been tapped into but,’’ Stoudamire says. “I would like our guys to have entry to all of these items.”
Stoudamire pauses and smirks. “In fact, I do perceive all of that is simpler whenever you win.”
Damon Stoudamire was an assistant with the Boston Celtics final season. (Brian Babineau / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)
“Will someone please yell, ‘I bought f—-ing ball?’”
For a superb 40 minutes, Stoudamire’s voice, which normally hovers someplace between a rasp and a croak, doesn’t rise above dialog degree. The morning hug routine spills over into apply, as Stoudamire preaches positivity. Excessive vitality, arduous claps, boundless encouragement. Till, on a routine three-on-three drill, the Jackets transition on protection in close to silence. One group does it, and Stoudamire kindly suggests that somebody say they’ve bought the lead dribbler. The subsequent group repeats the error, and Stoudamire lastly yells in exasperation.
It’s a trivial error. It’s not like nobody picked up the man with the ball; they only didn’t talk the choice to their teammates. “Oh, man, that’s him. Consideration to element, that’s what he’s all about,” says junior guard Miles Kelly. “He’s purposefully nitpicking so we get every little thing all the way down to a T, so within the sport it turns into second nature.”
Such foundational constructing takes time, however when it clicks? Think about the Jackets’ consideration to scouting report element. They, a crew that’s holding opponents to twenty-eight % from 3-point vary this season, uncovered a Duke crew that has struggled recently from the arc (11 of 40 of their two prior video games). The Devils have been simply 4 of 16.
Stoudamire hasn’t but coined a buzzword for his crew, but when there’s a front-runner, it’s accountability. In an hour-long interview, he says it seven instances. He admits it’s one thing of a throwback in a social media age the place info has each a brief shelf life and lives without end. But as gamers embark on NIL offers and company partnerships, he argues it’s extra necessary than ever.
However to Stoudamire, accountability means success on the court docket, too. Proudly owning your errors. Attacking your weaknesses. Which additionally is hard, due to a switch portal that makes it simpler to run from errors than personal them. If the gamers discover it silly, they aren’t letting on. They arrive early, pay attention intently and haven’t any drawback calling out, “My unhealthy,” after they err. “We name it juice,” Sturdivant says. “You gotta convey your individual juice, and share in case your teammates are missing.”
Stoudamire not often wants a sip. The brand new morning apply schedule has been an adjustment for the gamers. Not for the pinnacle coach. As his gamers shuffle in towards the locker room, Stoudamire is outdoors on his every day jog.
He’s right here as a result of he desires to be, not as a result of he needs to be. Stoudamire earned $100 million in his NBA profession and had a superb gig in Boston. Final season, when head coach Joe Mazzulla missed two video games due to an eye fixed harm, Stoudamire took the reins. The transient run as boss reignited his need to be a head coach, however Stoudamire figured he’d bide his time for an NBA gig. He voluntarily left the faculty sport for the professionals, in spite of everything. Stoudamire spent 5 years at Pacific, leaving after his good good friend and then-Celtics head coach Ime Udoka referred to as about a gap. He was neither disgruntled nor disenfranchised with faculty basketball; he simply figured he’d maxed out that job.
Since 2000, solely three West Coast Convention coaches have left on their very own accord — Dan Monson, who went from Gonzaga to Minnesota; Kyle Smith, who jumped from San Francisco to Washington State, and his successor, Todd Golden, who left the Dons for Florida. Everybody else, blockaded by Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s, bought fired. Stoudamire took Pacific to 23-10 in 2020, and nonetheless completed third.
So when Batt referred to as, he was intrigued. Stoudamire’s personal faculty profession at Arizona coincided with Cremins’ run, and he noticed what Georgia Tech may very well be. Apart from, he’s accustomed to doing what individuals thought can’t be completed. At 5-10, he didn’t essentially cross the attention check as both a would-be faculty famous person or NBA participant. However his mom, Liz Washington, taught him to make use of the identical phrase that creeps into his vocabulary now — accountability.
Rising up in Portland, he idolized Terrell Brandon and Gary Payton, and knew that, at his dimension, he’d must work twice as arduous to get there. So quite than making the most of the liberty his mom’s work schedule afforded him, he toed the road. On the uncommon event he stepped outdoors it, Washington was there to re-enforce. Stoudamire remembers his mom marching in to go to together with his highschool coach, threatening to yank him off the crew if he didn’t get his grades proper. “They weren’t proper by her requirements, not the college’s,” Stoudamire says.
In highschool, he dropped 58 in a sport and took his crew to an undefeated state championship, however dimension and geography — he was from Oregon, not New York Metropolis, in spite of everything — prompted many to query how good he may very well be, and he arrived to Lute Olson’s Arizona crew with loads of skeptics within the desert.
He left Arizona as an All-American and finalist for nationwide participant of the yr. And nonetheless the questions lingered. On the evening of the NBA Draft, followers booed when the Toronto Raptors chosen Stoudamire over Ed O’Bannon with the seventh choose. O’Bannon lasted two years within the league; Stoudamire caught round for 13.
All of that teaches a person to not fear about what everybody else thinks; fear about what you consider. “Why take the job?” Stoudamire says, elevating his eyebrows. “Why not? Nice establishment, metropolis of Atlanta, good spot to stay, the ACC. I constructed a program up from nothing. This isn’t that. This isn’t insurmountable.”
Whereas Stoudamire runs by way of his apply, on the sideline a person sits folded right into a chair that appears three sizes too small for him, quietly watching. When the Yellow Jackets are completed, all of them stroll over to say hi there.
Dennis Scott is, in essence, the very factor Stoudamire wants. Not the 55-year-old model. It’s the 18-year-old Scott, the one who performed for one of the best highschool crew within the nation and was named one of the best participant within the nation, that Stoudamire seeks. “J had a really set profile in his thoughts,’’ Parker says. “Each child desires to make it to the NBA. He is aware of the route.”
Batt’s hedge already seems to have paid off. Stoudamire made the one-mile trek to Time beyond regulation Elite and snagged four-star Jaeden Mustaf out from below Indiana, Georgetown and different suitors. Ranked forty eighth in 247Sports Composite, Mustaf is the very best rated participant to decide on Georgia Tech since Iman Shumpert in 2008.
Hobbs understands simply how necessary one dedication might be. He got here to Georgia Tech from Rutgers, a program that didn’t even have the foundational historical past of Tech. But like Atlanta, New Jersey had loads of recruits — simply none who needed to move to Piscataway. Then in 2018, Ron Harper Jr. out of Don Bosco Prep dedicated to the Scarlet Knights. Two years later, Paterson Catholic’s Cliff Omoruyi determined to remain house. Swiftly, Rutgers went from nowhere to NCAA Event common. “Anytime a recruit can determine your college, it offers you an opportunity to get within the door,” Hobbs says. “And all you wish to do is get in that door.”
It helps that Stoudamire involves the ACC at a time when there’s somewhat extra space to squeeze by. To not low cost the win in opposition to Duke, however beating Jon Scheyer reads otherwise than upending Mike Krzyzewski. Pastner laughs when he thinks again to his first three ACC video games as head coach at Georgia Tech. “House in opposition to North Carolina and Roy Williams. At Duke with Mike Krzyzewski. House in opposition to Louisville and Rick Pitino,” he says. “That was my introduction to the ACC. What’s that, like 2,000 wins and what number of nationwide championships?” Nearer to 2,400 and 9 titles.
Even when Pastner bought within the door, odds are a kind of Corridor of Famers — or Jim Boeheim — got here in proper earlier than or after him. Now Stoudamire is considered one of seven coaches who’ve been within the convention three years or much less, becoming a member of Boston School’s Earl Grant and North Carolina’s Hubert Davis (coming into their third years), Scheyer and Louisville’s Kenny Payne (in Yr 2), and Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Syracuse’s Adrian Autry, who, like Stoudamire, are making their debuts.
However solely a kind of three newbies gained his first ACC sport this yr. But Stoudamire didn’t permit himself to linger within the second too lengthy. As soon as he gathered himself to speak to the TV crew following the win in opposition to Duke, he was requested concerning the magnitude of what his crew had achieved.
“I’m attempting to create a basis right here,’’ he mentioned. “A tradition. I would like them to really feel, as we transfer ahead, like we’ve been right here earlier than, and we’ve completed this. That’s what I’m attempting to create.’’
One win doesn’t a turnaround make; however it’s positive a pleasant place to begin.
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; pictures: John W. McDonough, Wealthy von Bilberstein, Bob Rosato / Getty Pictures)
