We Take Stock Of The Old Hats
It’s how it is in college basketball nowadays. Georgia Tech returns just 5 players from last year’s squad and two of them redshirted. A few years that’s a disaster waiting to happen. But here we are in the new world where this is normal and teams just have to adapt. Here’s our preview for the five returners: Baye Ndongo, Nait George, Kowacie Reeves, Lance Terry, and Ibrahim Souare.
The returners are headlined by the breakout freshmen from last year, Baye Ndongo and Nait George. I was surprised by both of their successes last season. The word on Ndongo coming in to Tech was that he was raw and would need time to develop, but had plenty of talent. I thought he would have a similar career to Moses Wright with a few years needed to get going. And then in just his 6th game he dominated Duke on route to a GT upset. Ndongo legitimately looked like the best player on the floor when he was lined up with Kyle Filipowski. The world took notice. NBA scouts came to games to check him out and I heard his name on Sportscenter. He was up-and-down the rest of the season, but had a lot of ups and was an above average ACC player as a freshmen. He looks set to make a big splash this year and turn into a legitimate star. He could easily be an All-ACC Player and first round NBA pick next year if he continues to develop. All the pieces are there. We’ll see if he can put it together with everyone gunning for him this year. There are three big question marks with him next year. First, can he get more comfortable with the ball? He could certainly dribble as a freshman, but didn’t always look comfortable doing so and his hesitation led to a lot of turnovers. Being a reliable ball handler will make him so much more useful. The second is shooting. He shot 4-12 from 3 and hit some mid-range shots too. Not enough to do much last year, but enough to show potential. Hitting threes would make him even more of a weapon on offense and open things open up so much for the guards. The third question is about his usage. He played the 5 a lot last year because GT didn’t have better options there. I think Stoudamire would want him to play the 4, but the frontcourt is a real weakness for this team. Can a center step up and give Stoudamire the flexibility to move him down the lineup?
Nait George was a lower ranked recruit who committed to Tech late. But Damon Stoudamire believed in him and that belief seemed to pan out last year. He didn’t play at all for the first three games of the season, but the team was struggling and needed a spark. He started Nait and the Jackets won two games in a row against top-25 teams. From then on out George was a staple in the lineup. He had good penetration and great vision which led to high assist numbers (his 30.9 Assist Rate was 56th in the country). His finishing was just OK and his shot looks horrible even if he did shoot a not-horrible 31% from 3. He also struggled on defense as an undersized player without elite athleticism to compensate. But he was an absolute spark plug for this team and provided a serious positive, infectious energy that has been missing on the court since Jose Alvarado left. He’s got a lot to improve on, but I love what he showed in his first year and I’m excited to see how he comes out this year. There are some questions with him too. His shooting form was terrible and resulted in him being a mediocre at best shooter (69% from the line and 31% from deep). Can he improve that at all? Will he get more comfortable on defense? He doesn’t need to be a stud, but getting to just average would make a big difference. And finally, how does newcomer Javian McCormick fit in with him? McCormick is also an undersized, ball-dominant guard with struggles on defense. They should be on the floor together a lot, how does that work. Do the incoming freshmen guards push Nait at all?
Kowacie Reeves was arguably the biggest name to transfer in for Stoudamire’s first season. He had been a big-time recruit to Florida who had been a serious disappointment there. He came in as a junior and showed both why he was so hyped and why he was such a disappointment. He is crazy explosive and long and has good offensive skills. He’s a solid dribbler and can shoot. But he disappears for long stretches and takes a lot of bad shots. He can dribble, but doesn’t often take advantage of penetration. He was significantly better last year than he was at Florida. He became a good 3-point shooter (38% on mostly catch and shoot and 84% from the line). He didn’t try to do too much and played in his role well. He’s not as good on defense as you’d expect someone with his size and athleticism would be, but he’s still good. This year he just needs to keep improving. Show that the shooting wasn’t a fluke and he can contribute in other ways.
Lance Terry is very interesting. I was skeptical of him when he transferred over from Gardner-Webb for what would be Pastner’s final season. I thought he was a catch and shoot specialist who didn’t do much else well, but he surprised me by being a well rounded player in his one year on the Flats. Last year he was injured in the beginning of the season and decided to take a redshirt so that he could play a full season with the last of his eligibility. So it’s interesting. We haven’t seen him play in a year and he hasn’t played any games for Damon Stoudamire, but he’s an experienced college player who has basically of full year of practices with Stoudamire. Terry should bring some experience and consistency to a bench that is looking uncertain. The backcourt is the crowded part of the team with Nait George and Javian McCollum looking set to start and two talented freshmen back there as well. But I think he will carve a solid role for himself.
Finally is Ibrahim Souare. Souare came in as a recruit last season with the expectation that he would take some time to develop. He redshirted last season so we really don’t know what we can expect from him this year. He’s a lanky 6’9” and looks like a rim-runner from his high school days. There’s definitely room to be made in the front court if he’s good enough. I expect if he looks at all ready in practice then he’ll get a few minutes in the first couple of games to see if he’s ready for prime time. I still don’t expect to see a ton of him this year, but I’ve been wrong before.
All-in-all this team has a solid mix of returning players. They can have success building around this core.