The Surprise, Late Transfer Adds Big Man Depth
I thought Georgia Tech and Damon Stoudamire were done with the roster heading into the 2024 season, but last week 6’8” PF Duncan Powell from Sacramento State announced that he was transferring to Georgia Tech. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
Coming out of high school Powell was originally committed to Arkansas, but decided to eschew his high major offers to go play at NC A&T (an HBCU). Powell then missed his entire freshman season with injury (after missing most of his senior season in high school as well). When he finally got on the court, he showed promise, but didn’t dominate like you might expect from someone of his recruiting pedigree playing at that level. After his redshirt freshman season he transferred to Sacramento State. In his one season with the Hornets he did quite well. He averaged 12 points and 7 rebounds on 49% shooting and was clearly one of Sac State’s best two players. He scored inside and on slashing and has a decent jump shot from within the arc. He can even take guys off the dribble sometimes. He shot a decent amount of threes, but only hit 29% of those. Powell was also a solid distributor for a big man, a good rebounder, and is good at picking up fouls. He can even take guys off the dribble sometimes. He just has a well rounded offensive game.
On defense he mostly played in the paint from what I can tell. He’s not sluggish, but his athleticism won’t blow you away. He is not a rim protector.
I think Powell has the ability to contribute as a role player in the ACC, but I’m not entirely sure his fit on this team. I worry about him on defense. You really should play him as a 4, but if the opposition has a power forward who can dribble drive he might struggle with that. Offensively he is flexible and if his shot improves just a little bit then I think he can make some playing time for himself. I think he starts coming off the bench getting 5 minutes per game early in the season while Stoudamire is messing with lineups to see what works. After that depends on how he fits in. But if there’s any injuries among the big men or bigger wings (like Kowacie Reeves or Luke O’Brien) then he could see the floor a lot more. It is always good to have more big men depth. He does have an injury history, so hopefully he can stay healthy here.
In other recruiting news, forward Dyllan Thompson announced that he is committing to GT. It’s not entirely clear, but it looks like the incoming freshman will be a walk-on, albeit a fairly high ranked one. He is 6’7” a solid shooter and is decently athletic. I have only seen highlights and he looks good in those (who doesn’t?) so I’m unsure why he wasn’t a more heralded recruit. In an interesting twist he is the some of Tina Thompson, arguably the greatest women’s player ever (and UVA women’s coach until recently). Along with Ryan Mutombo that now makes two incoming players with a legendary parent. Is this coincedence? Or does Stoudamire think there’s some sort of advantage here?
With the commitments of Thompson and Powell it looks like the roster is now actually complete for next season. There are 13 scholarship players plus Thompson, although there’s rumors that Cole Kirouac will take another year to gain experience before coming to Tech in 2025.