Stoudamire Climbs Aboard The Ramblin' Wreck Express
In A Brave And Bold Move, J Batt Hires Damon Stoudamire As New Head Basketball Coach At Georgia Tech
Remember these words from September 2022?
“This is personal to me.” So declared Dr. Angel Cabrera, President of Georgia Tech, speaking of his drive to elevate Tech sports. His pledge went beyond mere conviction. More like vehemence. That’s a tone rarely heard from universty presidents. And it’s a welcome message for Georgia Tech fans. Cabrera’s public commitment is to achieve and to maintain excellence in Tech’s athletics programs. Sustained excellence, at a level that is on par with the renowned academic side of the Institute. That is substantial. Not just a high bar, but a new standard.
The occasion of Cabrera’s assertion last fall was the announcement of his dismissal of Tech’s football coach Geoff Collins, as well as athletic director Todd Stansbury. Anyone could see the poor results that Collins brought into his year 4. As my Tech professor used to say, ” it was intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.”
But AD Todd Stansbury had found success over the broader athletic program. Even so, his steadfast support of Collins, in the face of persistently poor results, made Stansbury’s dismissal seem logical. There was an obvious mismatch of performance standards between the university president and an athletic director whom he had inherited.
On that same day in September, Cabrera appointed Brent Key as interim head coach and set about to find his new athletic director. The man Cabrera then hired in October for the AD job, J Batt, has been charged with delivering on Cabrera’s commitment. Batt later affirmed Brent Key as head football coach, after a broad search. (As interim coach, Key had quickly produced obvious positive progress- the kind anyone can see- as shown by more wins and fewer losses. Tech’s football team ended their season on a relative high note.)
Then came basketball season. This was a different animal. Josh Pastner’s team had won the ACC tournament in 2021. But his 7th year at Tech progressed poorly, especially through January. The team struggled mightily against ACC foes, and fan interest dropped off, along with revenues. All those factors prompted this question: what is it exactly that has held back Georgia Tech basketball since the glory days of Cremins and Hewitt? Coaching? Recruiting? And the age-old question–which is more important– the X’s and the 0’s, or the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s? After watching Josh Pastner’s team closely for the past several months, Tech AD J Batt decided on the latter. Pastner, he said, was a passionate ambassador for Georgia Tech. He was exuberant and energetic. He cared about his players and they cared about him. All true, and all good, but thin praise nonetheless. In a business where wins and losses are what makes the final grade, likability is merely desirable, not a must have.
Batt believed that Tech’s recruiting results needed to be improved significantly– and consistently. The relative drought of true blue chippers on Tech’s roster in recent years was made more frustrating by the river of top tier talent flowing out of Atlanta every year. He then concluded that retaining Josh Pastner was not the surest path to provide that roster improvement, especially given Tech’s relatively poor showing over the past two seasons. The strong 2020-1 season looked in the moment to be the long- awaited payoff on Pastner’s oft-stated goal to “get old and stay old”. Year 5 under Pastner brought that ACC tournament title plus an NCAA tournament berth. But that fine year was built on the play of Jose Alvarado (3 stars) and Moses Wright (0 stars) and those types of development are rare and not sustainable. Then came the significant backslide, and there was not much in recent recruiting news to give Tech administration any expectations of significant improvement. The ever- positive Pastner lobbied openly for his job, including publicly in his press conference following the Jackets’ exhilarating first-round win over FSU in the ACC tournament. But Tech’s late season surge was not enough to sway Batt. His belief — one that many share–is that Tech could be, and really should be, among the conference leaders year in and year out. (Just a hunch, but that historically bad home loss to Duke (86-43) in late January may have sealed Pastner’s fate. Against a marquee opponent, Tech gave a listless performance including an 18 point 2nd half versus Duke reserves, in front of many empty seats.)
Accordingly, on Monday March 13, 2023, Georgia Tech AD J Batt proudly announced the hiring of new head basketball coach Damon Stoudamire. The timing was a surprise– Josh Pastner had been officially turned out only a few days earlier. The name was an even bigger surprise, as most had projected that the new hire would again be a current mid-major coach looking to jump to the ACC. Stoudamire is leaving his post as assistant with the Boston Celtics, a job he had held for less than 2 complete seasons. His hire there stemmed from a long term friendship with since suspended Celtic head coach Ime Udoka.
Stoudamire’s head coaching experience totals 5 years at Pacific, where he had one winning season (23-10) in his 4th year. He then made the jump to the NBA to join Udoka in Boston. Prior to Pacific, Stoudamire had been an assistant at Arizona and at Memphis, for Josh Pastner among others.
Stoudamire’s extensive resume includes an ultra- successful playing career at Arizona and a 13 year NBA career to boot. The belief is that those experiences will serve him well in recruiting the abundant talent that metro Atlanta produces each year– talent that has only very sporadically found its way to a Georgia Tech roster in the past decade and a half.
The hiring of Stoudamire shines a bright light on the style and philosophy of still-new Georgia Tech AD J Batt. He has now replaced the two highest profile coaches under his watch in just the past 6 months. Football and men’s basketball are where the money gets made. Just as the head coaches get graded on wins and losses, the AD needs to have winners in football and men’s basketball, since those sports fuel the financial fountain. They also bring broader recognition to the school itself. This is where the public support for the entire university can swell or shrink depending on the level of sustained athletic success.
Back to that fall day when President Angel Cabrera dismissed both Collins and and Todd Stansbury. No doubt J Batt later heard these words that Cabrera had proclaimed,
“My current focus is …. to equip our next athletic director with whatever resources they need to turn this program around”.
He was speaking then of the football program, but the same resolve held forth for Tech basketball. Stoudamire represents a choice that’s both brave and bold. He doesn’t have a long resume as a head coach. He does have a sub .500 record as a head coach. But he also has an nearly incomparable blend of playing career, college and pro, along with myriad connections in the basketball world, including ties to the Atlanta area.
At his introductory press conference, Stoudamire showed an intriguing combination of humility, gratitude and confidence. He began by gathering himself for a moment to take in the new circumstances. He then answered a question or two about his preferred style of play (“an exciting brand of basketball”) and he averred as how he thought it wouldn’t take too long to build his roster. All those qualities made a positive impression on the Tech fan base, eager as they are to enjoy the results of Dr. Cabrera’s vow that he is “.. personally committed to… a world class athletic program.”
Not coincidentally, since J Batt’s hire last October, Tech has launched and expanded successfully a new fundraising endeavor called Competitive Drive Initiative. The drive has raised $10 million for Tech athletics in just a few months. That’s a very big step in a fresh direction under new leadership.
For Georgia Tech athletics, much has changed in 6 months. From last October through today, Tech has a new AD and two new head coaches. When will these processes bear fruit? As always, only time will tell the story. But Yellow Jacket fans have real reason to hope. Dr. Cabrera has made it personal. Remember those words.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports.com