Skip to main content
Join
Team Avatar
Georgia Tech

Damon Stoudamire a "strong" candidate for the Georgia Tech job

Alex Weberby:Alex Weber•03/13/23
damon stoudamire
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

After seven seasons and just one NCAA Tournament appearance at the helm of the Georgia Tech basketball program, head coach Josh Pastner was let go as the Yellow Jackets finished below .500 for the second straight season.

As for who may replace him, college hoops insider Jeff Goodman reports that a certain former NBA point guard could be in line to take over. He wrote on Twitter Monday morning that former Pacific head coach and current Boston Celtics assistant Damon Stoudamire is a very real option for the GT job. Here was that report:

“Boston Celtics assistant Damon Stoudamire has emerged as a strong candidate at Georgia Tech, source told @Stadium. Stoudamire has Atlanta ties, did a good job at the head coach at Pacific and has also been an assistant at Memphis and Arizona.”

After the recent success of other former NBA guards like Jerry Stackhouse (who just had his best season yet at Vanderbilt) and Penny Hardaway (just earned his highest seed yet at Memphis after winning the AAC Tournament), perhaps GT will go the same route as those schools and ink Stoudemire to coach the Jackets.

If nothing else, Stoudamire brings excitement. And unlike Stackhouse or Hardaway, there’s real coaching experience to boot — more importantly, head coaching experience at the college level. Some may not know but Stoudamire actually coached Pacific University in the WCC just a few years ago and had that program in a much better spot when he left than when he took over.

In five years at the helm for Pacific, he turned them into a winning program and even nabbed WCC Coach of the Year honors in 2020 and was also given the Ben Jobe Award — which annually honors the top minority coach in Division 1 ball. High honors for a guy at a school as small as Pacific.

With five years and a successful stint of college coaching under his belt along with some NBA experience as an assistant for one of the league’s top teams, Stoudamire is a coaching hire whose panache is exceeded by his pedigree. This is no starry shot on the dart board if GT makes the move. It’s just a good hire.