Now that Miles Kelly is staying in school (praise the Lord), is our 2023-2024 team roster now set? If so, can you share your expectations for the staters and the rotation guys?
KQ- I think they are probably set unless there is a HS kid or one other portal piece floating around they'd like to take a shot at. Really the only thing I could see would be a true center at this point though. I think Damon wants to hold some ships for next year. If there is proof of concept with a good product he should be able to upgrade over what's available now anyway.
It's hard to say what the exact rotation will look like in terms of who starts and who doesn't. I think if he is going to follow his NBA trend they will be 9-10 deep most nights. That would look like this
PG- Sturdivant or Abram, Forrest
SG- Kelly, Terry or Abram or Coleman
SF- Reeves or Coleman or Kelly, Gapare
PF- Reeves (I think they'll play small a lot) or Claude, Gapare, Ndongo
C- Claude or Dowuona
My guess is Ndongo and Gapare will take a little longer to work into the rotation both seem pretty raw. Coleman and Reeves are the two wild card guys to me that haven't lived up to their potential yet. They can play smaller with Sturdivant, Abram, Kelly, Reeves and a big as well. Reeves basically replaces Jalon Moore in this scenario and will have to defend bigger guys. Gapare is a wildcard in this too.
Dowuona will be interesting as well because I just am unsure how many minutes he can play and if he can play at the pace they are probably going to play at.
Do you think that James Ramsey has the best chance of becoming the HC at GT after Danny Hall retires?
KQ- I have no idea what J Batt's thoughts are on this topic so I'll let RJ weigh in.
Do you think that the new head coach will be able to make use of Pastner’s late season improvement (I know most of our improvement came as a result of beating up on bad teams, but still)?
KQ- The schedule was really goofy last year and that made the season more uneven. It was something I noted before the year even started as a major issue and then you had Deebo Coleman and Ja'von Franklin both nursing leg injuries limiting both of them and that didn't help.
I think the experience that Coleman, Kelly, Kyle and Terry have is something to build upon and all have shown the ability to play as major ACC contributors, it has been more of a consistency issue especially with shooting that has hurt them over time. Damon should be able to help there and they have enough guys now to roll other options in if someone is struggling and that was a problem last year because the team was very thin.
Which happens first…
Key leads us to a bowl
CDS leads us to NIT or NCAAT
They do it same season
KQ- It is probably the third option, but that may not happen until 2024 (2024-25 season for hoops). Both programs are very young at key spots and have some holes that will take time to fill. I like the 2024 FB schedule a little more than the 2023 schedule as well.
KQ - a few weeks back you had expressed concern that CDS may not be able to field enough players to hold quality practices in addition to noting he appeared to be learning some key processes on the fly (using cutting an International player and related scholly as an example). Obviously many JOL subscribers were concerned with that early CDS assessment as we respect your view on such matters. What are your current thoughts on where the basketball program sits with regard to your previous concern about a high enough quantity of quality players to field a competitive team as it appears good progress has been made since that time?
KQ- Sure, from everything I've gathered he was definitely diving into the deep end of the pool because so much changed from when he exited the college game to jumping back in especially with NIL and the transfer portal now major things. He was also trying to put together a staff and recruit and retain guys as well. I think he has put together a decent team. They didn't hit a home run at the big man spot, but they should be okay based on the way he wants to play to work around that. I think he is realizing there will need to be some proof of concept on what he is doing and some gains in NIL before he is at the footing he wants to be at. I know he is very actively trying to raise more NIL money for example.
The thing I was not concerned about was Xs and Os. I know he knows more about basketball than many other coaches around. I'm not concerned about that, I think GT isn't as cutthroat as other programs so it is a little different too and that was an area of concern. Stoudamire is like Key in that he is all about ball. Key has the added bonus of knowing GT and having those deep connections while Damon is starting from square one. He did a really good job of filling most of my areas of concern with the roster and I think they have a solid team. He probably should've kept a Jordan Meka or Cyril Martynov because they are still very thin if there is an injury at the 5 spot, but overall I'll give him an A for the roster he was able to cobble together.
Just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work. Never asked a question on here before but figured I'd ask a light hearted question in if you could pick one college sport to get more attention and coverage what would it be?
KQ- Thanks for the kind words. I do enjoy volleyball and I would enjoy covering that, but it is a time/resources issue for me along with the interest isn't there for it. That would be the one I would enjoy adding.
Would you describe yours and Russell's approach to the work week (when you aren't at a camp) as more proactive vs reactive?
That is, do y'all have a daily or weekly plan as to contacts you plan to make with recruits, players, coaches, and sources, or is a lot of your time spent receiving and reacting to folks contacting you?
I'm guessing it's a combination and if so, what percentage would you assign to each?
And then there's always the out of the blue unexpected "breaking news" you have to work into your work day...
KQ- So every day I have a post-it note with what I need to work on that I write the night before. RJ has specific days he has assigned content like the Q&A/visitor lists/post-visit updates or whatever and generally we are proactive on stuff, but it is relative to kids responding or what we have in our audio archive of interviews that need to run and what is going on each week. During the season is it very regimented because we have specific days with football media or hoops media and the other days we backfill with recruiting content. I probably spend 50% of my time on the phone, texting or DMing with sources or my staff about whatever we are working on. Russell is probably more like 75-80% doing that.
Miles Kelly’s return leaves 2 spots left I think. There are still good players in the portal as I think it was around mid-June last year when Pastner secured Javon Franklin. Do you think Damon will look to fill those spots with win-now guys, younger guys who can develop, or neither and hold the spots for 2024 kids?
KQ- Really the only thing they could add right now is a big man. I'm not sure what's available there and what's within the NIL budget or worth the risk. Most of the kids left are holding out for money or have some skeletons or flaws in their game or just haven't announced where they are going yet.
You’ve shared your views on what you think might happen down the road with expansion, but I’m not sure I’ve read your take on what you believe is best for GT. Obviously for now starting to win again is what matters, but do you think it’s better for GT to have a seat at the table 10 years from now in a 40+ team D1 or to be a big fish in a smaller pond like Boise State and UCF were?
KQ- I don't think the D1 will be 40+ teams if it turns into a super conference. I think it will be USC/Bama/UGA/UF/OhioSt/Michigan/Clem types that make up what I think will be a 30-40 team league and GT doesn't fit into that. My hope is that the TV rights come crashing down and they put some blocks up on transfers and make the players parttime employees and make them have to earn NIL the way it was intended by selling jerseys or sponsorships with a car dealership instead of the money laundering system that several big schools seem to be using it as.
My hope is that GT is playing actual college sports. I have no interest in covering minor league football or basketball and if I wanted to cover pro sports I'd go cover Atlanta United or the Braves.
