What position group do you see making the biggest leap forward this year?
KQ- That is probably a tie between running backs and outside receivers. Both were extremely disappointing performance-wise last year. There just wasn't the type of production you'd expect even with uneven quarterback play. Dontae Smith didn't look like himself for 3/4 of the season, Hassan Hall was about what I thought he was and Dylan McDuffie was a bust, unfortunately. Jamie Felix was really the only bright spot toward the back end of the season and a few plays by Smith a I'm very curious to see how Felix, Smith and Tre Cooley the Louisville transfer look this spring. Those three should be an upgrade in production from a position that was disappointing for all involved last year.
At outside receiver, you saw one flash from Leo Blackburn who was coming off two significant injuries including trying to play through a major wrist injury all year that sapped his confidence and made it harder for him to catch the ball. DJ Moore spent the entire season hurt who I thought had a chance, Juju Lewis missed almost the whole year with injuries and James BlackStrain also ended up getting a serious injury. The older guys just were not consistent enough between Malachi Carter, EJ Jenkins and Ryan King (who transferred out). They added Abdul Janneh who has been productive and they have young talent with Blackburn, Moore, Lewis and freshman Zion Taylor who will be in camp. That is a pretty wide open race now. Blackburn has NFL top 4-round talent as well.
From what you know how do our basketball facilities compete with the rest of the ACC? And for one straight, albeit random, comp - how competitive are we say a Providence, much small non football school but likely recruits in same type of talent pool as GT
KQ- He posted a clip of Providence's basketball facilities. You are comparing apples and oranges, GT is a multi-sport school. Providence is a basketball school like many others in that group that don't have FBS football they are dumping their money in their big revenue sport. Hoops has always been second in revenue for GT to football during my time covering GT and I'm sure before that as well.
So the question is how do they rank in the ACC? That is harder to answer for me because I see some facilities like Pitt that are amazing or Wake and then some that are pretty meh like Boston College or even Clemson despite them pouring money into it. Miami isn't anything either especially the arena. VaTech isn't great either. GT has one of the nicest arenas and a nice practice gym and meeting rooms and stuff like that but it is not some giant palace for hoops because they don't have the land to build anything like that. The team meeting room is tucked away off the main entrance just like a closet or an office door, the locker rooms need updating and the team areas are okay. It is a little stale.
What is the vibe in the MBB locker room? The players continue to compete, but the season has to be wearing them down. Maybe not a fair question, but has Josh "lost" some of them?
KQ- I guess you haven't been watching, those dudes are playing their hearts out right now. No one has lost anything. They are frustrated at times, but Josh hasn't lost anyone.
I keep reading the NIL for basketball is "coming soon". Do you have an idea when it will finally be in place with enough dollars to attract top talent?
KQ- I do not know what the timeline or budget is at this point. I think that will start to come up as the season ends here. I've had two pretty high-level boosters tell me that Josh if he is still the coach of course, will have what he needs in NIL to compete finally. I always say that part about him still being the HC because no one I know is sure exactly how this will play out yet probably including the AD J Batt. Josh hasn't been told he is in or out and that will come down to a lot of factors that only Batt and maybe one or two other people are privy to at this point and how President Cabrera feels as well.
if you could change the ACC as far as Teams go- who would you want to see go and who does the ACC add from the teams it could or that hasn’t changed already?
KQ- So I think the question is who would I jettison from the ACC and who would I add from the non SEC/B1G teams pot.
In a perfect world if you just started over with the pot of teams available and you go to 16 let's say
Keep: Clemson, Duke, FSU, GT, Louisville, Miami, UNC, NCSt, Pitt, UVA, VT, and Wake.
Dump: BC, Cuse
Add: ND, WV (this will be controversial), Cincy, Kansas and UCF/USF.
Now that we’re down to a couple games remaining and it feels like the picture is becoming clearer on Josh continuing, do you think next year would truly be NCAA or bust (or at minimum very high on the NCAA Tournament bubble) or do you think would there be wiggle room?
KQ- I think the time for wiggle room is over after this year if they give Josh another year. He has to start winning. The floor needs to be what Clemson has done under Brownell, but in order to get there the program at least needs the level of support Brownell or even Capel or Forbes are getting with NIL, staff and facilities. Batt knows this as he was able to help get Nate Oats a lot of what he needed at Bama apparently except for a new arena (the current Bama one is terrible). Batt has worked at several basketball schools as well at UNC and Maryland, so he gets it. That is why everyone was so frustrated when the team came into ACC play and just shot like crap and was so banged up.
I don't know what is going to happen yet, but I know Josh wants a shot at a do-or-die year with the NCAAT with enough NIL to pick up some decent pieces. Will he get that? That will be Batt and Cabrera's decision. All these people saying boosters will do X, Y or Z are kidding themselves right now. Batt has a lot of momentum and people want to buy into his vision so if they need to raise $300-500k for NIL that should be a doable goal even with Josh back. It is Josh's job though to also work that out with Batt and the boosters and then execute. The guy didn't forget how to recruit coming here from Memphis. He was following his marching orders to run a clean program recruiting wise just like BG and that has led to the lack of talent on the roster more than anything else that has changed since Paul Hewitt walked out the door.
You obviously work with members of the broadcast media here in Atlanta. Do you have any insight on why many if them (not all) seem to relish making Tech a punchline?
I turned on 680 this week for the first time in months and within 10 minutes, Chuck Oliver was making a snide comment about Tech football. 92.9 is the same way, if not worse.
CPJ obviously had some issues with them, but we are several years past that. I would say it is a "kick em when they're down" thing, but I honestly don't know. With rare occasions, it has been this way for 25 plus years in Atlanta media. Any insights?
KQ- Playing to their audience. It is what you do in that medium. I used to have to co-host some sports talk radio shows in Athens when I was coming up. Do you think I was busy talking up the Texas Longhorns? Hell we had limits on how much we could talk about the Braves or the Falcons back then because it was all UGA and then like 10-15% anything else. They have an audience and the buik of their audience are at least SEC fans mostly UGA fans per their research. I've always thought Atlanta sports talk radio was one of the worst of any area of the country I've ever been in. I stopped listening to it when I got Sirius in 2005 so I wouldn't have to listen to it and that was when I was still working in it. It sucks. There are guys like Chuck who are super knowledgeable but he makes snide comments about every team not just GT. It would be like me sliding in a Geoff Collins line in something unrelated, it gets a reaction from this audience. It is a cheap laugh and you are filling 15 hours a week or whatever their show is.
I hated 790, I dislike most of 680 and I never listen to 92.9. That is why you also never hear me on a lot of those stations either because I have like zero interest in jumping on unless someone asks me because I know I'm not likely to reach anyone I can't reach through my normal platforms these days. It is like putting an ad in a newspaper at this point. I do Chuck's CFB show because that is actually good and he is a friend, but other than that you'll see I'm pretty uninterested in jumping on shows unless I know the people running them.
