Thanks to our sponsor Inteleca for helping bring back Q's Take my weekly look at things around GT and college sports from my vantage.
I'll start with the round ball. GT picked up the commitment from Javian McCollum on Sunday and that was expected. They opted to not get into a bad bidding war for Kanaan Carlyle given how desperate Indiana is at the moment. Spot-up wing Luke O'Brien will visit this coming week as well. I've been sitting on this until he actually scheduled the visit and then Rothstein beat me to the punch. ND is also involved. A source referred to O'Brien as a glue-type guy who will give GT a wing that can actually sink those corner threes that Tafara Gapare and Deebo Coleman often missed this past season. O'Brien shot 37.6% from three last year at Colorado starting 19 games. Decent defensively and a decent rebounder. He is like a better version of Carter Murphy only taller, quicker and longer. Notre Dame will play a similar style to GT so you will see some overlap on guys they both target as Micah Shrewsberry is also a believer in the NBA offense via the Celtics that Damon Stoudamire is putting in. O'Brien should fill Deebo's role as the 7-8th guy off the bench who will give you consistent play.
They are looking for a big man still. Jared Coleman-Jones (MTSU) is one of the guys they've had contact with. He is a really dynamic big who can shoot the three and do the normal big guy stuff like block shots and rebound.
Justin Pippen was at Michigan this weekend for an official visit. They are trying to close it fast and have some sort of connection.
On the football front, this is going to be an interesting time as the portal opens up tomorrow. GT hopes to be doing most of the poaching, but you can always lose someone. I had a G5 coach tell me he is spending a lot of his time fending off schools just throwing cash and his good players to get them to leave to be backups in the SEC. That is how wild things are at the moment. Now is a good time if you are inclined to donate to NIL to do so. I'm sure Key will have to get the collective to pony up some cash to fend off unsolicited advances. We've seen at least one odd poaching happen every year since the portal started up going back to the 2021 offseason.
Overall the football program is in significantly better shape than it has been top to bottom since probably 2000. They aren't quite there with player development just yet as a lot of the talent is very young, but it is deeper on both sides of the ball than I've seen in a long time. Guys are leaving who probably would've been starters or two-deep guys just two years ago. I mentioned to Key in the post-spring presser how dire the QB situation got in 2022 when he was the interim after Jeff Sims got hurt and he smirked thinking about how much better off they are now with two legit ACC-starter level QBs and two really talented freshmen and a walk-on in Brody Rhodes who is better than one of the QBs who had to play in 2022. Speaking of Rhodes he was put on scholarship along with Will Scissum and Henry Freer recently. That is always good to see. Rhodes plans to get into coaching and is like another coach for Buster Faulkner and Chris Weinke in that room now.
They intentionally held back a lot defensively and some key guys on offense in the spring game. You will notice a few guys barely played and some didn't play much if at all that you've heard about some this spring. That was the plan. Make it fun for everyone, but don't give away anything. Key probably regrets letting Aidan Birr kick the 62-yarder as well after the fact, but it was a cool moment and he has a chance to be an All-ACC kicker and that helped start some hype on him for this upcoming season which is cool.
As far as money goes, I get asked a lot about this. They have a budget but right now everyone is out raising money. Kirby Smart is going from one UGA event to another acting like they are flat freaking broke even though they have money because he is afraid of what happens if they start getting outbid or if something tanks their donations. It has turned into political fundraising cash grabbing or TV evangelists at some places. That is not what GT is doing, they have a more modest plan but it is workable, but this place is always going to be able to develop talent over time so you need to hang on to the best pieces and then surround them with key portal guys. Sort of how a mid-market MLB team is built. They won't be the Yankees, but they aren't the Pirates either. They do need people who care to invest in the product like the ones who are on here that deeply care about the program.
I can say I've very optimistic about the state of GT football and men's basketball after this spring and seeing what both coaches are doing on and off the field/court. I'm planning to do a video to recap this spring game this week, but I want to rewatch it first.
I'll start with the round ball. GT picked up the commitment from Javian McCollum on Sunday and that was expected. They opted to not get into a bad bidding war for Kanaan Carlyle given how desperate Indiana is at the moment. Spot-up wing Luke O'Brien will visit this coming week as well. I've been sitting on this until he actually scheduled the visit and then Rothstein beat me to the punch. ND is also involved. A source referred to O'Brien as a glue-type guy who will give GT a wing that can actually sink those corner threes that Tafara Gapare and Deebo Coleman often missed this past season. O'Brien shot 37.6% from three last year at Colorado starting 19 games. Decent defensively and a decent rebounder. He is like a better version of Carter Murphy only taller, quicker and longer. Notre Dame will play a similar style to GT so you will see some overlap on guys they both target as Micah Shrewsberry is also a believer in the NBA offense via the Celtics that Damon Stoudamire is putting in. O'Brien should fill Deebo's role as the 7-8th guy off the bench who will give you consistent play.
They are looking for a big man still. Jared Coleman-Jones (MTSU) is one of the guys they've had contact with. He is a really dynamic big who can shoot the three and do the normal big guy stuff like block shots and rebound.
Justin Pippen was at Michigan this weekend for an official visit. They are trying to close it fast and have some sort of connection.
On the football front, this is going to be an interesting time as the portal opens up tomorrow. GT hopes to be doing most of the poaching, but you can always lose someone. I had a G5 coach tell me he is spending a lot of his time fending off schools just throwing cash and his good players to get them to leave to be backups in the SEC. That is how wild things are at the moment. Now is a good time if you are inclined to donate to NIL to do so. I'm sure Key will have to get the collective to pony up some cash to fend off unsolicited advances. We've seen at least one odd poaching happen every year since the portal started up going back to the 2021 offseason.
Overall the football program is in significantly better shape than it has been top to bottom since probably 2000. They aren't quite there with player development just yet as a lot of the talent is very young, but it is deeper on both sides of the ball than I've seen in a long time. Guys are leaving who probably would've been starters or two-deep guys just two years ago. I mentioned to Key in the post-spring presser how dire the QB situation got in 2022 when he was the interim after Jeff Sims got hurt and he smirked thinking about how much better off they are now with two legit ACC-starter level QBs and two really talented freshmen and a walk-on in Brody Rhodes who is better than one of the QBs who had to play in 2022. Speaking of Rhodes he was put on scholarship along with Will Scissum and Henry Freer recently. That is always good to see. Rhodes plans to get into coaching and is like another coach for Buster Faulkner and Chris Weinke in that room now.
They intentionally held back a lot defensively and some key guys on offense in the spring game. You will notice a few guys barely played and some didn't play much if at all that you've heard about some this spring. That was the plan. Make it fun for everyone, but don't give away anything. Key probably regrets letting Aidan Birr kick the 62-yarder as well after the fact, but it was a cool moment and he has a chance to be an All-ACC kicker and that helped start some hype on him for this upcoming season which is cool.
As far as money goes, I get asked a lot about this. They have a budget but right now everyone is out raising money. Kirby Smart is going from one UGA event to another acting like they are flat freaking broke even though they have money because he is afraid of what happens if they start getting outbid or if something tanks their donations. It has turned into political fundraising cash grabbing or TV evangelists at some places. That is not what GT is doing, they have a more modest plan but it is workable, but this place is always going to be able to develop talent over time so you need to hang on to the best pieces and then surround them with key portal guys. Sort of how a mid-market MLB team is built. They won't be the Yankees, but they aren't the Pirates either. They do need people who care to invest in the product like the ones who are on here that deeply care about the program.
I can say I've very optimistic about the state of GT football and men's basketball after this spring and seeing what both coaches are doing on and off the field/court. I'm planning to do a video to recap this spring game this week, but I want to rewatch it first.
