Per GT Athletics..

THE FLATS – Ibrahima Sacko, a 6-6 small forward from Guinea considered one of the top three prep prospects in Canada, has signed a grant-in-aid to join the Georgia Tech program, head coach Damon Stoudamire announced.
The 222-pound Sacko, who enrolled at the J. Addison School in Markham, Ontario in 2022, is rated one of the three best prospects to come out of Canada in the 2023 class by recruiting analyst Josh Millican, and the top player last year in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association. He chose Tech over BYU, Oregon and Xavier.
“The biggest thing Ibrahima brings is elite defense,” said Stoudamire. “He has a chance to be one of the best defenders in the country with his size and strength. The way he can defend on or off the ball is something I haven’t seen in someone his age, and he will make an impact on that end from day one. Offensively, he’s a downhill driver who can finish at the rim, but with time he has the potential to score at all three levels.”

Athletic and physical with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, Sacko earned first-team all-star honors and was named the defensive player of the year in 2022-23 in the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association for coach Juevol Myles, leading the Jaguars to the league’s post-season semifinals. He averaged 29 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals during the 2022-23 season. He also led J. Addison to the championship of the prestigious Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, where he averaged 16.5 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Following the season, he was invited to play in the Nike Hoops Summit in Portland, Ore., but did not compete because of injury.

Sacko is the second high school prospect from the 2023 class to sign with Tech, joining 6-9 strong forward Baye Ndongofrom the Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy. They join a transfer class rated the 17th-best in the nation by 247Sports, and four scholarship returnees who will make up Stoudamire’s first Yellow Jacket team in 2023-24.

If you have something (topically and not stupid) that you would like me to ask the players coming to ACC Kickoff or Brent Key drop them in here and I'll pick a couple out.

Notable GT tee times…

7:52 a.m. EST -- Louis Oosthuizen, Joost Luiten, Christo Lamprecht (a)

8:03 a.m. EST -- Stewart Cink, JT Poston, Trey Mullinax

Sadly, no Matt Kuchar or Cameron Tringale…

Haven’t heard much regarding summer workouts/OTAs. Any nuggets you can give or has it been kept pretty quiet this year?

KQ- They are going pretty well. I had an update on summer workouts back in June. They have quite a bit of time off this month and many of the players went home or on vacation like the coaches during July. The staff are pretty confident in what AJ Artis and his staff are doing. It is interesting because some USF fans thought he didn't do a great job, but my theory there was Jeff Scott just had a terrible plan and didn't know what he was doing and that impacted everyone on that staff including AJ. I have other friends that worked there that are really sharp dudes and they struggled because Jeff Scott was in way over his head.

Key got Batt to dramatically increase the budget for nutrition and the training table and they hired two people to work exclusively with the football program under Leah Thomas who oversees the nutrition thing for the whole athletic department. I think that budget is like 4-5x what it was last year for that and the players are loving it.

I'll actually have a little more on some of this stuff later this coming week. I am scheduled to talk to someone tomorrow night or Tuesday who is a good source for this type of info.

Since we are not in season yet, and there aren't many questions yet this week, I'll stir the pot with something off topic again: Fender, Marshall, or Mesa?

KQ- I don't need the volume of a Marshall stack or anything like that. I like an old tube Fender. I had Peavy Amps and like the big stuff 4x12s and stuff like that. I had a Peavy bass amp as well that weighed like 200 pounds and was the size of a small fridge that was loud as hell back for live stuff. I want to get into amp modeling when I have the time to play some. That hasn't been lately. My guitars are just collecting dust at the moment, but my toddler and teenager like to come in and strum them.

Have you heard any talk about season ticket sales, in comparison to the last couple of years?

KQ- I asked this question to a source yesterday and I am waiting to hear back. I am also curious. I know the initial push was strong, but I'm not sure where they ended up. I feel like if it was a huge jump they'd have press released that though.

When do the Football Coaches return.

KQ- This week. The team reports a week from today. The staff will be doing some recruiting this weekend as well. Everyone even Georgia and Alabama were out of the office the last few weeks. It is a skeleton operation for most of July at every school.

Does practice start August 7th? I keep forgetting.

KQ- August 1st

Could we have a list of current scholarshiped basketball players on our roster as well as commitments, Thx.

KQ- The bottom two move up to

Seniors:
Tyzhaun Claude- PF/C
Kyle Sturdivant- CG
Lance Terry- SG

Juniors
Deebo Coleman- SG/SF
Ebenezer Dowuona- C
Miles Kelly- SG
Kowacie Reeves Jr.- F/G

Sophomores
Amaree Abram- CG
Jalen Forrest- CG ^mid-year enrollee joining in December
Tafara Gapare- F

Freshmen signees
Baye Ndongo- F
Ibrahima Sacko- F

So that's 12, one spot left that I doubt they use unless they give it to the walk-on from Air Force as a practice player.

Any updates on Adidas extension deal? Hoping JBatt can get us an even better deal.

KQ- They have not signed anything nor do I think it is super far along. I would bet money that Batt will be open to all options this time around. Last time you had Adidas and Nike (only wanted to do rev sports or something like that per sources at the time) so hopefully more companies get involved.

Any updates on 2023 uniforms?

KQ- Those are planned pretty far out, I do not expect anything earth-shattering for this upcoming season. If/when Key changes things it will be 2024.

How can we lighten your load/help you while you deal with all your family issues?

KQ- I'm not really sure. I am driving back up to take my mom to deal with a lot of financial stuff tomorrow and then driving from there to Charlotte so I'll be in and out. My stepbrother is helping quite a bit so that has been a nice surprise. I'm just going to go up there when I have some free time and deal with stuff. That is the best I can do right now. My mom is looking to stay in the house until she has a better idea of what the long-term situation is for my stepdad if anything. Right now everything is day-to-day. There has been a lot of crying and a lot of me trying to push everyone to remember the good times and not get too down.

2023 football team:

The player who we can’t afford to lose?

KQ- Probably someone like Sylvain who I think is poised to earn himself some NFL money this year. Even as good as LaMiles Brooks is they have a little more depth there and experience and that would be huge, but I think Yondjouen is the real deal.

The game(s) most critical to going bowling?

KQ- I've said I think it is the Wake Forest game on the road. They are going to be a tough out and they don't often beat themselves. Dave Clawson is a great coach. I think especially if Louisville doesn't go GT's way that is the swing game early in the year.

The position unit who will be most improved?

KQ- The OL, I think they have an OL coach who knows how to get a lot out of what he is working with. Key helped build up UCF organically upfront and then walked into Bama where they were loaded so it was a very different job here and you throw in covid and bad luck with injuries and the portal and you have an ugly OL situation at the position that was the thinnest other than defensive tackle on day one. They now actually have depth and quite a bit of experience after taking lumps the last two years and adding some key guys. I think Wade knows how to work with mismatched parts better than many other OL coaches and he knows what Buster wants and they are hand-in-hand with the plan. I think that will be big.

In reality, Collins needed to take like 12 OLs the first two years and they took a bunch in the first real year in 2020 but then had two medical out and two end up as not being rotation quality guys and one left because he was a depth piece. They dropped all the bad commits that CPJ had the previous year on the OL so you got one starter out of two classes in Jordan Williams. The two guys signed in 2021, one is starting (Weston) and the other is playing a lot (Jakiah) so that is not enough dudes and that came from the HC who set the roster. They took too many transfer guys and didn't sign enough OLs to replenish what they had.

The position you that if they step up will make reaching a bowl game that much more likely?

KQ- Wide receiver, if they can find two solid guys on the outside I think they have a chance to go bowling. I'm not that worried about RB production, I think the slots will be good and I think the TEs may surprise some people finally, but the outside receiver spot has the most boom or bust potential.

Ole miss - they lost some folks but remain a well funded program. What are the realistic odds of winning? If GT were to win - what would have to happen?

KQ- They have major issues on D highlighted by them taking a guy who had been a 5th-string DT in 2022 and was undersized for this league let alone the SEC West in Akelo Stone. They took 17 players via the portal or something like that on D. I think to beat them you have to score a good bit. Lane Kiffin will always figure out a way to score points so it comes down to offense.

The only thing I can say here is that I hold Pres Cabrera in the highest regard because of what he has done so far for athletics. This letter says it all, if you have not read it-see below

Same spot in Thunderbolt where we met Key and Weinke.

Login to view embedded media I’m back. Spending the day getting caught up, unpacking, and getting content ready for the next week.

Q&A next week will be on Tuesday instead of Thursday, same time but will be 90 minutes long.

We’ve got a lot to talk about I imagine…

P.S. God is so good. So thankful for this week spent with my group of guys, and watching them all grow closer in their relationships with Jesus.

This is an upright move by Simmons. What say the Kirby apologists? Sad and disappointing that there is a complete lack of accountability for the issues at UGag that are much worse.

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Coach Key said I could share these with you all. I happened to be down there for something today and I took some quick pics with my shitty Iphone.

Obviously you guys saw some of these the other days so I focused on stuff that I didn't think was in the pictures on that IG post.



This is part of the new entry to the football building and shows the aesthetic Key is going for, modern and tech-focused. These walls have been through many changes over the years.



To the left of that you have a trophy case with some of the major GT trophies that are not nattys.



They put in a lot of cool art like this one by the elevator that fits in with the theme



This area is completely renovated and had all this weird lighting that GC3 put in that has been removed and it shows the design theme in the renovated football building.



Also right in the center of the entry they have the four Nattys plus team pics of the four teams on the left side, you can see two in this pic.



One of the other cool things that I'm not sure if you've seen is the map of Georgia and each player posts their number button on the town they are from. They also have a map of the US with all 50 states to the left for the kids from out of state. There is no map of Europe for Yondjouen and Shanahan as there isn't really space and it is not something they will likely use all the time. You can see a certain FB coach in the reflection.

Fire away

If there’s one thing I’m quickly picking up from new PC Matt Taylor’s first summer on the job, it is that he is LOCKED IN on recruiting the state of Georgia.

McKelvey is a long, lanky lefty at Roswell with growing FB velocity and two secondary pitches. Has been playing in Perfect Game events since he was 9.

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Now that it's approaching a year, can you confirm the number of moles Goober had lurking on JOL to do QC for his catch phrase brainwashing? I'm thinking the dude who demanded I stop calling him "Scooter" but then picked up his ball, canceled his sub and left as he was mocked mercilessly was one of them.

KQ- I'm unsure there are a handful of people who disappaered right after the firing and the coaching changeover that seemed to be defending the previous regime.

Which of the transfer players that came in after the spring game looks most ready?

KQ- Dominick Blaylock certainly looks the part. Eddie Kelly is also a big dude.

Can you reset the hoops roster & projected lineup now that Sacko is onboard?

KQ- Sure

PG- Sturdivant, Abram, Terry, Forrest
SG- Kelly, Abram/Coleman/Terry, Murphy+ walk-on
SF- Reeves/Coleman, Gapare, Sacko
PF- Reeves/Claude, Gapare, Ndongo
C- Claude/Dowuona, Ndongo

The lineup can size up and down depending on who they are playing and performance. I think they will play four out and one in as the base on offense meaning that Reeves or Coleman can defend 4 through 2 on D and Kelly can defend 2-3 as well so you could even see a lineup with Sturdivant/Abram, Terry/Kelly, and a mix Coleman/Kelly/Reeves with one post player. I think Reeves will be interesting as I think they will have to play him up because of his athleticism. If Gapare or Dowuona turn it on then that changes the math a little.

Where do you think we will finish in the acc this fall. Can’t believe we picked close to bottom pack.

KQ- I'm going to work on a prediction for next week's ACC Media thing. I'll have a better idea after I talk to some of my colleagues about their teams.

If you were J. Batt, what are some fundraising events that you would have that are targeted towards the average GT fan? Not the big time donors.bie. Paid facility tours w/players, etc.

KQ- I think you could bring back the lunch with George thing but make it NIL driven. Have a price per head that includes a meal and a drink and Key talks about this week's game or whatever closed doors. Legally you can't have tours of locker rooms and idiots walking through there that paid $25. There are things in the locker room hanging up like medical notes or people's personal property or guys trying to use the cold/hot tub in states of undress that are not approriate for you all. The offices have things like the recruiting board or the actual current depth chart hanging up or diagramed plays. You can't have random ass people walking through there IMO.

And is J. Batt currently planning any that you know of?

KQ- They are always working on things. He is trying to figure out how to shake every dime out of the couch.

Any indications as to CDS’ style in terms of substitutions? Does he use a 6-7 man rotation or does he tend to go deeper?

KQ- We have no clue. His only prior head coaching job was a school where he had limited talent. I would assume how he feels about the team will dictate how he uses his bench. If they are 11-deep then he probably will play them. My guess is the rotation will be in no order Sturdivant, Abram, Terry, Kelly, Coleman, Reeves, Claude and Dowuona and either Gapare or Ndongo out of the gate. I think only one of those two plays a lot probably Gapare and Ndongo and Sacko ride the bench while they are developed.

Will the first play of the season be a run or a pass?

KQ- Play-action pass

Which of the following acc teams on the football schedule are winnable? Probable? Any commentary would be appreciated
-Lou
-Virginia
-Cuse
-WF
-UNC
-BC

We got 2 guaranteed wins with SCSU and BG. We need to win 4 out of those 6 to make a bowl. None of those programs are world beaters. For all of the hype on key’s staff and the team’s discipline - feels like batting 67% shouldn’t be asking a lot.

KQ- All of those games are winnable. Louisville, Wake and UNC are the hardest on paper right now. Wake and Louisville have good coaches while UNC has a load of talent. They should beat UVA, Cuse and BC IMO. Louisville has some people picking them to win 10 games while I think they will be in the 6-7 win range.

Mostly a joke, but how does Brent Key feel about the color Navy?

KQ- I doubt he has a strong feeling and I think you will finally see a black jersey under him in 2024 or 2025. Write that down.

I asked about the offense last week. I’m gonna ask you about the DL! Losing keion white hurts but in my eyes I don’t think it was that big of a miss. Out of Noah, Kyle or Kevin do you see them playing with an upside??? I like all 3 to be honest but in my eyes I think them three have a blow out season. Do you agree??

KQ- Marco liked Noah and Kyle enough to recruit them out of HS and both have a lot of talent. Kevin Harris has to be able to play more than third downs and be more than a straight line rusher. Right now Harris remains a 3-4 OLB who can rush in a straight line really well. They put a lot on the rush spot. I would not be shocked to see them size up at times and play with Sylvain and ET as the two ends either.

Is it acceptable journalistic practice now to publish off-the-record conversations with attribution? I know that there has been a lot of debate about whether "bloggers" are actual "journalists", but that seems to be well over the top of what has been journalistic standards for decades.

EDIT: BTW, I don't think Judd is a very credible journalist. I think that article could have made all the points they wanted to make without "quoting" him. I also think that his quote didn't add anything to the article, in fact his statements paint that article as being biased. My question is just about whether it is now acceptable practice to take off-the-record statements and print them, or to not inform a source before he speaks that you won't take off-the record comments.

KQ- Generally you ask can I quote you as an unnamed source or someone will say X, Y and Z is off the record but you can say a source within say the GTAA told me X, Y and Z. That is how you've seen Ken or myself attribute some things at times. I haven't been following the plight of Judd and the AJC very closely, but UGA has their pitchforks out so I hope for that dude's sake he can back everything up or they will get him fired. He was VERY sloppy with how he handled and reported Josh Pastner and the Ron Bell thing and GT should've pushed back on them the way that UGA is now. He was way out of line with publishing all the crazy shit Ron Bell claimed. It was like reading the Daily Mirror.

Why do i get the feeling that Zach Pyron is going to be a good one?

KQ- He is a very calm and collected guy who can lead the offense. He isn't overly gifted in any aspect of his game, but he has great command and leadership skills and he reminds me of a lot of strong college QBs I've seen over the years like George Godsey here or Aaron Murray or David Greene over in Athens that can win with toughness and lead the team that way without having Brett Favre's arm or Michael Vick's wheels. I'll say this as well, his arm strength has improved dramatically in just six months with AJ Artis and the new strength staff and working within the offense. He struggled with his throws to the outside numbers and those are now on the money. If he can keep improving each aspect of his game he has a very high ceiling.

Does Brent Key eventually beat UGA?

KQ- I think Brent will tell you he will want to beat them every year and take over as the dominant program and that is his goal. Whether that happens is hard to predict. They made a great leap ahead by probably putting the second biggest scare in them of any team last year. That got the attention of a lot of people and has helped with recruiting as well.

Does Rivals have overarching policies an procedures which might kick in with the treatment Judd is getting from the UGA Site? It seems like they're doubling down on a losing side - so I was curious at what point - if any - does rivals editorial control come into play?

KQ- I'm sure there is something. We've had some issues over the years that have been handled internally and I've seen someone removed from their job but that was over something very different and very crazy. That isn't a story I can talk about on here. I know all the guys there and they are writing to appease their base and if it was not UGA I doubt it would be on anyone's radar. Hell there are people still defending Pat Fitzgerald. Auburn hired a giant scumbag as a HC there so I'm not going to be the morality police. If someone steps over the line, typically there is a conversation and maybe a story gets deleted. I've been out of the loop for obvious reasons so I can't speak to what the content pieces running on a site I haven't worked for since 2008.

Don't see a lot of Alabubba and Jawga in here.

Wonder why that is?

Pssst bc only 2 states give af out of 50.

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Looks like fake never-seen-a-coop eggs and diabetes inducing butter wasn’t the only thing scrambled, smothered, and covering your all-star special

Between the portal & assistant coaches, we don't have a thread yet to discuss CDS hitting the trail, which he did today.

Tiller is almost assuredly a target. Maybe Dominique's son. Not sure about the others.

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Any of you jokers work for Georgia Power and can shed some light (no pun intended) on what is going on right now? Been without power since 5 pm yesterday, along with many others it seems in metro Atlanta. Latest update on their website says power should be restored by 12 pm. The storms didn’t seem all that bad yesterday for this many ppl to be without power for this long. Feels like it’s got to be more serious than just a couple trees down on power lines. Substation or two damaged by lightning or something?

p.s. if you do work for Georgia Power and are reading this, get off JOL and get back to work fixing my power 😉

On the good news front, I thought I had broken my foot in my fall in New Jersey, it is just sprained so no cast just a compression sleeve on it. The last of the construction stuff is gone from our repairs from the flood and my stepfather is being moved to a nursing home near my mom.

The bad news is my stepfather is never going home and I am having to prepare my mom for living on her own. She is 90 minutes away so we have to figure out how to move her down here eventually and it will be a royal pain in the ass for all of us until that happens going back and forth to Cleveland.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and thoughts and prayers as I navigate something I tried but failed to prepare my stepdad and mom for years ago.

Tony lived a helluva life. Great music I started listening to at an early age. Would have been 97 8/3. Rest in peace and thanks for the music!

Just saw this on Twitter:

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I don’t support the AJC so I haven’t read the article. Any update or insight appreciated.

You guys seen Quarterbacks on Netflix? It’s outstanding. Must say I didn’t expect to walk away thinking Kirk Cousins is likable and Mahomes is a tool. All in all, great show though and it looks like it was renewed for next year too so will be interesting to see who’s included S2.

Lot 17 and Lot Gate 1 are the closest to the stadium with tailgating allowed. Both under $50 as of now.

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2023 Schedule

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech volleyball announced its 28-match slate for the 2023 season on Thursday. The schedule consists of 12 home matches, including a home tournament highlighted by the home opener against archrival Georgia on Sept. 15 in the second ever McCamish Pavilion match.

A Closer Look
Following the Gold-White scrimmage (Aug. 13) and an exhibition match against Auburn (Aug. 19) on The Flats, the Jackets will make their official home debut hosting the Georgia Tech Classic. They’ll begin home competition with Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate against Georgia in McCamish Pavilion (Sept. 15), then take on Howard (Sept. 16) and San Diego (Sept. 17) in O’Keefe Gymnasium. The White and Gold will host nine Atlantic Coast Conference foes, beginning with NC State (Sept. 24) before going on a four-match homestand against Florida State (Oct. 13), Miami (Oct. 15), Duke (Oct. 20) and North Carolina (Oct. 22). Tech will begin a subsequent three-match stretch at home against perennial contender Louisville (Nov. 3), following with Notre Dame (Nov. 5) before wrapping up the stint with budding rival Pitt (Nov. 10). The Yellow Jackets will conclude their regular season home slate with Senior Day against Syracuse (Nov. 19).

Over the course of the past four seasons, Georgia Tech is 46-7 at home in O’Keefe Gymnasium. The Jackets went 11-3 on The Flats in 2022, including the program’s first match in McCamish Pavilion. Tech is 305-104 (.746) all time in O’Keefe Gymnasium’s 28-year history.

Tech will officially serve up the season on the road, competing in the Road 2 Tampa Bay Volleyball Invitational, facing host South Florida and Penn State Aug. 25-26. The White and Gold will next travel to Ohio State to take on the Buckeyes in a pair of matches Sept. 1-2before heading back south to line up against South Alabama (Sept. 8), Stetson (Sept. 9) and host Florida A&M (Sept. 10) in a tournament. Road play in the ACC for the Yellow Jackets will begin at Clemson (Sept. 20), followed by a four-match road trip at Virginia Tech (Sept. 29). Wake Forest (Oct. 1), Pitt (Oct. 6) and Virginia (Oct. 8). Georgia Tech will travel for four more contests throughout the remainder of the regular season, heading to Boston College (Oct. 27), Syracuse (Oct. 29). Miami (Nov. 17) and Louisville (Nov. 21).

Georgia Tech will battle stiff competition on the road to a potential fourth straight appearance in the Big Dance as nine of its 2022 opponents competed in the 64-team field of the 2022 NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship, excluding exhibition opponent Auburn who also advanced to the postseason. The White and Gold will play 13 total games against those nine teams, including two against national title contenders Louisville and three against Final Four opponents Pitt and San Diego. Familiar future opponents in Ohio State (Elite Eight) and Penn State (Sweet 16) also made deep runs in the postseason.

Five of the aforementioned nine teams finished ranked in the final 2022 American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25, including three in the top five and all five in the top 11. The Jackets concluded the 2022 season in the second round of the NCAA tournament, ranked No. 20 in the final AVCA poll.

Opponents in the 2022 NCAA Tournament
Auburn (Aug. 19, home | exhibition) – Second Round
Penn State (Aug. 26, neutral) – Sweet 16
Ohio State (Sep. 1-2, away) – Elite Eight
Florida A&M (Sept. 10, away) – First Round
Georgia (Sept. 15, home – McCamish Pavilion) – Second Round
San Diego (Sept. 17, home) – Final Four
Pitt (Oct. 6, away / Nov. 10, home) – Final Four
Florida State (Oct. 13, home) – First Round
Miami (Oct. 15, home / Nov. 17, away) – First Round
Louisville (Nov. 3, home / Nov. 21, away) – National Championship Game

Opponents in the 2022 AVCA Final Rankings
No. 2 Louisville (Nov. 3, home / Nov. 21, away)
No. 3 San Diego (Sept. 17, home)
No. 4 Pitt (Oct. 6, away / Nov. 10, home)
No. 8 Ohio State (Sep. 1-2, away)
No. 11 Penn State (Aug. 26, neutral)

Gearing up
Headlining Tech’s 13 returners from the 2022 campaign are a pair of all-ACC second team selections in outside hitter Bianca Bertolinoand setter Bella D’Amico, the former of which also receive all-region honors. The incumbents will be joined by eight highly touted new Yellow Jackets, including three transfers and five freshmen, four of which are international.

Georgia Tech heads into the 2023 season on the heels of a 2022 season that saw the Jackets earn an NCAA tournament win for thethird consecutive season under coach Michelle Collier, joining the White and Gold of 2002-04 as the only squads to do so in succession in program history. The berth in the Big Dance alone marked the 12th time in program history. Going beyond 2019’s NIVC title, Tech has won 79 of its last 99 matches.