Login to view embedded media
Pelton spent last season with Andy McCollum at Sewanee.

He was making 3 mil per season at Miss St

Alabama #5 in .NET
Record: 8-5
Road Record: 0-1
Neutral Record: 2-3
Quad 1 Record: 0-1
Home Record is 6-1, with the loss being to Clemson, who is 11-2 and ranked #18

Link: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings

I was recently talking to a guy who has been involved in "recruiting " for UGAg for a long time (the $$$ side). He laughed when I mentioned that it was all legal now. He said that NIL is legal, but the big boys are still paying a lot of money the old-fashioned way - cash money under the table, going to the players, parents, preachers, parasites, etc. He said the signing week was crazy with KJ. Bolden - Auburn doubled their offer that week and Georgia had to match it to get him and take care of the parasites. But Kirby wanted a win from Buford after the QB fiasco. Bottomline, it is still a dirty business and we are amateurs at it. The good news is that we are able to raise a lot more $$$ through NIL than we were through the old methods, so at least we can make a run at some of the elite players.

Good morning. Georgia Tech's staff is back from their time away from the office. It is unclear if new assistant Jess Simpson, regarded as one of the nation's top DL coaches, will report to campus today.

While in conversations with Georgia Tech, Simpson's dad passed away. The funeral is today in his hometown. Would not surprise me if something becomes official on his end sooner than later, but GT in the past has also been known to wait until there are multiple additions prior to releasing anything.

On the player side of things, Georgia Tech is adding a significant amount of their 2024 class, both portal and HS, to campus officially today. They are listed below-

QB Aaron Philo
QB Graham Knowles
RB Trelain Maddox
RB Anthony Carrie
WR Trey Horne
WR Isiah Canion
TE Jackson Hawes
TE Ryland Goede
OL Keylan Rutledge
OL Jameson Riggs
OL Jordan Floyd
OL Harrison Moore
OL Santana Alo-Tupuola
DE Jack Barton
DE Jordan Boyd
DT Ayobami Tifase
LB EJ Lightsey
LB Tah'j Butler
LB Jackson Hamilton
CB Syeed Gibbs
CB Cedric Franklin II
CB Warren Burrell

Four-star Tenn. CB Marcellus Barnes and Georgia Tech flirted with one another briefly over the last few weeks, but GT made the decision to pull away from some eye-popping negotiations there as they look to add to the room at DB. Barnes has seen his value nearly double in the last several days. I'll be curious to see where he ends up.

Former DB commit Trajen Greco is going to have a GT hat on the table during the All-American Bowl, but that's all that it is. A hat on the table. Georgia Tech has not recruited him for over a month now.

Moving onto RB recruiting, there have been a lot of questions about whether or not GT is likely to add another at the position given the return of Jamie Felix and the big recruiting win that was Anthony Carrie on signing day.

The answer? Not right now. GT seems to be set at the position from a transfer addition standpoint. The one RB I could see them still adding in the class would be HR threat and Tex. state champion (in both football and track) Will Henderson.

Lastly, two notes on the DL and the transfer portal...

- Ga. native and Wofford DL Chuck Smith IV is set to talk with GT this week. He is finishing up his degree at Wofford this next semester, so he would not enroll until AFTER spring football.
- Checked into Virginia Tech's academic calendar to confirm whether or not their deadlines would push Aeneas Peebles to make a final decision any sooner than the currently known January 12th deadline at GT.. the answer is no. They do not start classes in Blacksburg until January 16th, with a deadline to drop/add of the 22nd.

Given recent events….

For those asking, I’m unsure just how real GT’s chances are for him.

I will say, though, that it would likely be an “or” situation with him and Davis, not “and”

Georgia Tech returns home after nearly a month off to face 0-2 in ACC play Boston College who have a high-powered offense led by big man Quinten Post and guards Claudell Harris and Jaeden Zackery.

Damon Stoudamire spoke to the media on Friday and said that BC definitely scores a lot of points and they are probably disappointed with how their season started 0-2 and they are a little desperate coming in, with that sense of urgency that FSU had coming into the GT game the other night after they lost to Lipscomb. He is hoping there is a good crowd and GT can match their energy especially after the team has been away for 26-27 days from McCamish.

I asked him if he needed to call more plays early to get the offense jumpstarted and he thinks they are worse when they try to run set plays because his guys overthink and the ball stops moving. He thinks they play better when they just get out and run and create their offense through good defense and get teams in transition. He said they've been a little stagnant in the halfcourt

He said the FT shooting issues are mental and they have to imagine the ball going through the hoop and visualize that over and over. They practice it a lot and hit them but it is not happening in games right now. He said they need to take their time at the FT line.

Stoudamire said that Miles Kelly needs to stop passing up open shots and trying to drive into traffic all the time. If the shot is there he needs to shoot it and have confidence it will go in. He said he has had those moments of struggling and he believes he will get going in the right direction again and he just has to stick with his routine.

I noticed that Nait George was pulling back some in transition against FSU when they had some numbers and I asked Damon if he was concerned about that and he said that was more of an inexperience thing, he didn't play in the first four games and after the fifth game he has been starting and they are 6-2 or whatever with him starting so he is figuring things out on the fly, but he is isn't afraid. He said at FSU they were just bad all across the board in the first half and in the second half they loosened up and the game loosened up and they started getting stops finally and people tend to move faster when you do that.

Chad asked him if he has talked to the team about the NCAAT or making the postseason and he said he didn't want to overwhelm his team, he tries to take it day to day and let the cards fall where they may, but he thinks they have the potential to have a postseason berth if they can keep developing and playing basketball well at the right time.

Stoudamire said he watched Post when he was coaching with the Celtics and was impressed with him and how he has continued to improve there and he shoots it a lot better than most of the bigs they've played so far this year. He will be a big challenge.

I asked him about the revolving fifth starter spot and what the philosophy is there, four guys Nait George, Miles Kelly, Kowacie Reeves and Baye Ndongo are locked in but he has started Gapare, Ebenezer and Sacko at that other spot and he said that is a NBA thing and you have a matchup starter based on who you are playing. He brought up Marc Iavaroni who he played for in Memphis in the NBA and he said that Marc was the "starter" on the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers team because he balanced out the lineup, but the real guy at that spot was Bobby Jones who is in the HoF who came off the bench for them. He said they will rotate all season and Ebe is up for BC tomorrow there and if they are guard driven it will be a different guy like Sacko or if it is a stretch guy then Gapare will start.

I predict the following for Haynes King
-he will not transfer
he will have fewer pass touchdowns and fewer receptions
the positive reasons will be because the defense is slightly better maybe even as good as ranked 80th or even as high as 75th worst defense, maybe even 70th
The team will more potent on the ground
bad reasons are that we face FSU, The Irish, Duke?, and UGA

He was just hired as a defensive line assistant for South Florida

THE FLATS – Georgia Tech women’s basketball secured its first Atlantic Coast Conference win in the final seconds on Thursday night, defeating Virginia, 63-60. It was a one-point ballgame with less than a minute to play as Tech improved to 10-4 overall and 1-1 in ACC action.

It all came down to the final minutes when the teams traded scores to setup a one-point tally. Tonie Morgan hit a pair of free throws at the fourth quarter 1:58 mark to hand Georgia Tech a 60-56 advantage before the teams traded points over the next minute. Virginia’s Kaydan Lawson connected on a pair at the charity stripe to move the score to 61-60 with 54.1 seconds to play before Kara Dunn drew a foul with 20.6 to go and sank both free throws, proving to be the final difference, 63-60. In all, the game saw nine lead changes and 11 ties in Tech’s ACC home-opener.

Dunn led all scorers with a game-high 24 points. She was followed by Morgan, who notched her third double-double of the season behind 18 points and 12 rebounds. Morgan went to the free throw line for a career-high 15 attempts and converted 10, including 2-of-3 in the fourth quarter. Overall, Tech was 21-for-33 at the free throw line, while Virginia was 15-of-23.

It was a back-and-forth battle in the first half as Georgia Tech held the largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 14-8 in the first quarter. But a combined 21 turnovers plagued both teams in the first half as the lead changed five times and stood tied six times. Dunn led all scorers with 12 points at halftime and capped the second quarter with a bucket to give Tech a 27-24 lead at intermission.

Back-to-back buckets from Dunn in the third quarter gave Tech it’s largest lead of the game, 35-28, but the Cavaliers did not go lightly and chipped away at their deficit to create a 48-48 score entering the fourth quarter.

Camryn Taylor led Virginia with 19 points. Paris Clark added 13 points and 12 rebounds, leading the Cavaliers to the rebounding advantage, 46-42. Both teams shot under 35 percent from the field as Virginia was held to one three-pointer and 17 turnovers in the game.

The Yellow Jackets are back on the road this weekend with a trip to Pitt on Sunday, Jan. 7. Tip is slated for 2 p.m. on the ACC Network inside the Petersen Events Center.

Is this the first time an Adidas school has made the CFP? I thought about it after I noticed the adidas logo on Washington's uniform. I don't think one has ever made it before. Last time Washington was in they were Nike. Cincinnati and Notre Dame the only UA schools that have made it in IIRC.

Let’s do this. I’ll go until 10:30 or so.

Q&A makes its 2024 debut TONIGHT.

Look forward to it.

The streak of Southern Teams winning the Naty started in 2014, has ended

Greetings from Tally

They appear to be losing a lot with their one year rentals from the portal. The flip of KJ Bolden to UGA obviously did not help. Curious if Russell or anyone else here has insight on what their roster might look like going into our game with them in Ireland. I know there is another portal wave upcoming.

Thought I saw where DJU from Oregon State was going there. But I have to think the lawsuit and threat of leaving the ACC with their destination unknown is not helping.

Login to view embedded media
I like this! Spread this around far & wide to GT brethren! Go Jackets!

Am I going to be happy or sad at the end of this, @Russell Johnson

Login to view embedded media