A LIVER shot. Will kill ya! Tank delivers.

Congratulations to women’s tennis for upsetting #6 ranked Duke at ACC championships

Our good friend and active JOL member is undergoing open heart surgery tomorrow morning at Emory replacing his aortic valve. He was diagnosed in December with aortic stenosis. The doctors intended to monitor the condition for a while but a “episode” brought on by taking the stairs in the parking deck after the ATL United game last weekend removed any doubts and accelerated the timeline. Ray is a good guy, enjoys the banter on JOL, genuine faith in Jesus and loves the Jackets. While this surgery has become “routine”, as they say, how rapidly this has played out has been unnerving for he and his wife. Thanks for the thoughts & prayers.

Looks like Clemson and FSU may be trying to challenge ACC on grant of rights.

FSU fan told me more is coming from FSU next week….


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THE FLATS – Damon Stoudamire, well-known throughout the basketball world for his success as a player and coach at the collegiate and professional levels, has been named the 15th head coach in Georgia Tech men’s basketball history, Tech announced on Monday.



Stoudamire comes to Georgia Tech after most recently serving as an assistant coach of the Boston Celtics, who currently sit atop the NBA’s Atlantic Division standings. He was with the Celtics for nearly two seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23), after a successful five-season stint as the head coach at Pacific (2016-21). At Pacific, he was named West Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2020 after leading the Tigers to a 23-10 record in 2019-20, good for the program’s best winning percentage (.697) in 15 years, and a third-place finish in the powerful WCC (behind only national powers Gonzaga and St. Mary’s).



“We are thrilled that Damon Stoudamire will be the head coach of our storied men’s basketball program,” Georgia Tech director of athletics J Batt said. “Coach Stoudamire’s success and credibility as a player and coach at both the collegiate and professional levels make him a great fit to lead our program. He will serve as an outstanding mentor on and off the court and will attract talented student-athletes to The Flats. We could not be happier to welcome Coach Stoudamire to the Georgia Tech family.”



“We are excited to welcome Coach Stoudamire to Georgia Tech,” Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera said. “His impressive track record as a coach in college and the NBA, and his own experience as a student-athlete and professional player, will be invaluable assets for the Institute’s men’s basketball program and our student-athletes. His passion for player development and continuous improvement aligns with our culture of excellence and our commitment to student well-being and success.”



Stoudamire established himself as one of his generation’s premier players when he was a three-time all-conference performer, the 1995 Pac 10 co-Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American at Arizona, where he played for four seasons from 1991-95. After helping lead the Wildcats to the Final Four as a junior in 1994, he capped his collegiate career by averaging 22.8 points per game, en route to the co-conference Player of the Year and consensus first-team All-America recognition in 1995. He was a finalist for 1995 Wooden Award (National Player of the Year).



At the conclusion of his Arizona career, Stoudamire was the Wildcats’ all-time leader in 3-pointers made (272) and ranked second in points (1,849) and fourth in assists (663). He was the only player in Arizona history with two 40-point games.



His amateur career also included helping lead the United States to the gold medal in the 1993 World University Games (where he led the team in assists and steals despite being the youngest player on the roster) and the bronze at the 1994 Goodwill Games.



Stoudamire was selected by the Toronto Raptors with the seventh overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft and averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 assists per game over the course of a 13-year professional playing career that included stints with the Raptors (1995-98), Portland Trail Blazers (1998-05), Memphis Grizzlies (2005-08) and San Antonio Spurs (2008). He was named the 1996 NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 19 points and 9.3 assists per game in his first NBA campaign, the first of four-straight seasons that he averaged at least 17 points and eight assists per contest.



Following the conclusion of his NBA playing career in 2008, Stoudamire immediately embarked on his coaching career, beginning as director of player development at Rice in 2008-09. He then went on to serve as an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies for two seasons (2009-11), before getting back into the college game with stints as an assistant at Memphis (2011-13), his alma mater Arizona (2013-15) and again at Memphis (2015-16).



After helping lead Memphis and Arizona to four conference championships (two Conference USA titles at Memphis, two Pac-12 crowns at Arizona) and four NCAA Tournament berths (including back-to-back Elite Eight appearances at Arizona) in six seasons, Stoudamire was hired as the head coach at Pacific in 2016. He inherited a program coming off an 8-20 campaign and quickly built it into a WCC contender, highlighted by the 23-10 campaign in 2019-20. The Tigers’ 11-5 conference record that season remains their most-ever wins in WCC play. Combined with a 9-9 record in league play in 2017-18, Stoudamire led Pacific to its only two .500-or-better conference records since the Tigers joined the WCC in 2013-14.



After posting a 9-9 overall record during the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season, Stoudamire returned to the NBA as an assistant coach for the Celtics. In his first season in Boston, he helped lead the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals. This season, the Celtics stand in first place in the Atlantic Division and in second both in the Eastern Conference and in the NBA’s overall league standings. With Boston, he has coached a pair of metro-Atlanta natives in Malcolm Brogdon (Norcross, Ga.) and Jaylen Brown (Alpharetta, Ga.).



“I am humbled and honored to be the head coach at Georgia Tech,” Stoudamire said. “It is an incredible honor to be entrusted with leading such a tradition-rich program. I am excited to get to work with the goal of consistently having our team compete at the championship level that we all know we can and should compete at. I’m proud to represent Georgia Tech and can’t wait to walk out of the tunnel and onto the floor at the Thrillerdome in front of our fans. Go Jackets!”



A Portland, Ore. native, Stoudamire, 49, graduated from Woodrow Wilson H.S. in 1991 and earned his bachelor’s degree from Arizona in 2008. He has a daughter, Kemeco, and two sons, Damon and Brandon.



THE DAMON STOUDAMIRE FILE

PERSONAL

Hometown: Portland, Ore.

Family: Daughter: Kemeco; Sons: Damon and Brandon

Alma Mater: Arizona, 2008



PLAYING EXPERIENCE

1991-95: Arizona

1995-98: Toronto Raptors

1998-2005: Portland Trail Blazers

2005-08: Memphis Grizzlies

2008: San Antonio Spurs



COACHING EXPERIENCE

2008-09: Rice (director of player development)

2009-11: Memphis Grizzlies (assistant coach)

2011-13: Memphis (assistant coach)

2013-15: Arizona (assistant coach)

2015-16: Memphis (assistant coach)

2016-21: Pacific (head coach)

2021-23: Boston Celtics (assistant coach)

2023-: Georgia Tech (head coach)



WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT DAMON STOUDAMIRE

“Congratulations to Damon and Georgia Tech. We are thankful for everything that Damon has contributed during in his time in Boston. He’s a great teammate – he works hard, he cares about everyone in the room, and he has a special feel for the game. We will all miss having him here, but are thrilled for him and will be rooting for his success with the Yellow Jackets.”

- Brad Stevens, President of Basketball Operations – Boston Celtics



“Damon is a great person, successful leader, and will be a great head coach. He has an ability to build genuine relationships, connect with players, and bring an organization together for a common goal. His loyalty, basketball experience, work ethic and personality made the Celtics better. We will miss him as a person and coach. Georgia Tech is lucky to have him.”

- Joe Mazzulla, Head Coach – Boston Celtics

Lots of smoke that Bama is tampering hard and brining bags of pay for play... I mean name image and likeness for TVD

Sorry for the delay, I actually forgot about this handling tax stuff the last two days and my elderly parents totaled their car in their driveway and got banged up. Being an adult sucks.

RE: Basketball - in order of most likely to least likely, rank the following:

• Blue Cain recommits to Tech
• Matthew Cleveland transfers to Tech
• Neither guy ends up at Tech
• Both guys end up at Tech

KQ- Neither, Cleveland, Cain, Both

RE: Potential soccer/lacrosse stadium - what would this look like to start playing varsity sports at the ACC level? Would it be a matter of "you can start playing as soon as the stadium is ready?" or is it more complex?

KQ- I don't know honestly. I think they'd have to let the ACC know and start working on how it would fit into the schedule and would it make for odd team numbers and would they need someone else to join or how would scheduling work. I'm sure the league would enjoy it but I'm not holding my breath in the short term. GT has a lot of other investments with athletics they need to focus on fixing.

Which happens first? ACC champ in football or basketball.

KQ- Probably football, I still think Key is three years away from having the program at a point to do something like that. I think he is trying to build a sustainable program from the ground up. There will be growing pains. I think hoops doesn't have the NIL cash yet to get there. I suppose if Damon can really coach and recruit they could get there faster, but both new coaches are truly unknowns running the programs.

Maybe these are just my anti-scooter-colored glasses, but it seems like we're getting more public interest from 'big' names (specifically: more 4 and 5 stars) in Key's year 1 than scooter's year 1. Is that actually true?

If so, wow scooter, recruiting was supposed to be your 'thing'. What the hell, dude.

KQ- This is more of a @Russell Johnson question. My memory can't handle who was on campus in 2020. I will say that covid hit a time that didn't do any favors to Collins recruiting ramp up to be fair to him and that staff. Covid happened 15 months after they took over the program and they came from Temple and had been recruiting in an entirely different area.

Are we going to land McClendon?

KQ- Another @Russell Johnson question.

For KQ or Russell or both if you have an opinion:

Danny Hall has famously said he has no hobbies to look forward to in retirement. At age 68, do you think a realistic outcome at some point is that he could move into an Associate AD role instead of retire?

That way you could sell it as Danny getting promoted, he can still come to work every day and have an emeritus type of influence on baseball, and GT hangs onto rising-star Ramsey - or whoever the succession plan is if Ramsey is gone by that point. But something has to change soon.

KQ- I was joking with Russell today that Danny will still be coaching when my toddler is ready to play college baseball. It was a cheap joke, but I have no idea what is going to happen. Batt pulled the trigger on a coach who had more recent success than Hall in hoops firing Pastner so I have no idea. I'm sure Danny has been hoping for one last run to Omaha to ride out on. I thought he was going to retire when his kids were done but that didn't happen either. It's not my area of expertise, but I think it is a question that should be asked right now. How do you get this thing fixed. They shouldn't be getting swept badly by VaTech in baseball.

Most important part of a spring game is coming out without any major injuries. Everyone that played good?

KQ- Only two guys left the game that I saw. Avery Boyd got knocked to the ground in the end zone and came back in a few plays later and caught a TD. Brett Seither tried to play on a bad ankle and ended up having to miss the rest of the scrimmage after he tweaked it. Seither tried to go back in and the trainers blocked him. He just has a sprained ankle I think.

Defense was playing more base set on Saturday but looked like we had three LBs out there at times. Are we less of a nickel base now?

KQ- That was numbers based, they were down a nickel in the spring with Khari Gee out recovering from something and also they are running more 4-3 against 12 personnel and the offense was light on WRs so they were playing a lot of 12 so that brings the SAM in the game. They showed this look at times last year against teams with heavier personnel. That is due to KJ Wallace and Rod Shelley being more slot corners and less like safeties. They also had like zero scheme installed for the spring game.

How do you see the kicking department shape out? Small sample size from Saturday but Stewart missed his short FG attempt and Birr made his.

KQ- I would put ZERO stock in what you saw. I wasn't even sure why Stewart missed his kick. I never saw a replay of it. Birr is not 100% yet and is still getting his leg strength back so I expect Stewart and Birr will battle well into the fall. Both have kicked well this spring.

Congrats to Marvin Lewis!

No Dawson Brown, but Jackson Finley is back.

FRI: GT RHP Luke Schmolke (Fr., 4-1, 8.89 ERA) vs. MIA RHP Gage Ziehl (So., 4-4, 5.40 ERA)

SAT: GT RHP Terry Busse (So., 1-2, 3.12 ERA) vs. MIA RHP Alejandro Rosario (Jr., 2-3, 8.21 ERA)

SUN: GT RHP Jackson Finley (R-So., 1-3, 4.91 ERA) vs. MIA RHP Karson Ligon (So., 3-1, 4.25 ERA

Let's do this. I'll go until the first quarter of the Kings game!

Please remember that it is just me answering questions, not Kelly

Apparently moving pregame stuff to north ave side…. What the hell. Sorry for paywall.

Kelly played in 11 games (four starts) as a true freshman last season racking up 19 tackles in 290 snaps at the defensive end position. He had six quarterback pressures and no sacks.
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Quoting an article from a separate media outlet to spark some discussion:
————————————————-
What's up with Georgia Tech?

The sample is small, but none of Georgia Tech's 14 four-star signees from 2009 through 2019 were drafted. That's O percent - compared to the 22.1 percent of the overall 3,565 four-star recruits during this time frame who were signed.

And on a related note: How can a Power 5 program located in Atlanta sign only 14 four-stars (and no five-stars) in an 11-year stretch?

We realize that Paul Johnson, who was the head coach through the 2018 season, did things a little differently - recruiting to the triple-option - but this still seems like an astounding lack of success.

Does anyone know how to give a custom amount to tech way? I want to give $1000/yr, which comes out to 83.33/month, but there's no "custom" donation option on the website. I.e. I can only donate 10, 50, 100, 250 dollars/month.

This seems pretty silly as its just the addition of a text box and simple change in the javascript...If someone can get me hooked up with the source code to the website I'll add the custom donation option myself!!

I’ve learned this afternoon that QB target Aaron Philo will be on campus this weekend.
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Probables-

TUE: GT RHP Ben King (R-So., 3-0, 3.08 ERA) vs. GSU RHP Brian Garmon (Fr., 1-0, 9.82 ERA)

King has the lowest ERA on the team. Will be interesting to see how long he can go tonight.

Game is on ACC Network for those interested.

I’ll be coaching 9-10 year old girls for the first part, but will be back tonight and plan to write a column tomorrow regardless of the result.

THE FLATS – Ebenezer Dowuona, a 6-11 forward who provided a strong defensive presence in the post the last three seasons at NC State, has signed a grant-in-aid to join the Georgia Tech program, head coach Damon Stoudamire announced.

A native of Accra, Ghana, who attended The Heritage School in the Atlanta area, Dowuona (pronounced “duh-WANNA”) was Stoudamire’s first commitment as head coach of the Yellow Jackets, and he has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Dowuona helped lead the Wolfpack to 23 wins and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2022-23.

“What I love about Ebe is his athleticism and shot-blocking,” said Stoudamire, who became the Yellow Jackets’ head coach on March 14. “I’ve seen the way he is able to impact games with his rim-running and shot-blocking ability. He’s a first-class student-athlete who is gracious and humble and wants only what’s best for his team. Those are things I value and want for our program here at Georgia Tech.”

Dowuona played in 61 games and started 30 over the last two seasons with NC State after limited action as a freshman. He averaged 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds while connecting on 51 percent of his shots and compiling 82 blocked shots. His best season came in 2021-22, when he started 27 of the Wolfpack’s games and averaged 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds, hitting 55.9 percent of his shots from the floor. He ranked fourth in the ACC averaging 1.7 blocks per game and 14th in offensive rebounds (2.0 per game).

Dowuona attended The Heritage School in Newnan, Ga., from the eighth grade through graduation, and was a high school teammate of Yellow Jacket guard Lance Terry. Dowuona earned AAA all-state honors in the Georgia Independent School Association as a sophomore, junior and senior, helping the Hawks to two state AAA titles and one runner-up finish.

Since @GTDGN04 gave me a hard time for liking GT baseball over the Braves I was curious what everyone’s rankings of sports teams looks like.

Here is mine:

1. GT football
2. GT basketball
3. GT baseball
3. Braves
4. Hawks
5. Falcons

College baseball has really grown on me and almost over taken basketball but the two Danny’s ruined that chance.