Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets in the running for four-star prospects

Georgia Tech basketball recruiting is starting to heat up. The Yellow Jackets recently made the cut for both P.J. Hall and KD Johnson.

To say it’s been a frustrating 20 months for Georgia Tech fans would be an understatement. Dating back to the Nassir Little commitment to North Carolina in the fall of 2017, there have been few bright spots as far as Georgia Tech recruiting goes. The bright spots that have occurred have typically come via transfer (which is fine). The program did receive some good news this weekend, however, as two four-star recruits published their cut lists, both including Josh Pastner and the Yellow Jackets.

6-foot-8 P.J. Hall, an offensively polished stretch forward out of South Carolina, named the Jackets in his top five along with the Florida Gators, Clemson Tigers, Tennessee Volunteers, and the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Jackets would have immediate minutes available for Hall as James Banks  III is set to graduate next spring.

Then, on July 21, point guard KD Johnson, out of Southwest Dekalb HS in Atlanta, provided his cut list to five as well. Georgia Tech makes the cut along with the University of Georgia, Kennesaw State, Auburn, and Jacksonville State. Many believe that Johnson is a heavy lean towards the Georgia Bulldogs. However, it would be foolish to rule out Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers after repeated success recruiting the city of Atlanta. Given Auburn’s currently strong recruitment of point guard Sharife Cooper, however, it would appear that Johnson may be their back-up plan.

I wrote about Hall this past weekend when he released his list, you can find that story here. As far as Johnson goes, he is a hard-nosed Atlanta point guard who really knows how to orchestrate a team and an offense. He likes to get to the basket but is a capable shooter from the outside. He is currently ranked 110th in the nation.

If Georgia Tech was to land both players, it would go a long way to alleviating some of the frustration expressed by Georgia Tech basketball fans. It would also reward the hard work put forth by Julian Swartz, who has been the most effective recruiter on the Georgia Tech staff since being named assistant coach last year.

In other recruiting news, Coach Josh Pastner intimated recently that he has not given up on finding another big man for the 2019-20 roster. Pastner mentioned both the graduate transfer option as well as overseas prospects. Coach Reveno is rumored to currently be on the trail of at least one oversea’s recruit.

The team will be traveling to Spain for a European tour in a couple of weeks.