Georgia Tech Basketball: Pastner lands 3-star guard Tristan Maxwell

Class of 2020 prospect Tristan Maxwell has decided to play for Georgia Tech Basketball. Who does he bring to the Yellow Jackets?

Georgia Tech Basketball head coach Josh Pastner was the beneficiary of some good news on Monday, receiving a verbal commitment from three-star guard Tristan Maxwell. Maxwell took his official visit to Georgia Tech over the weekend and released his decision via his Twitter page. The Yellow Jackets beat out North Carolina State, whom Tristan visited officially on October 9th.

Maxwell, a 6’2 190-pound guard from the state of North Carolina, is the son of former NBA player and Houston Rocket Vernon “Mad Max“ Maxwell. He plays his high school ball at North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville. He was a teammate of current Louisville forward Jae’lyn Withers last season.

Tristan is ranked within the top 200 of 247 sports.com rankings of the 2020 class and has gone from being unranked in Rivals SG rankings up to 37th in the class. Although listed as a combo guard, Georgia Tech fans may be hopeful that Maxwell projects as the point guard of the future, following in the footsteps of junior point guard Jose Alvarado. However, he is clearly more of a scorer than a distributor as he boasts an above-average shooting touch, and a silky smooth game when getting to the rim.

Tristan joins big man Jordan Meka, of Mount Bethel high school in Georgia, as the two current signees for Georgia Tech during the early signing period. This brings the current roster count to 12 for the 2020-21 season. Due to recent sanctions placed upon the Georgia Tech program, that could possibly fill the class, though the Yellow Jackets are currently appealing the NCAA’s punishments and may be able to hand out the max amount of 13 scholarships for next season.

It has long been speculated that it was coach Pastner’s intent all along to sign a big man as well as a guard in the early signing period, and to that end, he has succeeded. Both Meka and Maxwell fill positions of need as Alvarado is a junior and James Banks is graduating after the upcoming season. It is also now assumed that the Georgia Tech staff will pursue another post player during the spring signing period, whether that be on the prep circuit or via graduate transfer.