ACC Basketball: Ranking all 15 head coaches in 2023 after recent changes
By Joey Loose
12. Damon Stoudamire – Georgia Tech
Three decades ago, Stoudamire was a star point guard at Arizona who would then spend 13 seasons in the NBA, winning NBA Rookie of the Year in 1996. He’s worked in coaching since his retirement and has been an assistant with Rice, Memphis, and his alma mater. Stoudamire spent five seasons as the head coach at Pacific before joining the Boston Celtics’ coaching staff the last two seasons; this will be his first season leading the Yellow Jackets.
What’s important to know about Stoudamire isn’t just that he was in the NBA for over a decade, it’s that he’s already been a successful collegiate coach. Pacific is not exactly a premier program in the WCC, but he led the Tigers to a 3rd place finish in the conference back in 2010. Who knows where things could have gone had he not left for the NBA a year later, but now he’s back in the college game at Georgia Tech.
This Yellow Jackets program has not exactly been a strong one in recent years and Stoudamire’s next few seasons will certainly be difficult. He’s already shown that he can win games in tough leagues, though turning things around at Georgia Tech in the ACC will make his work at Pacific look like a picnic. Still, Georgia Tech can consider itself fortunate to have someone with all this experience leading the program, we’ll just have to see how Stoudamire handles life in the ACC.