Three offseasons ago Georgia Tech was in the unenviable position of finding their next head coach and eventually settled on Damon Stoudamire. That fit was seen as unusual and unexpected, but the former NBA player and coach had been pretty decent as head coach at Pacific and was seen as perhaps a hidden gem for the program. Clearly the Yellow Jackets didn’t quite take that step in the right direction, leaving this program hunting once again this offseason.
Who did they hire?
Georgia Tech’s decision-making was a little different this time, grabbing another mid-major coach on the rise but this time straight from the collegiate ranks. Scott Cross has been nothing short of brilliant in his recent work at Troy and has nearly two decades of head coaching experience at the collegiate level. Cross was very solid at UT Arlington and just took the Trojans to the last two NCAA Tournaments, winning at least 20 games in five straight seasons.
There’s a major jump from Sun Belt dominance to competing in the ACC and Cross is well aware of that. He’s got the added difficult of basically building a new roster from scratch using the transfer portal and that’s not the easiest task at a program like Georgia Tech. He’s got Victor Valdes coming with from Troy and grabbed Colby Garland, the former San Jose State guard who put up 20 points a game, but there are a lot of question marks beyond them in the rotation.
Expectations in Atlanta
Nobody expects Cross to come to town and immediately turn Georgia Tech into a winner. After all, the Yellow Jackets have been in just one of the last 15 NCAA Tournaments and that came after a crazy run through the ACC Tournament back in 2021. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and determination from Cross and his new staff to fix a program that’s been above .500 just twice in the last nine years.
We won’t know today or tomorrow if Cross was the right man for this job but it’s fair to feel underwhelmed. He’s been remarkable in recent years and really did turn the tide for Troy basketball but this is a significant job forward for a program without notable success in this current generation. Would the Yellow Jackets have been better off bringing in someone with any major conference coaching experience or is Cross just the right man to finally change the tide in an ACC long dominated by other programs?
Add us as a preferred source on Google