Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
2018-19 record: 14-18, 6-12 in the ACC
Head coach: Josh Pastner
Tenure at Georgia Tech: 4th season
Career coaching record: 215-126
Home court: McCamish Pavilion
Starters: G Jose Alvarado, G Michael Devoe, F Khalid Moore, F Moses Wright, C James Banks III
Bench: G Shembari Phillips, G Bubba Parham , G Asanti Price, F Evan Cole
Overview: As if Georgia Tech wasn’t already struggling, the NCAA Committee on Infractions delivered swift justice to the program this fall. Because of impermissible recruiting benefits, the Yellow Jackets are banned from the NCAA tournament this season and lose a scholarship for each of the next four seasons.
Why all the fuss? Former Tech assistant coach Darryl LaBarrie brought a group that allegedly included former Yellow Jacket Jarrett Jack, then-current player Justin Moore and Wendell Carter Jr.—who later committed to Duke—to a strip club. It was also reported from a former friend of head coach Josh Pastner that the head coach gave recruits shoes and clothing when trying to get them to join his program.
Georgia Tech returns its top three scorers, but that doesn’t mean much as the Yellow Jackets scored just 65.3 points per game last year, last in the ACC. Their pitiful 30.7 percent rate from beyond the arc ranked second-to-last in the conference, and their 2019 recruiting class ranked just 120th in the country according to 247Sports.
One thing that needs to go right: Michael Devoe, a former four-star recruit, develops into the superstar many thought he could be when he arrived in Atlanta, making a massive improvement from his freshman campaign.
One thing that could go wrong: A subpar recruiting class undermines an already-weak starting lineup, relegating Georgia Tech to irrelevance within the ACC.
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