Everything From Georgia Tech Head Coach Damon Stoudamire's Thursday Media Availability

Stoudamire spoke with the media fter the final summer practice for the Yellow Jackets

Mar 2, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets head coach Damon Stoudamire on the sideline against the Florida State Seminoles in the first half at McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

It has been a busy summer for Georgia Tech basketball and Damon Stoudamire's team wrapped up summer practice today. After practice, Stoudamire spoke with the media and here is everything that he had to say.

1. On adding new staff members...

"I love having guys did a lot of sense that can teach me things. I'm not a know at all. You know, I'll learn, and, You know, coach can teach me, you know, teach me some things. He's been around the game a lot. He's been under great coaches, and so I'm really looking forward to being around him and working with him. James Forrest, you know, a familiar name to the people in the area. You know, the Georgia Tech guy. James is someone that I've known, so I think we were probably 11, 12 years old. Basketball really comes for a circle a whole lot of times, and I think that's what it was with him. You know, James, it helped, you know, the biggest thing for me when I took the job, you remember back to the press conference, it's trying to connect everybody again. You know, and James has a connection to the past. That can bleed all the way to the current is what we're in right now. And, you know, his relationships, not only around the community, will be an asset to, you know, not only to men's basketball, but just to the whole athletic department in general. You know, we look forward to having them around. It's always good to have, you know, a former player, you know, that has been around and, you know, has been here and knows faces and knows the community."

2. On the new changes to the roster...

"No question. I always love, I always love length, like interchangeable parts. I think that, you know, we added shooting. And I'm excited about our team. You know, just more importantly, I just, you know, it's the connectivity of the team. And I would say this. You know, nobody talks about this because it's kids, right? to ask people to you know, to go into and play a different role, especially for their whole career, it is hard. I commend them for even doing what they did because it was not easy this group of guys, they're guys that, you know, as you go through a season and you go through the things that you want to do, there's a lot that I didn't even get to last year based on the fact that it was just a scramble and it was on the run, you know, as I was putting the rocks together. And we've already done more this summer truthfully than what I did. Probably, I probably didn't get to some of this stuff until late October You know what I mean? So the fact that we are able to dry run, you know, I have a full roster right now, with the exception of Baye not being here and went back home. So, you know, it's been great. This summer's been great. And, you know, I'm excited."

3. On Ryan Mutombo...

"There's a lot of history there, you know. You know, but obviously, you know, I know his dad. His dad was actually my cousin's roommate in college. You know, but I think Ryan is someone that can help us. Big body, obviously. And, you know, I always say this. I'm big into this. You've got to accept someone for who they are to get the best out of them. So, you know, I don't have any illusions, but he'll help us at what we need him to do. You know what I mean? That's what he'll be judged on from me and my coaching staff. So he's been great so far, you know, takes direction and a great kid to be around."

4. On the young freshmen...

"They've been good. You know, they got a lot of talent, you know, all three of them. Each of them bring a different thing to the table. DO (Doryan Onwuchekwa) the way he shoots it at his position and his size, I think that would be an asset. And I think that his trajectory, as the season goes on by the time we hit conference play. I look for him to really, you know, be a contributor, you know, and Darrion and Jaeden you know, they've, uh, they just fit right in, you know. They got things to learn, obviously, but I love what I see from them. They've done a great job up at this point."

5. On the guard combination of Nait George and Javian McCollum...

"Yeah, I've always envisioned as a coach of playing two point guards together. That's what my coach did in college. I'm saying it now, so everybody just get used to it, so it's not something that's new. If you look back to how we played way back when 25 years ago, Olson was one of the first guys to ever do it. Started two point guards, you know, we ended up, final four. Not saying that's going to happen, but, you know, you got to figure that out. As an opposing coach, when you got two dudes that can get downhill, two guys that can make plays and two guys that can make shots, it's just hard, it's hard to guard. Watching you guys practice today, the guy kind of caught my house loop, just with that position flexibility, the size, and the ability to play like a guard, he was on a team team that had three of the first 42 picks in the draft, but see, we don't see anybody talk about that. So not only can he play, but he knows how to win. He's played in big games, and that's what I like about him the most. But, you know, he's a little better playmaker than you might think definitely can shoot the ball. I'm excited about him and what he can bring to the table."

6. On Colorado transfer Luke O'Brien...

"Yeah, well, I would say this, you know, and, you know, that group of guys, they've already, you know, and it's early, but they've already, you can see they've connected. You know, it's a spirited group. They love competing. You know, a lot of the things we do are going to be competitive drills, five -on -five competition. That's all I really care about. Again, it's a little different going into my second year because I just got, I had a team, and I knew exactly what I needed, you know, once we lost our last game against Notre Dame. And so, you know, we're all excited. Coaches, staff, players, we're all excited about, you know, getting started this year."

7. On Lance Terry...

"Man, it wasn't tough. That was all fluff. I knew Lance was redshirting probably about three games in, if you really want to be honest. Yeah, that's, That's really what was happening. So Lance always was very sure. Lance came to me and said he'd rather, you know, know what we were actually doing and have a year under the system before he played, which make a lot of sense. You know, so, you know, the thing about him is now just, you know, getting him through the year, keeping him healthy. You know, I think that's the only thing to stop Lance since he's been here at Tech. You know, he's a really good player. He's a seasoned player. He's seen a lot. And I'm looking forward to seeing him play this year."

8. On helping get the schedule together...

"The schedule will be released here in a little bit, there are just some contractual things there. We gotta try to win as many games as you can. I think based on the structure of what is already in place. you got 20 conference games. That leaves 11. You got three games that you got to play. You know, you play Georgia. You got the SEC/ACC Challenge. And you usually want to play some type of neutral, you know, here. And so that leaves seven, eight games maybe. So trying to see what's out there."

9. On the team's defense...

"Again, didn't have a chance to really get to a lot of this stuff. And so where I had been in my prior places, we were always one or two in our conference. You know, when I was in Boston, we was number one in offense and defense. So I'd never been a part of something defensively that wasn't good. And so for me, the first thing this year was just be more physical and be more aggressive. Like, we can't play on our toes. It's not a matter of they're saying that because they don't know me. And this just started. Like defensively, we can't get stops. It don't matter. I mean, you got to be able to get a stop when needed. Now is our problem. We were in a lot of games last year. We couldn't get stops when needed. So that's it."

10. On Nait George and Baye Ndongo's improvement year over year...

"I will say is this, I will say making a jump from freshman year to sophomore year is the hardest. So just to think that Baye and Nait are going to come in and just all of a sudden just pick up where they left off, you got to work. And I've told them that I've told them as much, you know. So I'm still concerned about that part of it because it just don't happen overnight. That's not, that's not how it worked. You know, I remember my sophomore year of college. I was inconsistent until Christmas, after Christmas. So there's things that still got to get done. We're nowhere near, you know, what we can be and who we need to be, and we just need individuals to be better and consistent. That's right now."