Georgia Tech has hired Troy coach Scott Cross as its new men’s basketball coach, with a deal coming together a day after Troy’s exit from the NCAA Tournament.

Cross just wrapped his seventh season at Troy, which ended with a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. The 13th-seeded Trojans lost to Nebraska 76-47 on Thursday in Oklahoma City.

Georgia Tech is looking to return to basketball prominence, and in Cross it will have someone with program-building experience, albeit at lower levels.

Cross, 51, took over a struggling Troy program and went 9-22 his first season, but the Trojans won at least 20 games in each of the past five seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach at UT Arlington, his alma mater, from 2006 to 2018, taking the team to the NCAA Tournament in his second season.

Georgia Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert, making his first major hire, is making a more conventional basketball hire after the school struck out with its previous approach.

Damon Stoudamire, the former NBA guard who mostly had just NBA coaching experience, was fired after going 42-55 the past three seasons. Stoudamire replaced Josh Pastner, who was available after seven seasons at Memphis because the program had missed two straight NCAA Tournaments.

Pastner only took Georgia Tech to one NCAA Tournament, in 2021, and it was a one-and-done trip. It’s a far cry from the glory days of Bobby Cremins and even Paul Hewitt, who guided the Yellow Jackets to the 2004 national championship game.

Alpert, hired last year at Georgia Tech, came from Tennessee, where he saw the Vols maintain a consistent national contender with veteran coach Rick Barnes navigating the changes in the sport.

Georgia Tech associate AD Brent Jones was also the Troy athletic director when Cross was hired, which was certainly key.

A Georgia Tech source said the administration likes the way Cross handled the transfer portal at Troy, which like many mid-majors faces more frequent roster turnover.

Cross does have limited experience at the power conference level, serving as an assistant for TCU in 2018-19, in between his stints at UT Arlington and Troy.

Georgia Tech is coming off an 11-20 season, so the roster turnover may be extensive. Cross could try to retain players with upside, such as third- and fourth-leading scorers Jaeden Mustaf and Akai Fleming, and freshman center Cole Kirouac. And Cross could try to bring some of his players from Troy.

The basketball transfer portal opens officially on the day after the NCAA Tournament ends, but for teams that make coaching changes, it opens five days after the announcement of a new coach.