Georgia Tech has fired men\u2019s basketball coach Damon Stoudamire after three seasons leading the Yellow Jackets, a program source confirmed.<\/p>\n
Stoudamire went 42-55 in Atlanta, never finishing with a winning record in ACC play. This season was the worst of his tenure, as Georgia Tech finished last in the 18-team league, failed to qualify for the conference tournament and lost its final 12 games.<\/p>\n
Per Stoudamire\u2019s contract, which ran through the 2027-28 season, Georgia Tech will owe the 52-year-old just under $3 million.<\/p>\n
Stoudamire was an outside-the-box hire<\/a> for the Yellow Jackets, given his limited previous college success. The former Arizona standout and NBA Rookie of the Year \u2014 nicknamed \u201cMighty Mouse\u201d for his 5-foot-10 stature \u2014 went 71-77 in five seasons at Pacific from 2016 to 2021, before leaving to become an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics. After one season at the NBA level, Stoudamire was hired to revive a Georgia Tech program that has been to just one NCAA Tournament since 2010.<\/p>\n Stoudamire did land significant talent as a recruiter, but he was never able to put it all together for the Yellow Jackets. His most encouraging season was arguably his first, when Tech \u2014 despite a 14-18 final record \u2014 beat Duke, North Carolina and Clemson on the strength of a dynamic freshman class led by forward Baye Ndongo and point guard Naithan George.<\/p>\n But Stoudamire never markedly improved beyond that debut campaign. Georgia Tech did finish .500 last year, going 17-17 and 10-10 in the ACC, but leading scorer Lance Terry graduated and George transferred to Syracuse. The wheels fell off entirely this season as the Yellow Jackets went 2-19 against power-conference opponents.<\/p>\n Stoudamire was also no longer working for the athletic director who hired him<\/a>, as J Batt left for Michigan State last summer.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s on Tech\u2019s first-year athletic director Ryan Alpert, who came from Tennessee, to chart a new path forward for a program that hasn\u2019t made the Final Four since 2004. Who might Alpert consider for the open coaching position?<\/p>\n Five candidates for Georgia Tech<\/p>\n Chris Carrawell, associate head coach, Duke: Carrawell was a finalist at Florida State last spring, and it\u2019s only a matter of time before the longtime Duke assistant gets his shot to lead a high-major program. The 48-year-old has been an excellent recruiter dating back to his time on Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s staff, and he is one of the most trusted members on Jon Scheyer\u2019s staff. The former All-American and 2000 ACC Player of the Year knows the conference well, which would make a potential transition easier. Miami head coach Jai Lucas was the only high-major assistant to earn a high-major job last cycle, but his immediate success with the Hurricanes (and the fact that he, too, came from Duke) should make that a more viable path for coaches like Carrawell.<\/p>\n Justin Gainey, associate head coach, Tennessee: Like Carrawell, Gainey was in the mix for an ACC job last season \u2014 NC State, his alma mater \u2014 and is one of the most respected assistants in college basketball. If Tennessee coach Rick Barnes retires, Gainey could be his replacement, but if not, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising for other ACC programs to look his way. The Tennessee connection with Alpert won\u2019t hurt the 48-year-old\u2019s case, nor will Gainey\u2019s regional experience. But is he better off waiting to see what Barnes does?<\/p>\n Kevin Keatts, commentator, ESPN: After a year off from coaching, Keatts \u2014 who led NC State to the Final Four in 2024 \u2014 wants back in, and another ACC school could do a lot worse than someone with Keatts\u2019 experience and resume. While his final season in Raleigh went poorly, Keatts won at least 20 games in five of his eight seasons with the Wolfpack, making the NCAA Tournament on three separate occasions. Keatts is a solid recruiter whose energy would be appreciated at Georgia Tech, and he understands how to do more with fewer resources in the modern era. Georgia Tech also wouldn\u2019t have to buy out Keatts\u2019 current contract because he\u2019s not coaching this season.<\/p>\n Chris Mack, head coach, Charleston: The former Xavier and Louisville coach can be choosy about his next high-major gig, given his stability and quality of life at Charleston. He\u2019d be an immediate stabilizer for the Yellow Jackets, after going 45-19 over the last two seasons. Mack didn\u2019t win a tournament game in four seasons at Louisville, but some of that was circumstance \u2014 his best team was in 2019-20, when the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19 \u2014 and he seems destined to get back to the high-majors, possibly at a higher level than Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n Takayo Siddle, head coach, UNC Wilmington: Industry chatter has connected Siddle to Georgia Tech for a few weeks now, and it\u2019s easy to understand why. The 39-year-old has been one of the better mid-major coaches for several seasons, going 132-53 in six seasons with the Seahawks, including an NCAA Tournament berth last year. Siddle reportedly just signed a new deal in Wilmington<\/a>, but there\u2019s little left for him to prove there, and Georgia Tech makes sense as the next step.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Athletic\u2018s Chris Vannini contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgia Tech has fired men\u2019s basketball coach Damon Stoudamire after three seasons leading the Yellow Jackets, a program…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,4716,5480,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-801140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-georgia-tech-yellow-jackets","10":"tag-mens-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116195910158973570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}