Okogie should be healthy r ban

Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner addressed the NCAA’s suspensions of team members Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson on Wednesday but attempted to keep his message forward-looking.

Tech announced Tuesday the NCAA had suspended Jackson for three games and Okogie for six for accepting impermissible benefits in the form of airfare, meals and apparel. The NCAA guidelines for suspension length for the value of their benefits were six games for Jackson and nine for Okogie. Pastner said he respected the decision.

“It was a mistake, and the good news is we can now know when they’re coming back so we can get ready to get our team moving forward and improving and hopefully we have the year we want to have,” Pastner said.

Pastner declined to go into specifics about the violations. He apparently wanted to give the ruling a little space, saying he might address the matter at a later date.

“I don’t want to go into ful l detail with everything,” he said. “We’re moving forward and onward and upward in a sense. Obviously ... my focus is on the team and for us to get better.”

Pastner did say that, by the time that Okogie’s suspension ends, he is expected to be fully recovered from dislocating the index finger of his left (non-shooting) hand in the team’s scrimmage against Georgia State on Oct. 28. The first game he will be eligible to play will be against Tennessee on Dec. 3 at McCamish Pavilion.

At practice Tuesday, Okogie’s finger was in a splint. It previously had been in a cast.

On his weekly interview with 680 the Fan on Wednesday afternoon, Athletic Director Todd Stansbury said that the athletic department was quick to report the violations when they were discovered and sought to be transparent with the NCAA through the process, actions that may have helped limit the penalties.

By engaging NCAA officials, Stansbury said, “they’re also involved in the actual process itself so that when you get to a final resolution, they know that you’ve worked with them in every way to mitigate the situation and do the right thing.”

Football: Tech and Georgia State sought to schedule a game for the Yellow Jackets’ open date in October but couldn’t get the help they needed from a member of the Panthers’ Sun Belt Conference, Jackets coach Paul Johnson said Wednesday on the ACC teleconference.

“We thought we had a game with Georgia State here that would have fit the bye game, but it would have required them to move a game, but one of the teams in their league wouldn’t move the game for them,” Johnson said.

Tech was looking for a replacement game after Central Florida canceled its Sept. 16 game with the Yellow Jackets because of Hurricane Irma. Tech’s open date was Oct. 7, when Georgia State was to (and did) play Coastal Carolina. Moving that game likely would have required the cooperation of multiple teams to move games to accommodate Tech and Georgia State.

Tech has tried to find a 12th game to be played Dec. 2, but Stansbury said on 680 the Fan: “Not sure if anything’s going to happen or not.”