The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stoudamire
It was a far-reaching confluence.
“It came together so quick,” Stoudamire said on his weekly radio show about officially being announced as Tech’s new coach on March 13. “It was weird — a good weird.”
Stoudamire’s one-year anniversary is next week, during the ACC tournament. If his team can’t win five games in five days in Washington, D.C., that event will mark the end of his maiden voyage at the helm of Tech basketball.
It’s a voyage that has been smooth, tumultuous, fun, maddening and all emotions in between. Stoudamire has seen his team beat three nationally ranked teams, win seven conference games, record eight victories over opponents in the first and second quadrant of the NCAA’s NET ranking system and play 21 games decided by single digits (the Jackets are 12-9 in such contests). The latest win was a Tuesday night upset of Wake Forest, which was the Demon Deacons’ first loss at home this season and one that put their NCAA hopes in jeopardy.
Stoudamire also lost freshman walk-on Emmer Nichols in January to a season-ending injury, saw assistant coach Terry Parker Jr. leave the program in December and has played this season without veteran guard Lance Terry, who decided to use this as a redshirt year. Where results are concerned, Tech has kept treading water despite three losing streaks of at least three games each.
“I just think the guys didn’t quit,” Stoudamire said. “I think about after the (Feb. 6) Wake (Forest) game (a 80-51 loss) and we sat down and we had a long talk. I won’t even call it a team meeting. We just had a kumbaya. Sometimes you don’t need to practice; you just need to talk about some things.”
Stoudamire was an Atlanta resident for a short spell at the turn of the century while playing in the NBA. But in the decades since, most of his trips to the ATL as a player or coach, he said, always were short visits with an ultimate departure date.
So being in Atlanta permanently has created a surreal backdrop, Stoudamire said, when he comes to a campus each morning near the hotels and residences he used to frequent. His sons — one enrolled at Berry College, the other taking online courses at Georgia State — often pop in to spend time with their father, thus creating an even greater sense of home.
“I got my feet firmly on the ground now, so I look forward to just getting even more entrenched in the community,” Stoudamire said.
Tech gave Stoudamire a contract that expires in April 2028 at a base salary of $2.1 million, a salary scheduled to increase by $100,000 on May 1. Stoudamire would receive a $100,000 bonus if the Jackets win next week’s ACC tournament.
At 14-16 overall and 7-12 in the ACC, Stoudamire goes into Saturday’s regular-season finale at Virginia (21-9, 12-7, and losers of four of its past six) tied with Dwight Keith for the fourthmost wins by a Tech coach in a first season in program history (Pastner had 21 in 2016-17; Paul Hewitt and Roy Mundorff had 17 each in 2000-01 and 192627, respectively). Stoudamire is intent on increasing that win total in 2024-25 and beyond.
“I don’t take this for granted,” Stoudamire said. “I’ve had a heck of a life in basketball. I’ve been lucky, man, to be in different scenarios as a player and a coach. But this here — a lot of people say, ‘Hey, why did you take the job? You’re coming back to college; maybe you could’ve been a pro head coach?’ I probably could have, but you can’t predict it.
“To have a job like Georgia Tech, to me, I looked at it like the 32nd pro job. Great city, great support, and if you win, the city will embrace you like none other. That was the biggest thing for me; I just looked at the big picture.”