[Note: Edited in October to account for the NCAA-levied postseason ban]

Welcome to the Hoos Place 2019 Summer Hoops Refresh, where we review last season and this summer’s personnel moves for all 15 ACC programs in alphabetical order. To read program capsules already complete, you can click here. Today we look at the…

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The Josh Pastner era in Atlanta has yet to yield a tangible breakthrough. Turmoil surrounded the team’s 2017-18 campaign, so last year’s bottom tier finish was at least a moral victory in that there were no tabloid storylines to deal with. Many had hoped to turn a corner with a young roster this year, but with a postseason ban in effect, is the season effectively over before it even begins?

Coach: Josh Pastner; 215-126 in 10 seasons overall, 48-53 (20-34) in 3 seasons at Georgia Tech.

2018-19 Record: Last season: 14-18 (6-12); ACCT first round (10 seed); no postseason

2018-19 Efficiency:

Roster Roundup:

*Projected starters in bold

2019/20 ACC Opponents:

Outlook:

Pastner is starting off with a nice little bit of roster stability this offseason. He loses three players from his rotation in Alston, Haywood, and Gueye, but none of them were key starters. The Jackets’ three best players: PG Alvarado, off-guard Devoe, and big man Banks, all return. GT can also reasonably hope for a nice sophomore leap from well-rated sophomores Moore and Sjolund, both former Top 100 recruits who could both mature into starter-level players. The X-factor comes in USC transfer Jordan Usher, once a Top 50 member of the 2017 class who left Los Angeles midseason last year and will come eligibile for Pastner in mid/late-December. Usher is a strong presence on the wing and will enable GT to go small by slotting him at the wing-4 spot.

It remains a question whether Pastner can solve the woeful offensive production from last year, which came in dead last in the ACC and floundered in most every statistical category: last in turnovers, last in o-rebounding, 4th-worst 3-point shooting. Maybe they take a respectable step forward, but do they have too far to climb to become a legit threat in the ACC this year? The potential for improvement is there, and over the summer there was the thought they might even challenge for the NCAAT bubble with a couple of eyebrow-raising upsets along the way. But then the NCAA swept in over recruiting violations that occurred under Pastner’s watch, and a post-season ban went into effect. How will the Jackets respond? Usually, in these instances, the teams rally around an us-against-the-world attitude that quickly burns them out when the losses start to accumulate. I feel bad for big man James Banks, who’s an underrated veteran in the middle, who now will forfeit his final opportunity to make the postseason (seriously, NCAA, you couldn’t have levied sanctions in July or August so Banks could transfer to an eligible school?). 

Maybe next year, Georgia Tech.