ATLANTA — Just a few days after announcing the departure of Josh Pastner, Georgia Tech has their new man in charge of the men's basketball program.
The school announced Monday they had hired Damon Stoudamire, who is currently an assistant with the Boston Celtics in the NBA.
Stoudamire also has previous head coaching experience in Division 1, leading the University of Pacific Tigers from 2016-2021 and winning his conference's coach of the year award in 2020. Before going into coaching, the 49-year-old had a long and successful NBA career that included the 1996 Rookie of the Year award.
“I am humbled and honored to be the head coach at Georgia Tech,” Stoudamire said in a statement. “It is an incredible honor to be entrusted with leading such a tradition-rich program. I am excited to get to work with the goal of consistently having our team compete at the championship level that we all know we can and should compete at. I’m proud to represent Georgia Tech and can’t wait to walk out of the tunnel and onto the floor at the Thrillerdome in front of our fans. Go Jackets!”
Georgia Tech athletics director J Batt added in a statement that the school is "thrilled" to be hiring Stoudamire.
"Coach Stoudamire’s success and credibility as a player and coach at both the collegiate and professional levels make him a great fit to lead our program. He will serve as an outstanding mentor on and off the court and will attract talented student-athletes to The Flats. We could not be happier to welcome Coach Stoudamire to the Georgia Tech family," Batt said.
Tech had announced on Friday that they were parting ways with Pastner, who led the program for seven seasons.
He departed after consecutive losing seasons that followed an ACC championship in 2019, the program's first in nearly three decades.
At Pacific, Stoudamire went 71-77 over five seasons. His best season was toward the end of that stretch, a 23-10 record in 2019-20, before leaving for the NBA ranks after the 2020-21 season.
