Bleav In Georgia Tech: Analyzing the Scott Cross Hire for the Yellow Jackets

Is Scott Cross the leader that Georgia Tech needs to revive its struggling basketball program?

Mar 19, 2026; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Troy Trojans head coach Scott Cross stands on the sidelines during the first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during a first round game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images

Georgia Tech has found its new leader for the basketball program.

Former Troy and UT-Arlington head coach Scott Cross is going to be taking over for Damon Stoudamire in Atlanta and looking to finally get this program going. Georgia Tech has only made the NCAA Tournament four times since their national championship appearance in 2004 and have been looking for the right head coach to get them back to consistent winning.

On the latest episode of Bleav in Georgia Tech, we break down the hire of Cross at Georgia Tech, positives, negatives, and what it will take to succeed on The Flats.

If you like the show, like and subscribe on YouTube and follow us wherever you get your podcasts!

Cross has experience

He first established himself as an elite program builder at UTA, where he took over a program that hadn’t recorded a 20-win season since 1990 and went on to reach the 20-win mark five times in his 12 seasons at the helm. He coached the Mavs to the five highest win totals in school history, including a school-record 27-9 mark in 2016-17, which included a regular-season win over Texas and postseason triumphs over BYU and Akron that lifted UTA to the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament. In 2015-16, the Mavs earned road victories over Ohio State and Memphis en route to a 14-3 start, the best in school history.

Cross was named the head coach at UTA, his alma mater, in 2006 after serving as an assistant coach for eight seasons (1998-2006). He also spent one season as an assistant at TCU (2018-19), where he helped lead the Horned Frogs to a 23-14 record and an NIT semifinals berth.

Will Cross be able to do what other coaches have not been able to do and revive a proud basketball program? For that to happen, he is going to have to be better in several areas than what Stoudamire was.

There were several areas in which Stoudamire fell short, but player development, retention, and identifying talent in the transfer portal were three of the biggest reasons. Cross has proven to be a winner at Troy and UT-Arlington, but the ACC is going to be a step up from the Sun Belt. This is a reasonable hire for Georgia Tech, but one that is not guaranteed to work and Cross has a lot of work to do if he wants to make this program a consistent winner.