Grading The New Hire: Will Scott Cross Turn Around Georgia Tech's Program?

Georgia Tech has hired Scott Cross as its new head coach, tasked with leading the basketball program. Let’s take a look at what he brings to the table and give a grade for the hire.

Experience

Coach Cross has nearly 20 years of experience as a head coach and has become known as a coach who can turn programs around. You can go back to his time at UT Arlington, and prior to Cross being a head coach, the program didn’t have a 20-win season since 1990. When he was inserted as a head coach, he led UTA to 20 wins five times in his 12 seasons at the helm. He led them to a school record 27 wins in 2016-2017. He also coached at his most recent stop, Troy, from 2019-2026, compiling a 125-99 record with the Trojans. Cross led the Trojans to back-to-back Sun Belt regular season and conference tournament titles, and NCAA tournament appearances. He was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year this past season. Even more impressive for Cross is that he put together five consecutive 20-win seasons before he left Troy.

Developer

An area that Cross excels in is developing multiple freshmen of the year and conference player of the year. He has developed guys like Tayton Conerway, Kevin Hervey, and Marquis Haynes, who were all named Conference Players of the Year when he coached them at UT Arlington/Troy. When you look at young players, you have Myles Rigsby, Duke Deen, and Efe Odigie. Rigsby and Deen were named Sun Belt Freshman of the Year. Ogdigie was named Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year. Cross has been responsible for 25 players earning all-conference honors in his 19 seasons as a head coach and 12 first-team selections. Something Georgia Tech has struggled with is developing talent, and having Coach Cross should end those worries.

Knows How To Get To The NCAA Tourney

Say what you want about the success in the NCAA tourney, but Cross knows how to get his teams to it, even despite not having the same level of talent and resources. Coaching in the Sun Belt for as long as he did, the only way to make the tournament is with an automatic bid, which means you have to win your conference title. He did that in back-to-back seasons with Troy, leading to multiple NCAA tourney appearances and played some of their best basketball at the right time. He has been to three NCAA tournaments and is not far from getting one of the first wins of his career in the tournament. Being that Cross did it more recently in a tougher route instead of with an at-large bid should give Yellow Jackets fans high hopes for the future.

With what was available and how quickly the Yellow Jackets moved to get a head coach with experience and success, Georgia Tech did a pretty good job in landing their next head man. He has been known for developing guys and getting the most out of their talent. He will now have a bigger pool of talent at his disposal, which should help him in getting Georgia Tech back to the level they want to be.

Grade: B