Why Troy's Scott Cross Should Be Considered For Georgia Tech's Head Coach Opening

Georgia Tech is currently looking for its next head basketball coach. After firing Damon Stoudamire, the Yellow Jackets are once again looking for a new leader on the court.

This is going to be the first major hire for athletic director Ryan Alpert. Since making the national championship in 2004, Georgia Tech has only made four tournament appearances and has not made it past the second round. This is a program that has been struggling, but a part of that has been that they have not been able to find the right coach.

Could Troy's Scott Cross make sense for Georgia Tech?

Making the case

Scott Cross Troy Basketbal — Mar 20, 2025; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Troy Trojans head coach Scott Cross speaks at press conference during NCAA Tournament First Round Practice Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images | Benny Sieu-Imagn Images

You will likely hear Cross come up whenever Georgia Tech's job is discussed not only because he has been a good head coach for Troy, but because he was hired by Brent Jones, who is now the executive deputy AD for the Yellow Jackets and was hired last summer. He hired Cross away from TCU, where he was an assistant head coach.

Cross began his coaching career as an assistant at UT-Arlington and then he became the head coach there from 2006 until 2018.

In his second season, he led the Mavericks to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. During that season, the Mavericks were ranked for the first time in the collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25, reaching a high of No. 14 in Dec. 2007.

The 2016 squad helped put UTA basketball on the Division I men's basketball map. Crowned the best rebounding team in the nation and ranked in the top 10 in four team categories, UTA knocked off national powers Ohio State and Memphis on the road en route to its best start in school history (14-3).

In 2017, he earned Sun Belt and NABC District Coach of the Year honors after leading the Mavericks to a program-record 27 wins. Cross, who has coached 19 players to professional contracts, was named a Prosser Award finalist for the second time and earned finalist honors from the Hugh Durham Award. The Mavs defeated Texas for the first time in school history, marking UTA's first win over an AP top-25 team in program history. UTA went on to win NIT games at BYU and against Akron and posted two of the largest UTA basketball crowds in College Park Center history.

Throughout the course of just more than a decade, Cross guided the Mavericks to postseason tournament appearances with trips to the NCAA Tournament (2008), NIT (2012 & 2017) and CIT (2013, 2016). In addition, UT Arlington won the Southland Tournament Championship in 2008 and the 2012 regular-season Southland Conference Championship.

Cross led Troy to its first 20-win season in five years and back to the postseason in 2021-22 as the Trojans finished 20-12 overall and a 10-6 mark in the Sun Belt. The Trojans returned to the postseason for the first time since its 2016-17 NCAA Tournament run with an appearance in the College Basketball Invitational. Troy finished with the third-most Sun Belt wins and advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals despite being picked to finish last in the league during the preseason.

The 2024-25 season was one to remember, as Cross led Troy to another remarkable year. The Trojans finished 23-11 overall and 13-5 in Sun Belt play, claiming the Sun Belt regular season title for the first time under Cross' leadership.

In the Sun Belt Tournament, Troy earned a bye to the quarterfinals, where the Trojans defeated No. 10 seed Old Dominion, followed by a semifinal win over No. 2 seed James Madison. In the championship game, Troy rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to knock off No. 4 seed Arkansas State, securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Cross. It marked the program's first appearance in the Big Dance since the 2016-17 season.

Cross was instrumental in the development of senior guard Tayton Conerway, who was named the 2024-25 Sun Belt Player of the Year. Conerway also earned All-Sun Belt First Team honors and was named the Sun Belt Tournament Most Outstanding Player. He led the Trojans in scoring, averaging 14.2 points per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the field.

Earlier this week, Troy defeated Georgia Southern to win the Sun Belt Tournament for the second straight season and they are going to be back in the NCAA Tournament next week.

Cross has shown that he can win on the margins at a mid-major program, develop players, and most importantly, win games. Georgia Tech is a unique job and not an easy place to win and a coach that can do those things will have a chance to win for the Yellow Jackets.