Everything From Georgia Tech's Damon Stoudamire In His Monday Media Availability

The college basketball season is right around the corner with the Yellow Jackets season beginning next Monday at home against MD Eastern. Here is everything head coach Damon Stoudamire said to the media in his press conference on Monday

On exhibition games.....

“I think it kind of caught us off guard, you know, we've only done the scrimmages, and I think moving forward now the exhibition games, you know, obviously they've taken off, and you know, moving forward we'll do exhibition games, you know, try to do, you know, one home, one away. You know, we'll prefer actually two away because I think the away games you get more out of those, right? It's more so just seeing what you got. But I love it. I think it's great. Um, you know, and the reason that is great is because you're getting the opportunity to play a lot of people. I think that what has happened in college, and I think again, it's the new normal. I would say it would even be the new normal for you guys, even watching it, because it's like you can't judge a team based on what you see right now at that moment.

You judge them on how they get better, but I think for us, the biggest thing, even in the scrimmages that I loved, is that you know, I got a chance to play so many guys. One of the things that I wanted to do this spring, and even with the recruiting piece, is I needed bodies. See for me the injuries, and you know, even both years, frankly, we've had such a drop, you know, when we've had to go to other people. We don't have that right now. You know, I got about five, six guys that I consider, you know, guys I trust and I can put in the game on the perimeter. We got a really good quartet of bigs. Same thing at point guard. We got multiple guys. So, you know, for me, we're playing bodies. You know, it's it's going to be a little different. We’ll be up on the floor defensively. We're pressuring. We're trying to wear teams out. So truthfully, it's going back to what I cut my teeth in in coaching, to be honest with you, trying to be uh you know, one of the best defensive teams in the country, in the league and in the country.

“From the standpoint of offense, you know, taking care of the ball, um, understanding what our strength is. You know, teams have changed a bit. You know, we got really good bigs. You know, we got shooting. We will be an evolving team with that. But, you know, we've got to hang our hat on defense. Got to get stops.”

On Mouhammed Sylla…

“You know, Mo has become Mo, and I think that I'm excited for people to see him. I think that he'll be good as advertised. Putting a lot of pressure on him, but you know, it just is what it is. I think that, you know, he runs with the best of them. He's probably the fastest guy on my team in the end. You know, he can really score it, and he has a lot of room for growth, and that's the biggest thing that excites me. On the defensive end, he can switch one through five. A really strong guy, has a great presence, but you know, the one thing that he's given us that we just haven't had here since I've been here is he's he he's literally a back-to-the-basket guy. So, you got a guy where, you know, you don't have to settle for long shots all the time. He'll allow Baye Ndongo to run free. That's what I'm excited about because you can't keep two bigs off the glass like that. You know, you got to go account for one of them, then you know, the other one's running free. So, I'm really excited about that. He’s been really good, and the biggest thing is he's coachable.”

On any pressure to make the NCAA tournament….

“No, it's never, it's never any pressure. The pressure that I'm saying that is me putting pressure on me. You know what I mean? Is just what I see. It's my trajectory, and you know, I just feel like, you know, we have the pieces. The big thing is don't turn the ball over. We'll have a chance in any game. Win the rebounding battle, win the 50-50 plays. You know, it comes down it comes down to who's the toughest team. For me, that's got to be what we hang our hat on. It's never any pressure. I don't look at anything as pressure. I look at things as if it's, you know, momentum, we need to keep we need to keep building. For me, that's what it is. It's more about trajectory, and that's the next step. We just have to continue to improve every day. It's not going to happen in one day. So, we got to keep building. Got to keep building brick by brick. We'll be right there.”

On if the team has the capability of two ball handlers on the floor this year…

“I got more than two ball handlers. I think I only had one by the end of the time last year. So, it's just, you know, and that honestly, it's a gift and a curse, you know, a lot of times. I think that, you know, we have multiple guys that can make plays. We'll play through our bigs more. I think that's the biggest thing. Your team changes every year, and I think as a coach, you have to understand that you have a choice, right? You either be stubborn, play how you want to play, or you can play to the strengths of your team. So, I just kind of let things evolve and, you know, playing to the strengths of our team is playing to our bigs. Our perimeters, you know, as they keep figuring it out, you know it's a lot that they can do playing with great bigs, and that's what I'm trying to tell them each and every day.”

On having consistency on his staff, and if it helps the team…

“I do think that's important. We've we've spent a lot of time, you know, talking about different things and, you know, how to get better. Some roles have changed within the staff, but that's fine. That's fine. The continuity of having your staff together is always going to help. It's been fun. This has been a really fun summer. You know, fall and the things we've been doing, and to see guys be together and have a continuity and the flow, you know, because that does help.”

On any injuries the team has right now…

“Nah, we don't have any injuries. I mean, you know the knick-knacks, but nothing pressing. So you know we're going in you know, looking good right now. That's the biggest thing. You know, I think one thing I say, you talked about the NCA tournament. It's not necessarily about the NCA tournament, but it's more about games that, you know, we got to take care of business, you know, and I think in the past that's what we've done. We’ve tended to drop one early and, you know, we kind of, you know, lose our momentum and things of that nature.

Those are things that we've talked about a lot. Getting off to a good start. It’s funny, I just talked about that to the staff and the players, and it's just like you know. I think it used to be when I played, you know, starting was a thing where you knew you wanted to hear your name. I told guys I was like, man, like starting, you got to come out and play hard. You've got to come and set a tone because if you don't, there's nothing against the law to say that's that that buzzer won’t blow on 30 seconds. Most people who have watched me in the first couple of years know I'm not scared to pull the plug on something, you know. I just want guys that's going to play hard and compete every day. That's the biggest thing for me. You've got to play hard, got to compete. Attention to detail.

On if Kam Craft has been the best shooter he has had in his tenure with Georgia Tech…

“There's no question, you know, off the dribble or the spot up. He's a guy that's gonna help us, you know, he has to be accounted for. He's a guy that can get six shots and he'll still get fouled, and he'll make seven free throws and, you look up, he got 18. You know what I mean? So, when you got that kind of threat, we haven't had that in terms of in terms of the shooting aspect. You add Kowacie Reeves with that. Truthfully, Kowacie is the one who gives me the biggest comfort zone. It's rare, it's rare today in college that you get a guy that been with you from day one. So, he's been with me for three years. So, I lean on him to help Cam. I lean on him to help the other guys and to tell them and talk about the things that that we do here at Tech. That's been really good. Kam is gonna be good. Really shoots it. So, I'm excited about it.

On his point guard position and if he is leaning on anyone early….

“I'm not going to lean one way or another. I got three guys, and they all got to play. You know what I mean? I don't have enough time to develop the same way I developed the last person. He had been in the program for a summer, you know, the whole season. So, you just don't have that time, you know, but Jaeden, Lamar, and Chaz all bring something different in their own way. Jaeden, he has to take a step. I try to tell guys, you know, sophomore year is not as easy as you go from just being on the scouting report to the top of the scouting report, right? I think that Chaz, you know, he has a lot of ability, and I think there's there's things that you just can't account for. He's played in some big games. He's played in our conference. He knows our conference. And then Lamar is the guy that, you know, truthfully, if you want to go fight, he’s going to lead the pack. That's what I love about it. Each guy brings their own strength to what they're going to add. That goes along with what I said earlier. You know, it's gonna be multiple bodies. So, you guys should get familiar with nine to ten guys each night. The reality of it is that I want to wear people down. I do. I want to be up on the floor, and that's going to help those guys. That's going to help them as well.”

On if he wants to play six or seven players a game anymore…

"If injuries call on it, I don't have no choice. But no, I don't ever want to live through that again."

On Peyton Marshall and Cole Kirouac…

“I think they are more than capable. I think they start on a lot of teams, be honest with you. You know, Peyton has dropped a lot of weight. He looks good. He had 10 and seven in 17 minutes the other day. I probably should have spoken it out loud. When I say our bigs, I'm talking about all four of them. They're really good. It's something different that Tech hasn't had in a long time. When I say different, you know, even Moses won ACC player of the year, but I would say they're different from Moses because they're a little bigger from that standpoint. They look good. I'm not afraid, I’ll say that. I'm not afraid. If we got in foul trouble, I'm not afraid. The biggest thing for me was adding depth. That was important to me, you know, because it's just you can't have drop-offs when you've got a sub or a guy gets in foul trouble or, you know, maybe he's a little dinged up. You just can't you can't have drop-offs offs and we don't have that. So, that was that was that was the thing for me, even at that big position. But Cole and Peyton, like, you know, they look good, both of them. I love them both."

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