ACC Roundup - A New Coach For Georgia Tech And Key Injuries Could Hurt In The 2023 NCAA Tournament

The main ACC news is that Georgia Tech made an out-of-the-box-hire in Damon Stoudamire.

Stoudamire was with the Boston Celtics until his move to Georgia Tech. He played for Lute Olson at Arizona, just before Josh Pastner showed up, and now the chronology is reversed as Stoudamire follows him to Atlanta.

Over on Twitter, Dick Weiss reports that “per my guy greg crawford, damon stoudamire deal with georgia tech done within four hours of Josh Pastner dismissal. Jackets obviously knew what they wanted.“

So why Stoudamire?

Well, as Brett Friedlander reminds, he has been to the Final Four, had a long NBA career and worked for the Boston Celtics.

And he also has some familiarity with Atlanta high school ball since his sons live and play there, which has to be an advantage.

He has his introductory press conference tomorrow so we’ll know more soon.

Bit of bad news for Pitt as Federiko Federiko banged his knee in Greensboro and may or may not be ready to play Tuesday night.

Similar news for Miami as Norchad Omier’s status is still uncertain as Miami preps for Drake and for Virginia for that matter, as Ben Vander Plas is out with a broken hand.

A knee, an ankle and a hand, all to big men. That’s going to hurt those teams and possibly the ACC’s bottom line too.

State is healthy but the Pack opens with Creighton and that won’t be easy. It would suck, but all four of those could lose in their openers and three you couldn’t really do much about since they could all be missing key players.

Clemson missed out altogether of course, and that isn’t sitting well with coach Brad Brownell.

Meanwhile, the fallout over a disastrous season continues in Chapel Hill. Chapelboro.com now has this page up for Tar Heel transfers, which suggests they are expecting more to come. So far, Tyler Nickel and Justin McKoy have entered the portal.