Georgia Tech Basketball: Okogie and Alvarado will face bigger roles in 2018-19
With the Georgia Tech basketball season over, it’s time to take look forward to the 2018-19 season including the new roles that Josh Okogie and Jose Alvarado will take on.
With this season over, the Georgia Tech basketball team will have to say goodbye to seniors Tadric Jackson and Ben Lammers. While both players were great on the floor for the Yellow Jackets, they also provided important veteran leadership for a young program.
Next season, the Jackets won’t have Jackson and Lammers at their disposal. Which means not only will somebody have to step up on the court for the Jackets but it means that they will need two new leaders. The two players who look perfect for the now vacant leadership roles are rising junior Josh Okogie and rising sophomore Jose Alvarado.
Okogie over the course of his first two seasons for the Jackets has been arguably their best offensive weapon. Over his first 61 career games for the Jackets, he’s averaged 16.9 points per contest while shooting at a .437/.382/.777 slash.
There’s no doubt that Okogie will be an offensive leader but entering this upcoming season, the usually quiet Okogie will need to become more of a vocal leader on and off the court. We haven’t been able to see much of Okogie in such a role over his first two years which will make him even more worth watching next season.
On the other hand, Jose Alvarado seemed to have a pretty good leadership role on the team this past season which is great to see. As a point guard, the leadership qualities come a bit more naturally for a player like Alavarado. As the team’s starting point guard this season, Alvarado averaged 12.1 points per game this season while averaging just over three assists and rebounds per game.
That being said, as a freshman, he didn’t have the veteran experience that you would like to see but of course that comes with time. Next season, Alvarado’s leadership role will expand and as the team’s likely starting point guard it only makes sense that the New York native becomes one of the teams leaders. A role that he looks well equipped to take on next season.
For Georgia Tech, the expanded roles of Okogie and Alvarado as leaders will be vital to the success of the season. As a younger program, the Jackets will need veteran leadership to be able successfully take on programs like Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, etc.
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Two of those programs, Duke and North Carolina are great examples of veteran leadership. While often filled with young talent but they also have veteran leadership each year that helps greatly when it comes to taking on tougher teams. For the Jackets, it will be up to Okogie and Alvarado to take the program to the next level both on and off the court.