Georgia Tech Basketball: Villanova lays down a perfect blueprint for Georgia Tech
Roster Construction:
Villanova roster breakdown by recruiting stars:
- 5* (2):
- Jalen Brunson
- Omari Spellman
- 4* (5):
- Jermaine Samuels
- Phil Booth
- Mikal Bridges
- Dhamir Crosby-Roundtree
- Donte DiVencenzo
- 3* (4):
- Dylan Painter
- Collin Gillespie
- Tim Delaney
- Eric Paschall
- NR (4):
- Peyton Heck
- Denny Grace
- Tom Leibig
- Matt Kennedy
A look at Villanova’s roster and you can see that their roster is pretty split between five and four star players (7) and three-star players/not ranked payers (eight). The Wildcats over their five-year run have never had more than two five-star players on their roster. This was also the first time that they had two five-star players both able to play as Spellman, a redshirt freshman wasn’t eligible to play last season due to discrepancies on his high school transcript.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright doesn’t always land the top fish in the sea, he’s not the nation’s top recruiter. But what Wright does do better than anyone in the country is find players who fit the program’s culture. If you take a look back through time, you will rarely find a player at Villanova since the 2001-02 season to be in legal trouble. That being said the culture wasn’t built over night for Wright and neither was the success.
In comparison, this past season, the Yellow Jackets roster consisted of the following;
4*(1):
- Tadric Jackson
3*(9):
- Jose Alvarado
- Josh Okogie
- Justin Moore
- Curtis Haywood II
- Shembari Phillips
- Ben Lammers
- Sylvester Ogbonda
- Abdoulaye Gueye
- Evan Cole
NR (6):
- Evan Jester
- Brandon Alston
- Jon Brown
- Malachi Rice
- Avi Schafer
- Moses Wright
As we can see, the Yellow Jackets roster is made up by a majority of players who were considered three-star players or were unranked. Now, players like Jose Alvarado and Josh Okogie have played above their rankings. While they will be losing a four-star player in Tadric Jackson, they will be replacing him with another four-star, in incoming recruit Michael Devoe.
Devoe is the first top-50 recruit to commit to Georgia Tech since Robert Carter did so as part of the 2012 recruiting class. After a few seasons at Tech, Carter eventually transferred to Maryland but never truly lived up to his rating in high school.
That being said, the Yellow Jackets under Josh Pastner are making tremendous efforts to improve the roster. Over the past two recruiting cycles, the Jackets have been notable players for various four-star and five-star prospects. A few names they’ve been involved with are Nassir Little, Landers Nolley, Jordan Tucker, and M.J Walker. The Jackets at one point or another were major players on all four players but eventually missed out on each.
The recruiting misses as much as they can be frustrating for fans and the program but they will come with time and success. That leads us to a major key in Villanova’s rise to greatness and Tech’s biggest key to future success.