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Georgia Tech Recruiting: Asanti Price’s official visit comes at important time

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 07: A general view of the tipoff of the Louisville Cardinals' basketball game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during the game at Hank McCamish Pavilion on January 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 07: A general view of the tipoff of the Louisville Cardinals' basketball game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during the game at Hank McCamish Pavilion on January 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images) /
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Georgia Tech basketball is hosting 2019 shooting guard Asanti Price on an official visit according to reports and the visit comes at an important time for the Jackets.

Georgia Tech probably couldn’t have gotten Asanti Price on campus at a better time than this weekend. The 2019 shooting guard out of Columbia, South Carolina visit was first reported by the AJC’s Ken Sugiura.

Price, a 6-foot-5 and 175-pound shooting guard as noted above has completed his official visit already but for the Jackets, it probably couldn’t have come at a better time. At least from a sales pitch standpoint for Josh Pastner and his program.

Earlier this week, the Jackets learned that Curtis Haywood II would be leaving the program after two seasons. With the departure of Haywood from the program, the Jackets are left with just three scholarship guards for the 2019-20 season, a scary situation for any program to be in, to say the least.

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At this point, the Jackets only have one commitment in the 2019 recruiting class from power forward David Didenko and it seems that Didenko may not even make it to Tech seeing that he barely played at his JUCO program this year and it wasn’t because of injury. That being said, the Jackets will also have transfer Jordan Usher as part of the program next season. Usher has been presented as a forward by the program but does have experience playing at shooting guard. However, he won’t be eligible until the second half of next season.

Now, Price is described by his high school coach in the AJC’s report as a player who has “pro range for the three ball.” Which would be good news for the Jackets since Haywood while he didn’t always show it was projected to be a strong shooter from beyond the perimeter. His departure from the program did leave the Jackets with one less deep scoring option. The Jackets best shooter from the perimeter entering next season is rising sophomore Michael Devoe who shot just under 40% this season from long range. But as a team, the Jackets struggled, shooting .307 which ranked 332nd in the nation.

It’s no secret that the Jackets struggle offensively and finding scoring options has been a struggle in the Josh Pastner era. Perhaps for the Jackets, Price can be a diamond in the rough recruiting find. Price isn’t heavily recruited by any means but he does have potential and has a small but quality list of offers.

For the Jackets, the recruiting pitch at this point is simple. Have a chance to play early and often with quality minutes while also with the potential to earn a role as a quality scoring option or sharpshooting threat. If the Jackets can add a sharpshooting threat like Price could potentially be, it would be a quality pick no matter the recruiting ratings and rankings.