Georgia Tech to Hire Celtics Assistant Damon Stoudamire, per Report

Stoudamire will replace recently fired Josh Pastner.

Georgia Tech will hire Boston Celtics assistant Damon Stoudamire as the school’s new head coach, according to a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello.

The contract for Stoudamire is for five years, as he will quickly replace Josh Pastner, who was fired last week after seven seasons with the school.

Stoudamire’s hire is expected to be approved by the university’s board of trustees on Monday, as he looks to revive a Yellow Jackets program that has struggled to remain relevant in the ACC.

This is not the first time that Stoudamire has served as a head coach at the college level. Prior to taking an assistant coaching job with the Celtics, Stoudamire served as the head coach at Pacific, where he turned the program around and went 32-19 in his final two years with the school, which included a 23-10 season in 2019-’20. 

In five years at Pacific, Stoudamire went 71-77 but showed dramatic improvement from the 11-22 start to his tenure in 2016. He remained the school’s coach until leaving his post to join Ime Udoka’s staff in Boston prior to the start of last season.

In addition to his head coaching experience with Pacific and his assistant coaching stint with the Celtics, Stoudamire has also served as an assistant at Rice, Memphis on two separate occasions, and Arizona. In total, Stoudemire boasts more than a decade of college coaching experience.

Georgia Tech only made one NCAA tournament in seven seasons under Pastner, with the lone appearance coming in 2021 when the school won the ACC tournament. The Yellow Jackets have not made consecutive NCAA tournament appearances since ’04 and ’05.