Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The college basketball season is just over two weeks away — time is just flying by. To get you ready for the season, I’m previewing the season in men’s college basketball, team by team. In these previews I will highlight key departures, additions, returners and overall DFS viability for each team. These previews will be heavily focused on DFS and fantasy in general, so keep that in mind when I’m talking about the relevancy of a player or team rotations.

We kick things off with the ACC, a conference that severely underperformed in the pandemic-impacted season last year. While the conference will inevitably have a handful of DFS staples for us to use each slate, it still seems like the ACC lost more talent than it was able to gain. With the transfer rules changing after March Madness ended it ultimately led to what was essentially free agency in CBB. There were coaching changes as well which I will talk about throughout this breakdown because new philosophies will mean new strategies for our DFS builds.

In this one, Georgia Tech.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

2020-2021 record: 17-9 (11-6 ACC), fourth in ACC
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament first round

Key Departures | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Moses Wright (left for NBA)
Jose Alvarado (left for NBA)

Key Additions | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Deivon Smith (transferred from Miss State)
Dallan Coleman (top 50 recruit)
Miles Kelly (top 100 recruit)

Returners | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Michael Devoe (15 PPG/4.3 RPG/3.4 APG/1.3 SPG)
Bubba Parham (6.7 PPG/2.6 RPG/1 SPG)
Jordan Usher (11.6 PPG/4.2 RPG/2.7 APG)
Khalid Moore (4.8 PPG/3 RPG)
Rodney Howard (1.6 PPG/1.4 RPG)
Kyle Sturdivant (3.5 PPG/0.9 RPG)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Outlook for 2021-2022

With Moses Wright and Jose Alvarado gone, this team now firmly belongs to our guy Michael Devoe. His usage rate has hovered around 23% his entire career with those two, and now that they’re gone, there’s a good chance he sees a spike closer to 30%. He is much better off the ball though, so we are going to need to see Bubba Parham and maybe even Deivon Smith handle the primary ball-handling duties. Jordan Usher improved his shooting efficiency and defensive prowess last year and I’m looking for him to have a fairly big year as a super senior this season. He is a lethal defender on the wing and his 3.7% steals rate was seventh best in the conference. At one point he had at least 2 steals in nine of 10 games, which we know can rack up fantasy points in a hurry on DK. Dallan Coleman and Miles Kelly should see playing time right away as top-100 recruits and I could see them leapfrog past guys like Kyle Sturdivant and Khalid Moore fairly quickly. The frontcourt for this team is certainly looking like a weakness with Rodney Howard projected to be the 5. I could actually see the Jackets run a small ball lineup at times which will likely give them the best chance at winning games at the end of the day. Gone are the days of Moses Wright and James Banks unfortunately. We will likely be attacking this team with opposing bigs all season long.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

MIchael Devoe and Jordan Usher should be big-time fantasy scorers all season long. I like Dallan Coleman the best out of their freshman class and could see him force his way into big minutes within the first few weeks of the season. A third option will have to emerge and if coach Josh Pastner can get Bubba Parham back to the VMI version of himself (he averaged over 20 PPG at VMI) then the Jackets might be better than we all think. On the other hand, their coach is Josh Pastner so I tend to keep my expectations low so I don’t get “Pastnered.”