The 2024 NBA Draft ended yesterday and no one was drafted from Georgia Tech, but there will still be an opportunity next year.
Yellow Jackets forward Bay Ndongo was a possibility for this year’s NBA Draft, but instead chose to return to play for Damon Stoudemire for one more season. If Ndongo can improve some aspects of his game and improve Georgia Tech’s win-loss numbers, I think he could be in the running to be drafted next June.
It’s probably too early to seriously consider any of this, but ESPN released its premature big board for the 2025 NBA Draft, rated Ndongo as the 53rd-best prospect in next year’s draft.
Ndongo was arguably the best player on Georgia Tech’s team last season.
The 6-foot-9 freshman missed Tech’s first three games with a hand injury but started every game thereafter at either the post or power forward position and was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Rookie Team. The native of Mboro, Senegal, who prepared at Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy, was one of just two Division I freshmen to average 12.4 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting at least 55 percent from the field. Only Chris Bosh (2003) and Derrick Favors (2010) had achieved all those numbers as freshmen.
Against ACC opponents, Ndongo averaged 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting 55.4 percent from the field and recording a team-high 20 blocked shots.
Ndongo led the Jackets with 10 points and 18 rebounds, recording six double-doubles. He was named ACC Rookie of the Week three times earlier in the season: first with a 21-point performance to lead Tech to a win over No. 7 Duke in December, second after recording 12 points and 19 rebounds in a game against Penn State on Dec. 16 at Madison Square Garden, and third after being named to the All-Tournament Team at the Diamond Head Classic.
Ndongo is the first Tech freshman since Josh Okogie to be named to the All-Rookie team.
Stoudemire bringing back Ndongo was perhaps the best thing that happened to the program in a strong offseason of talent acquisition.
Stoudemire has proven to be a very capable recruiter during his time at Georgia Tech, as he compiled a recruiting class rated as the 14th best in the nation with high school prospects Cole Kirouac, a 6’11” center from Cumming, Georgia who attended Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire; Jaeden Mustafe, a 6’4″ guard from Bowie, Maryland who also attended Overtime Elite; Dorian Onwuchekwa, a 6’11” center from DeSoto, Texas who attended Faith Family Academy in Oak Cliff; and Darrion Sutton, a 6’8″ forward from St. Louis, Missouri who attends Overtime Elite in Atlanta. He also strengthened the team this season with the addition of three impactful transfers for the 2024-2025 season: Oklahoma State guard Javian McCollum, Sacramento State transfer Duncan Powell, Colorado State forward Luke O’Brien and Georgetown transfer Ryan Mutombo.
