Gameday at the crib
🆚 Cal
⏰ 4:00 PM
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📻 @680TheFan / 93.7 FM#StingEm 🐝 pic.twitter.com/P1KkpFhVny— Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball (@GTMBB) February 15, 2025
By Andy Demetra | Voice of the Yellow Jackets
Something’s brewing with Baye Ndongo.
The sophomore scored 15 points and grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds in Georgia Tech’s 60-52 win over Stanford on Wednesday. He poured in 18 points and 13 rebounds in the Yellow Jackets’ triple overtime win against Clemson. He had 12 points and 11 rebounds in Tech’s win over Louisville. In the Yellow Jackets’ last three ACC wins, he’s pulled down a whopping 17 offensive rebounds.
So if it looks like the forward’s play has perked up lately, well, there’s a reason for that. Ndongo has recently added a new wrinkle to his pregame routine, at the suggestion of assistant coach Nate Babcock. Approximately 40 minutes before tip-off, once he finishes his initial on-court warmup, Ndongo will head inside the Georgia Tech locker room, where in addition to his usual array of electrolytes, he’ll knock back a small cylindrical can of nitro cold brew coffee.
Ndongo already considered himself a coffee connoisseur. He gets Touba coffee, a popular beverage in his native Senegal, shipped to him from New York. Coffee and bread are a breakfast staple in his home country. And sports scientists have long extolled the benefits of caffeine – in reasonable amounts, of course – to boost focus and performance.
But Ndongo hadn’t thought to add caffeine to his routine until recently. So how much has the pick-me-up explained the pick-me-up in production?
“I’m not really sure if it’s helped,” he admitted.
Given his stat lines, though, it certainly hasn’t hurt. So keep the coffee flowing as Georgia Tech (12-13, 6-8 ACC) looks to finish off a winning week against Cal (12-13, 5-8 ACC) at McCamish Pavilion. Enjoy the top notes from my chart as the Yellow Jackets seek a West Coast sweep in Atlanta (4 p.m. ET, Georgia Tech Sports Network):
Baye Ndongo (11) has three double-doubles in Tech’s last four games. (photo by Danny Karnik)
At a time of year where legs start to get leaden, Tech continues to play some of its most inspired basketball of the season.
That included their best defensive performance of ACC play on Wednesday, holding a Stanford team that ranked fifth in the ACC in offensive efficiency in conference play to 30.3% shooting. Forward Maxime Raynaud (20.4 ppg, 11.7 rpg), the nation’s leader in double-doubles, finished with his lowest offensive rating since November of 2022.
So how did they pull it off? Tech defended Raynaud physically without fouling. Freshman Darrion Sutton used his length and mobility to stay in front of Stanford point guard Jaylen Blakes. And as makeshift as the Jackets’ lineup looked, it did have an upside: Between Sutton, Ibrahim Souare, Duncan Powell, and the returning Jaeden Mustaf, Georgia Tech had plenty of agile, switchable defenders who bothered Stanford’s guards with hard closeouts and congested jumpers.
Nait George Enterprises continues to cook.
Since fellow guard Javian McCollum went down against Clemson, the sophomore has averaged 23.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.7 assists over the last three games. That also includes a noticeable jump in his three-point shooting:
Nait George – 3pt. Shooting
- Last 2 games: 8 of 13 (61.5%)
- Previous 5 games: 7 of 29 (24.1%)
It could foreshadow another mid-February breakout for George, who shot 41.7% from three-point range over the final month of last season.
His performance against Stanford helped cover up some warts from the Tech offense – the Jackets actually finished with their third highest turnover rate of the season (23.7%). Can Tech keep its turnover count down against a Cal team that may look to get transition and early offense points?
Naithan George (1) is 8-of-13 on threes in Tech’s last 2 games. (photo by Danny Karnik)
Georgia Tech fans will spot an unmistakable name on the Cal bench. Yes, a Marbury will once again suit up at 10th and Fowler – freshman guard Stephon Marbury II joined the Cal program as a walk-on in the offseason.
He may draw the most rubbernecking, but Tech fans would be wise to know another diminutive freshman guard for the Bears. Five-foot-11 guard Jeremiah Wilkinson (14.0 ppg), a native of Atlanta, has won three ACC Rookie of the Week awards, the second most in the league behind Duke’s Cooper Flagg. A onetime teammate of Marcos San Miguel at Campbell High in Smyrna, Wilkinson is a fearless lefty with a knack for getting to the rim. Six-foot-1 Jovan Blacksher Jr. (11.0 ppg) is also adept at darting around and creating his own shot. Six-foot-7 wing Andrej Stojakovic (17.5 ppg) has only shot 26% over the last five games but led the ACC in scoring in mid-January and still lurks as a breakout threat.
Cal runs an isolation-heavy offense that ranks last in the ACC in field goal percentage and three-point percentage in conference play, but they compensate for it with unrelenting rim pressure. The Bears lead the ACC in offensive rebounding percentage, and they get to the foul line more than any team Tech has faced.
Cal – National Ranks
- OR% – 35.3% (#1 ACC, #31 NCAA)
- FTM/g – 17.1 (#1 ACC, #20 NCAA)
Stanford didn’t send players to the offensive glass in the first half, foregoing potential putbacks in favor of forcing Tech to score through its set defense. The Cardinal switched that tactic in the second half, but the Jackets still outrebounded them by 9. Can they avoid foul trouble and keep that same work rate against a more aggressive rebounding team in the Bears?
New strategy for Duncan Powell: Skip the locker room and stay on the court during halftime.
In the last two games, the junior has gone 5-for-6 from three-point range in the first half, and 0-for-7 in the second half. He’ll battle with a pair of do-everything, 6-7 forwards in Cal’s Rytas Petraitis (8.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and Joshua Ola-Joseph (7.3 ppg).
Jaeden Mustaf returned from a six-game injury absence against Stanford, scoring 7 points (including one thunderous reverse jam) in 20 minutes off the bench.
At some point Saturday, the freshman may find himself matched with Stojakovic, the son of former three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic.
Before embarking on his 13-year NBA career, Stojakovic played as a 17-year-old for PAOK BC, a professional club in Greece.
One of his teammates in the 1994-95 season was Jaeden’s Dad, the late Jerrod Mustaf (see photo below).
Now that we’re prepared, we hope you are as well. Join us for pregame coverage starting with the “Ramblin’ Wreck Tipoff Show” at 3:30 p.m. ET on the Georgia Tech Sports Network. See you at McCamish.
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Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL
Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its second year under head coach Damon Stoudamire. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, won four ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993, 2021), played in the NCAA Tournament 17 times and played in two Final Fours (1990, 2004). Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball on social media by liking their Facebook Page, or following on X (@GTMBB) and Instagram. For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com. Tickets for men’s basketball can be reserved here.
