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Just one day after expressing interest in Duke assistant Jeff Capel, Georgia Tech is now reportedly courting Boston Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga for the vacant head coaching job. If that name sounds familiar, it's because it is: Jay's father, Jim Larranaga, is currently the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. Unfortunately, the ACC connection alone doesn't make this report completely logical -- Larranaga has never coached at the college level and has virtually no recruiting experience. The good side is that he's widely regarded to as one of the absolute best assistants in the NBA, having been considered for Boston's head coaching job prior to the hiring of Brad Stevens. I personally don't see it happening between Tech and Larranga, but stranger things have happened. Just ask Pittsburgh.
As a sidenote for suspected candidate Jeff Capel, he's also reportedly on Vanderbilt's radar as a potential replacement for Kevin Stallings. That doesn't seem like a particularly challenging decision to me, at least from a basketball standpoint, but we'll see what he decides to do in the coming days.
Georgia Tech isn’t the only school targeting Jeff Capel. The Duke assistant is also on Vanderbilt’s radar, a source told @CBSSports.
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) March 29, 2016
Former Georgia Tech sharpshooter Adam Smith has been invited to participate in the annual college three-point contest, held this year in Cypress, TX this Thursday. Smith led the ACC in three-point shooting this year, making an amazing 109 threes (good for third in Tech history in a single season) on 41.4% shooting from beyond the arc. A former Virginia Tech Hokie, Smith transferred into the Tech program as a graduate student prior to the regular season and immediately became one of the steadiest and biggest contributors for the Jackets. Without his contributions, it's hard to imagine that Tech would've had the success it did during 2015. Congratulations to Adam on his selection to the contest and best of luck in the future.
The ACC is doing some very special things in this year's NCAA Tournament. On top of having seven total teams (a number which should've been eight, had Louisville not self-imposed a ban) and four teams in the Elite Eight, the nation's finest basketball conference has now managed to put a pair of schools in the Final Four: Syracuse and North Carolina. Thought Cuse's status as a Final Four team was hardly expected following the conclusion of the regular season, it will be highly beneficial for the conference -- the ACC is guaranteed to earn at least $39.9 million from participating in this year's tournament alone. That, if distributed evenly among the conference's teams, would net Tech an impressive $2.7 million for doing absolutely nothing. Time to put pride aside and root for either North Carolina or Syracuse to win it all!
Have a great Wednesday!