Georgia Tech Basketball: New faces bring optimism for Yellow Jackets

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets enter the 2012-13 season with the No. 14 ranked recruiting class. Forward Robert Carter was ranked as the No. 21 overall recruit by ESPN. Other top recruits signed included forward Marcus Georges-Hunt (No. 59) and guard Chris Bolden (No. 107). All three of these players were named All-State players in Georgia.

Another player that the Yellow Jackets would be glad to have is Kentucky Wildcats transfer Stacey Poole Jr. who will be eligible to play for the Yellow Jackets on Dec. 17. Bolden has a strong jump shot while Carter has a decent jumper for a big man.

The hope here is that these new faces will help the Yellow Jackets improve upon last year's 60.2 points per game, among the worst in college basketball. They hope that the new faces will also help in improving their shooting percentages; 42.7 percent overall, 31.2 percent from three-point range and 65.4 percent from the foul line, not ranking in the top 200 in any of those categories.

Head coach Brian Gregory enters his second season with the team, hoping that the Yellow Jackets can create more shots than they did last season:

"One of the things that we did a poor job on last year was creating shots for each other, that mentality of taking great pride in getting someone a basket and hitting the next open man. We have to do a better job in taking care of the ball and a better job of creating shots."