Georgia Tech’s Pastner says ‘team’ is Yellow Jackets’ star

(AP) - Georgia Tech is basing its hopes for a winning season on a large cast of returning players, even if there are no likely all-star candidates in the group.

There’s no established big name among the eight returning players, so coach Josh Pastner says “The star of our team is our team.”

Seniors Rodney Howard and Kyle Sturdivant are the top returning scorers.

Sturdivant, a point guard, started all 32 games last season and averaged 7.6 points per game. Howard, a 6-foot-11 center, averaged 6.5 points and 5.1 rebounds.

“Yes, we’ve got a lot of guys back, but these two we’re really relying on to have a really good year for us,” Pastner said. “For our team to be successful, these guys got to really be good.”

Pastner and the Yellow Jackets are hoping to move past a poor 2021-22 season.

After guiding Georgia Tech to the 2021 ACC tournament championship, Pastner dared to dream of big success as he prepared for the 2021-22 season. Much of that optimism was based on the belief guard José Alvarado and center Moses Wright, the AP ACC player of the year in 2021, would return.

Pastner said he already was thinking about the NCAA Tournament when finalizing last season’s schedule “because I thought we had a realistic shot at going to the Final Four with those two guys.”

Then Alvarado and Wright made late decisions to enter the NBA draft, and those big dreams were dashed. The Yellow Jackets finished 12-20 overall and 5-15 in the ACC while losing 10 of 13 to close the disappointing season.