Hometown ties power Georgia Tech’s 2026 roster

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — When Karen Blair took over as Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball coach, she knew recruiting Atlanta would be a priority.

The 2026 roster features six players with ties to the metro area, and several teammates share longstanding relationships.

“We knew we wanted to find players who were from the area — from Georgia,” Blair said.

Brianna Turnage, an Atlanta native, spent three seasons at Florida State. Savannah Samuel, who is from Woodstock — a northern suburb of Atlanta — previously played at Oregon State, West Virginia and Boston College.

Their connection dates back years. Both came up through the same AAU program, Finest Basketball Club (FBC), where they were teammates at just 10 years old.

“I just remember us always having camps (at Georgia Tech), and just always sitting down on the floor or running chairs and just always playing basketball from the morning to the night,” Turnage said. “We all grew up here and just started playing basketball from the roots here. So everything just came from Atlanta.”

It was at FBC that Turnage earned her “Snoop” nickname. She and Samuel quickly became close friends — “fools” and “jokesters” — despite both admitting they were shy.

“I didn’t talk and she didn’t talk. So the two no-talkers were always yelled at, so we had to talk to each other,” Samuel said.

Their basketball journeys eventually took different paths. Turnage helped Westlake win four state championships alongside Raven Johnson, South Carolina’s point guard and a fellow FBC alum.

Samuel was the 1A Georgia Private School Player of the Year at St. Francis High School.

After years away from Atlanta as collegiate athletes, the 2025 transfer portal brought them home.

“Snoop was the first commit that I got when I got this job,” Blair said. “She was the best person to help me put the pieces together.”

“I sent (Turnage) a message. I was like, ‘I’m looking at Tech.’ She was like, ‘let’s finish this where we started,’” Samuel said.

The two seniors used their long-standing relationship to quickly form chemistry and friendships within the team. There was no time to be shy like their adolescent years.

“It was nice because us two, we had already known each other for years so we would invite everybody and then that’s how we got the whole team to click,” Samuel said.

“It’s been peaceful just knowing that I’m comfortable with these people. I’ve been knowing these people my whole life, and just knowing everybody’s true intentions with my life and theirs, and just knowing that we go through this day in, day out together,” Turnage said.

There are other Atlanta connections on the roster as well. Redshirt sophomore Erica Moon was Samuel’s teammate during her senior year at St. Francis. Catherine Alben and La’Nya Foster both played high school basketball in the Atlanta area before transferring to Georgia Tech from out-of-state programs.

“They’ve sacrificed a lot being away from home and I think there’s not a better feeling for me when the game’s over and you see their families in the stands and getting those moments,” Blair said.

Blair hopes her hive of Atlanta native Yellow Jackets can quickly find peach state chemistry in February before the ACC Tournament comes to Atlanta in March.