After managing to land one graduate student in former Virginia Tech guard Adam Smith earlier this spring, Georgia Tech received a commitment from a second such player on Thursday. 6-foot-8 forward James White, who spent four seasons at Arkansas-Little Rock, committed to Brian Gregory’s program over offers from schools such as Georgia, Boston College and Alabama.
White spoke with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his decision to return to his home state for a final season of college basketball.
White played in 15 games last season, starting 14, before a stress fracture in his tibia resulted in the end of his redshirt junior campaign. White was productive while healthy, averaging 11.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Tendonitis in his knee resulted in White redshirting as a freshman in 2011-12 after playing in just two games, hence the extra season of eligibility.
White joins a front court that lost Demarco Cox and Robert Sampson at the end of the 2014-15 season. Charles Mitchell, who began his career at Maryland, is Georgia Tech’s most notable interior returnee and Alabama transfer Nick Jacobs is eligible after sitting out last season.
Rising sophomores Abdoulaye Gueye and Ben Lammers and incoming freshman Sylvester Ogbonda will also look to earn playing time in 2015-16.