NCAA grants USC transfer Kyle Sturdivant immediate eligibility at Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech guard Kyle Sturdivant, a 6-foot-3 guard who transferred to Tech from Southern California, has received NCAA approval waiving his required year of residency and will be eligible immediately to compete for the Yellow Jackets, head coach Josh Pastner announced Monday.

Sturdivant, who played at Norcross in metro Atlanta, has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

Sturdivant enrolled for the summer term at Tech after playing his freshman year at USC, where he averaged 8.3 minutes over 21 games. Considered a tough playmaker and a solid scorer, he finished the season averaging 2.0 points and 1.1 rebounds while hitting 34.8 percent of his shots from the floor, while recording 25 assists over 22 turnovers. He scored a season-high 11 points vs. Marquette on Nov. 29, and played season-high 18 minutes vs. Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 29.

Sturdivant did not play after Feb. 8 following the death of his father back in Georgia, which prompted his transfer closer to home.

“We’re excited to have Kyle in our program and thankful that the NCAA has allowed him the opportunity to play immediately,” said Pastner, in his fifth season at Tech. “We’re thankful for the time and effort put into this process by our compliance staff. Kyle is a solid, tough, hard-nosed guard with really good speed. He helps us continue to get old and stay old since we have the chance to lose some perimeter players after next season, and he’s been around high-level basketball since high school.”

Ranked the No. 6 player in the state of Georgia and the No. 12-ranked point guard in the country by 247Sports, No. 93 overall in the country by Rivals.com, Sturdivant is the first Norcross grad to enroll at Tech since Gani Lawal (2007-10). He helped Norcross reach the state Class AAAAAAA Final Four in the state tournament three years in a row, including runner-up finishes in his sophomore and junior years. Sturdivant made the all-state second team in AAAAAAA as a senior, scoring 21 points against Roswell to propel Norcross to the state semifinals.

As a junior, he was named AAAAAAA Georgia Player of the Year, helped Norcross to the state’s No. 1 ranking and made the game-winning shot to lift the Blue Devils to victory in the region title game.

Will Hammock