The failure in HS recruiting is something that has to be addressed this offseason imo (second time in 4 years).
In the short term they will need to make use of the portal this spring - which teams like Wake and Miami have used so effectively for this season. And the portal is just one more recruiting tool - I believe every team in the ACC except Duke is starting at least one player from the portal.
They will also need to figure out if a staff shakeup is needed to help recruiting.
Other than that I was not expecting an NCAA team this season and it isn't one. I'll hold comment on the team until the last chapter of the book is finished. Either way, next year is going to be an important year for the program. I expected a step back year this year, so far it is worse than I hoped but the season is not over yet. What we need to see is whether this is a one year step back or does it become a multi-year trend.
The season has also been impacted by the way the schedule lays out.
GT played 3 teams OOC that are likely Top 4 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
But more importantly, in its first 8 ACC Games GT has played 6 games against teams with a winning conference record. (31-13 overall), one game against a .500 squad (L'ville), and 1 game against an opponent with a losing conference record (@BC). So far GT has gone 1-5 against teams with a winning record, 0-1 against L'ville and 1-0 vs BC.
It's last 12 games includes 4 games against teams above .500 in the ACC (home and home vs Miami, @Wake, @UVA).
It has 8 games against teams with losing conference records (home and home vs Clemson and VT, @Pitt, @Syracuse, NCST And BC).
I would expect GT to have a better record the rest of the season, but we'll see if that pans out.