Tom Crean earned a major win on the recruiting trail on Monday.
Arguably the top high school basketball player in the country has chosen the Georgia Bulldogs. Anthony Edwards, a 6’4 guard out of Atlanta, picked UGA on Monday morning over offers from Kentucky, Florida State, and others.
Edwards is a combo guard built to score the basketball. He’s at his best attacking the rim, where he can use his explosive athleticism to put pressure on the opposing defense and finish in the paint. He’s made major strides with his shooting ability over the last year, hitting nearly 40 percent of his three-pointers as he was named MVP of the Under Armour Circuit.
Edwards is ranked as the No. 2 player in the class of 2019 by 247 Sports.
This is the biggest recruit in program history for Georgia. The Bulldogs have only had two first round NBA draft picks since 2000 in Jarvis Hayes (2003) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (2013). Edwards is the first five-star recruit to ever pick Georgia in basketball. He will be expected to be a top pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.
This is a huge recruiting win for Tom Crean during his first season in charge at Georgia. The Bulldogs are currently 10-13, but only 1-9 in conference play. As UGA was blown out by Ole Miss on Saturday, Crean essentially threw his entire team under the bus. Nabbing Edwards should ease tensions within the program to some extent.
Read our profile on Edwards from last month, the origin story of high school basketball’s ‘Ant-Man’.