Options expand for Georgia’s elite boys basketball players

Peyton Marshall, a 7-foot center who led Marietta’s Kell High to a state basketball championship last year, did not return for his senior season, choosing instead to play for Overtime Elite, the eight-team Atlanta league and prep school that just produced two top-five NBA draft picks.

A few years ago, Marshall’s pivot would’ve been unusual. Nowadays, Georgia’s elite boys basketball players are leaving traditional high school ball as often as not.

“I had some deep talks with my family and felt it would be best for me in terms of going on to the next level,” said Marshall, who signed with Missouri in November. “It was (Overtime Elite’s) track record and what they told me as to how I would get better, that I don’t need to go skipping around the country. I could get that here in Atlanta.”

Eighteen of the nation’s top 250 senior recruits have played high school basketball in Georgia. Only eight remain. Ten play for out-of-state prep schools or with Overtime Elite or The Skills Factory of Atlanta.

“It’s a sign of the times, I guess, man,” said Kell coach Jermaine Sellers, who admits he was caught off-guard by Marshall’s decision but ultimately supported it. “Years ago, it was just transferring, but mostly in-state, one school to another, looking for more exposure. Now there’s all these prep schools and other outlets for basketball. There are more opportunities for these young men to put themselves in better position to develop and get better, especially the high-level-type player.”

Marshall certainly is not alone.

Michigan signee and former Lovett guard Christian Anderson, a 2023 first-team all-state player in Georgia’s Class 4A, played this season at Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy, one of the best known and oldest basketball prep schools. Former Hawks and McEachern High star Josh Smith is an Oak Hill alumnus, proving these options have existed for decades, just not so commonly as today.

Derrion Reid, a 6-7 forward who signed with Alabama, is at California’s Prolific Prep and is that state’s No. 1 senior recruit. Reid led Grovetown, an Augusta-area team, to the Class 6A title as a sophomore in 2022 and was a first-team all-state player in 2023.

One of Reid’s Prolific Prep teammates is fellow Alabama signee Aiden Sherrell, who played his freshman season at Norcross, though he’s originally from Detroit. Reid and Sherrell are now California teammates with the nation’s consensus No. 1 junior, A.J. Dybantsa, and No. 1 sophomore, Tyran Stokes, both potential No. 1 overall NBA draft picks.

Two others who received 2023 all-state recognition in Georgia are Lanier’s Jayce Nathaniel and McEachern’s Moses Hipps. They now play for Arizona’s Compass Prep, which features six top-250 national players. NBA players TyTy Washington and Jabari Walker recently played there.

Cole Kirouac, a Georgia Tech signee and all-state center last year at North Forsyth, is at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, where he’s among four Power 5 Conference pledges.

Other former Georgia high school players who left in previous years are Auburn signee and Boston native Jahki Howard (from Norcross to Overtime Elite), Jayden Williams (from Brookwood to Bella Vista Prep in Arizona) and Cal-Berkeley signee Jeremiah Wilkinson (from Hillgrove to The Skill Factory).

The local outfits, The Skill Factory and Overtime Elite, are not prep schools centered around a high school team like an Oak Hill or Prolific Prep.

The Skill Factory, founded in 2011, is a year-round training program that supports a range of teams. The past two AJC players of the year, Wheeler’s Isaiah Collier and Milton’s Bruce Thornton, had long-standing associations with Skills Factory AAU teams while still playing traditional high school ball.

Others attend the Skills Factory school, which has online and in-class instruction. Current Georgia player Jalen DeLoach, who also played traditional high school ball at Berkmar and Islands in Georgia, is a Skills Factory graduate.

Overtime Elite began in 2021. Its facility, the 1,300-seat OTE Arena at Atlantic Station, has three NBA-sized courts, a fitness center, locker rooms, an academic wing and a players lounge that features a chef preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for players. Three teams are based in Atlanta, five elsewhere.

Marshall is one of the league’s 10 top-125 senior recruits. Twins Amen and Ausar Thompson, who went No. 4 and No. 5 in the 2023 NBA draft respectively, played the past two seasons in the Overtime Elite league.

“In Peyton situation’s, he looked at it as having opportunity to go play against kids more his size and work out with them on daily basis for development,” Sellers said of his former player.

Marshall averaged 8.4 points and 5.6 rebounds this regular season. His team, called RWE, played in the league championship series this weekend.

Georgia underclassmen with Overtime Elite include freshman Jayden Wilkins, the son of Overtime Elite general manager Damien Wilkins, and junior Bryson Tiller, the consensus No. 8 player nationally in his class.

Tiller played his freshman season at Atlanta’s Pace Academy. Tiller’s former high school coach, Sharman White, has mixed feelings about non-traditional high school teams.

“I’m not one to say it’s a bad thing,” said White, who has won 10 Georgia state titles and was named boys head coach for this year’s McDonald’s All-American Game. “I’ve seen those situations turn out good and not turn out good. It’s kind of a 50-50 deal. I don’t stand in the way of it.”

White advised players to take a long-term, big-picture approach and not just live in the moment.

“I believe in experiences, and the traditional high school setting gives experiences such as being normal kids,” White said. “You have the rest of your lives to improve on your basketball career. I hate when sometimes kids miss that opportunity to go to prom or hang out with teammates, but by the same token, I do understand that can be secondary to some people.”

Marshall concedes he misses that sometimes. Though he lives only 30 minutes away, Marshall is a boarding student.

“It’s 30 of us, all boys, in a school,” Marshall said. “I miss walking through the hallways. Everybody who came here was the man where they came from. Here it’s just get to class.”

Marshall said the program’s regimen has been good for him, though, especially for getting fitter. A typical day, he said, means getting up at 7, practicing at 8 and going to school from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., then practicing again.

One might assume that losing so much in-state talent would dilute the traditional high school game in Georgia, but there are as many or more blue-chip prospects as in previous eras. Twenty years ago, Southwest Atlanta Christian’s Dwight Howard was the nation’s No. 1 prospect and one of 10 Georgia seniors in the top 250.

“One thing about coaches is we’re used to making adjustments whether it’s in a game or when you lose your best player,” White said. “That’s the notion I’ve taken on it. Adjust and coach the kids that are here.”

The state’s No. 1 prospect, McEachern’s Ace Bailey, has remained at his high school and is a leading candidate for national player of the year. Bailey was asked this month at the state tournament why he returned.

“My social, my coaches,’' he said. “It’s a great school, a great community. I love it. I mean, I want to experience the whole high school, to the prom, all of that, because prep school is just doing the basketball stuff. I’m still a kid. I want to live life and have fun.”

McEachern, ranked No. 13 nationally by MaxPreps, played 10 out-of-state opponents this season. Grayson, ranked No. 11 nationally, beat McEachern for Georgia’s Class 7A title last week.

“If you’ve got a really good high school program that’s prominent, you can get the same attention and same things, especially with Georgia being one of the few states that’s granted NIL opportunities,” Pace coach White said. “You can gauge that based on what it is that you’re looking for. We’ve got several teams in Georgia playing national schedules, such as ourselves. You can find some teams in Georgia that have as much talent as some of the boarding schools out there.”

Marshall’s advice is to match opportunities with needs.

“Do what’s best for you,” he said. “Different strokes for different folks. Some might be invited to come here and hate it. Don’t follow anybody just because it looks good for somebody else. But my personal experience has been nothing but the best.”

Elite player choices

Eighteen of the nation’s top 250 senior basketball prospects have played at traditional Georgia high schools. Eight remain. The other 10, including six who played for GHSA schools last season, are now playing in non-traditional settings. Below are the 18 with their 247Sports Composite national rankings, their Georgia high schools and their current teams or affiliations.

2. Ace Bailey, McEachern

13. Derrion Reid, Grovetown (Prolific Prep, Calif.)

*22. Aiden Sherrell, Norcross (Prolific Prep, Calif.)

*69. Jahki Howard, Norcross (Overtime Elite, Ga.)

75. Gicarri Harris, Grayson

91. Kyle Greene, Pace Academy

95. Peyton Marshall, Kell (Overtime Elite, Ga.)

109. Christian Anderson, Lovett (Oak Hill, Va.)

122. Josh Hill, Wheeler

165. Jaye Nash, McEachern

196. Jayden Williams, Brookwood (Bella Vista Prep, Ariz.)

218. Jayce Nathaniel, Lanier (Compass Prep, Ariz.)