Homegrown Edwards is UGA’s 1st 5-star recruit
Top-five senior Anthony Edwards announced his commitment to Georgia on Monday morning, becoming the Bulldogs’ highest-ranked recruit in the ESPN recruiting era.
Edwards chose Georgia over Kentucky after canceling a scheduled official visit to Florida State for this past weekend. He took official visits to both Georgia and Kentucky, and he also went to Athens unofficially at least one time since his December official visit. Edwards cut his list to five schools shortly after reclassifying from 2020 to 2019 in November, but he never ended up taking visits to Kansas or North Carolina.
New Georgia Bulldogs commit Anthony Edwards is only 17, but his skills invite comparisons to multiple NBA standouts.
It’s a statement for head coach Tom Crean in his first season with the Bulldogs.
“The reason I picked the University of Georgia is because it’s my home school,” Edwards told ESPN’s Paul Biancardi. “I want to put the state school back on the basketball map. Tom Crean is a great dude, and I believe in him coaching me and developing me. On my visit we watched film together, and he talks with so much energy.”
Edwards, a 6-foot-4 guard from Holy Spirit Prep School in Atlanta, is ranked No. 5 in the ESPN 100 for the class of 2019, slotting in as the No. 1 shooting guard in the country. In a recent 2020 mock draft from ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, Edwards was the projected No. 2 pick behind uncommitted senior Jaden McDaniels.
Playing for the Atlanta Xpress grassroots program on the Under Armour Association circuit, Edwards averaged 20.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 47.4 percent from 3-point range.
Since the ESPN basketball recruiting database began in 2007, Edwards is the highest-ranked player to commit to Georgia — and the first five-star prospect to choose the Bulldogs. He is also the first top-ranked Georgia prospect to stay home for college since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in 2011.
Edwards joins a recruiting class that already included ESPN 100 small forwards Jaykwon Walton and Toumani Camara. The star wing told Biancardi he planned to recruit uncommitted ESPN 100 prospects Precious Achiuwa and Lester Quinones to Georgia.