Derrion Reid’s long-awaited commitment came Friday with the former Grovetown star choosing Alabama as the place where he’ll write the next chapter of his basketball story.
Here are three quick takes on Reid’s commitment. We’ll come back later with more from the newest Crimson Tide commit.
Close-to-home is where the heart is
After much had been made of Reid making his move away from the friendly confines of the Augusta area to travel to Prolific Prep in Northern California for his senior year of high school ball, Reid’s pledge shows that he still has at least a little bit of home in his heart.
Not only did he stage his commitment ceremony in the Grovetown High School gym where he spent his first three high school seasons, his top three of Alabama, Georgia and Florida State are all relatively close to Reid’s Augusta-area home.
Tuscaloosa and Tallahassee are both less than six hour drives, and Athens is just an 85 mile road trip from where Reid calls home, so no matter what school he would’ve chosen, it says a lot for a kid who is rated the No. 9 ranked player in the nation — a kid who could’ve literally gone wherever her wanted — to stay somewhat close to home at colleges that have fairly solid programs but won’t get mistaken for places like Kansas, Duke and North Carolina in the college basketball world.
Alabama was one of the surprise teams of the 2022-23 season, finishing 31-6 overall and 16-2 in the SEC last year. That was good enough for an overall No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, although the Tide got bounced in the Sweet 16 by upstart San Diego State. Still, that’s quite a feat for a team that finished the 2021-22 campaign with a meager 19-14 record and 9-9 mark in SEC play.
So he definitely didn’t make his choice based off of a desire to play for one of the game’s biggest brands. And something similar could have been said about Georgia and Florida State as well, had he chosen one of those schools. Again, solid programs, but not what one would consider a “blue blood.”
Being a transformational player matters
As earlier stated, Bama had a stellar 2022-23 season. But look at the other schools Reid considered.
There’s Georgia which was 16-16 last year, 6-12 in the SEC and then Florida State which, similar to Georgia, was near the bottom of its conference standings last season at 9-23, 7-13 in the ACC.
Then, take a look at his offer list.
Why does this matter?
Evidenced by his choice, Reid had an obvious desire to stay somewhat close to home. His choice also seems to say that he wanted to be a part of building something greater than himself at a program that would probably appreciate his services more.
Alabama is currently 6-5 in this young season — already behind schedule from a wins-losses standpoint given last year’s success. But that’s okay because fourth-year coach Nate Oats is still building, and Reid is the kind of player who can help expedite that building process.
So score a big coup for Bama coach Oats who has put together a couple of solid recruiting classes since arriving in Tuscaloosa, and Reid is arguably his biggest “get.” The 6-foot-7 star has all the tools, talent and work ethic to make an immediate impact for the Tide next season.
Augusta-area basketball shines again
When I chatted with Darrin Shine after Cross Creek point guard Michaela Bogans signed to Morgan State last week, he mentioned how Bogans, his son DJ who’s on his way to Murray State and former Augusta Christian standout Elijah Crawford who committed and signed to Stanford last month, all kind of came up together.
Throw Reid in that mix as well. This 2024 class of high school hoop talent is not short on star power, and that bodes well for a city that has historically prided itself on its basketball prowess, even as it’s nestled in the heart of SEC/ACC football country in a state that unabashedly calls football king.
Shine told me that seeing this kind of success from the local basketball scene only motivates him to work harder to bring about more.
It’s major for the area’s high school hoops profile because while no one can accurately question if Augusta-area schools can compete with Metro Atlanta for state championships, now it’s becoming more difficult to say that the area should even take a back seat to the big city when it comes to churning out next-level-ready ballers.
