Faith Baptist Christian Academy’s JJ Frazier gave a verbal commitment to the University of Georgia’s basketball team on Friday, making him the first class of 2013 player to commit to Bulldogs coach Mark Fox.
Frazier received an offer from the Bulldogs on Wednesday, according to Athensonline.com. The 5-foot-10, 145-pound, three-star recruit point guard has been a standout player for the Crusaders since the seventh grade.
The junior has scored 699 points so far this season and has 2,017 points in his varsity career at Faith Baptist. He has been selected as player of the week three times this season and has 147 assists, 177 total rebounds and 99 steals.
During the off-season Frazier does the camp circuit, drawing national exposure and earning him the current three-star rating on Rivals.com.
“I watched him play and I noticed he carried a little basketball swagger,” South Georgia Kings founder Jessie Fleming said.
Fleming, who also runs the South Georgia Report, a recruitment and evaluation website of the top basketball players in southeast Georgia, said Frazier was a mere eighth-grader when he caught his eye.
“When JJ shows up at these camps or anywhere else we take him, he performs,” he said. “He has the speed that separates him from other players and he can shoot the ball very well. JJ is raw talent and he is special.”
Frazier had received offers from Wofford, Virginia, Mercer and Clemson, but being a Bulldog was his life-long dream.
“It’s what he always wanted to do,” Crusaders coach Matthew Sellars said. “He wants to be a Dawg and he has told me several times, ‘If Georgia comes calling, I’m going.’ Georgia came calling and he answered.”
“It was an easy decision to make when they offered me a scholarship,” Frazier said.
Frazier has played competitive basketball since he was 9 in a recreational league in Glennville. He played at Glennville Christian Academy before transferring to Faith Baptist.
“He has always been associated with Christian and private schools and he fell into our laps in seventh and eighth grade,” Sellars said. “And I’ve coached him…and he is one of those payers everybody wants on their team. Even though he has been younger than everybody, he has always played up to their level and now that he is older he is playing above everybody’s level and colleges started to notice.”
Sellars said Frazier has the skills and knowledge of the game. “He just needs to get a little stronger, hit the weight room and after that he’s ready,” Sellars said.
The 16-year-old said he does plan to hit the weights and is looking to study sports medicine at UGA.
“I want to do the little things to get better so when I get to college it will be an easier transition,” Frazier said. “Faith Baptist has prepared me academically to succeed in the world and succeed academically in college.”
“I am pretty excited and it really hasn’t hit me yet,” Frazier’s father, James, said. “That has been his plan since the seventh grade. I tell him to stay focused and continue doing what he has been doing, keep his grades up, go out and exercise every morning and go out there and make the shots you normally do. Don’t follow any bad decision makers. I think he is going to get better.”
Fleming said he has told Frazier the importance of shining in the classroom in order to be considered for a Division I school and added several people have made sure Frazier stayed on course.
“You have to have a support crew,” Fleming said. “Not only when things are going right and he has Team JJ… We’ve been supporting him for 10 years.”