Jason Preston leads Ohio to upset win over Virginia | A More Prolific Version of LaMelo Ball

A phrase that one of my friends told me is, it's let your ambition carry you. I really like live by that. There's always like room to just keep going. Even once you've made it, you can get better at what you need to, to be the best at what you were trying to obtain. There's just always more you can get. I've been playing basketball like my whole life. Ever since I was a kid, like I really wanted to do this. I always believed in myself. I don't know if a lot of other people did. In high school, I only averaged like two points a game. I was like pretty small. I just knew once I had the opportunity that everything would fall into place. It was refreshing to know that my, I guess my stubbornness paid off. I would like to play basketball as long as possible. So if I can become a basketball player after college, I would love to do that. Like I said, if basketball doesn't work out, I would like to have a job around basketball. I mean like an analyst or a coach or an assistant or something like that. There's a lot of people with connections here that can help me out in the future. My mom passed away midway through my sophomore year in high school and I would always tell her about my goals with basketball and stuff and I really wanted to do that for her. Everything she told me growing up has really like stuck to me all my life. The more that she's taught me is like things that I'll just always hold on to and just never change. Remain humble, determined, and just being a good person, a good man. Hopefully to be an influence on others and inspire them. Inspire them to do great things. I feel like this is a place I can really grow as a person and a player and I have no excuses and I'm just ready to prove more people wrong and keep going forward. Support for the show, FYF Sports, is brought to you by MANSCAPED, who's the best in men's below the waist grooming. 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Your balls will thank you. ♪ All I hear is yap, yap, yap, yap ♪ ♪ Ain't talking about nothing, right ♪ ♪ Watch this, we gon' break that pressure, woo ♪ ♪ Just a little FYI, FYF, 20K subs, six months, what's next ♪ ♪ They been hating at first, now they calling us the best ♪ ♪ Hit up YouTube, tell them cut the check, it's a FYI, FYF ♪ ♪ 20K subs, six months, what's next, woo, **** your feelings ♪ ♪ We all know who the real is, I be getting to it ♪ ♪ Ain't wasting no time, walking straight in, we ain't waiting in line ♪ ♪ **** your feelings, you don't care about mine, you a YouTube gangsta ♪ ♪ Don't be yelling out slime, or you talking LB, talking Ticket TV ♪ ♪ Ain't nobody watching them, all the viewers be asleep ♪ ♪ Five years in, all your subs is your friends ♪ ♪ Ticket TV, watch the cars again, just a little FYI, FYF ♪ ♪ 20K subs, six months, what's next ♪ ♪ They been hating at first, now they calling us the best ♪ ♪ Hit up YouTube, tell them cut the check, it's a FYI, FYF ♪ March Madness is built for unlikely stories and Jason Preston is as inspiring as they get. That Preston is on any college court is a minor miracle. To say he was unrecruited out of Boone High School in Orlando, Florida, is an understatement. He hadn't hit his growth spurt and barely played as a senior in high school. He's six feet tall, 140 pounds, and scored 52 points his whole entire senior year in high school, said Coach Bowles. Size was hardly Preston's only obstacle. His father wasn't part of his life. His mother died of lung cancer when he was 15. Preston said the strong support system of family and friends helped him through that time. His aunt in Jamaica became his legal guardian and Preston lived in an apartment with his mom's best friend's sons, Russell Whitaker. Still, a teenager living without parents, Preston faced a lot of odds. After high school, Preston enrolled at the University of Central Florida as a regular student. Basketball was simply a recreation. Then one day in July, a friend needed a fifth player for an AAU tournament and asked Preston to be that fifth. It would change his life. Preston dazzled in the tournament. Hey, and as a FYI of Sportsman as Lamont, we are back with another video. And as you guys can see, man, we gotta talk about, we gotta talk about the young sensation out of Ohio, Jason Preston. Again, we're talking about another 13 seed team, Ohio. They ended up playing Virginia, the defending champs as the fourth seed. And, you know, going into this tournament, I actually had knew a little bit about Jason Preston. I kind of followed his game. I just didn't know. The one thing, and this is always hard to tell, how will your skills translate when you have to go up against the best of the best? When you have to play some of those major conferences, how do your skills translate? And we've seen in years past, when you're dealing with these small schools who get a lot of guys who are either under-recruited or just not as talented as the players, the five and the four stars that go to the Blue Bloods, what separates talent, especially at the college level, are players who can get it done for you when it matters most. When we look at Steph Curry at Davidson, when we look at what Damian Lillard did when he was in college, same with CJ McCollum. I mean, even Jimmer Fredette to a certain degree. Usually when you have a high caliber NBA level player, these players are able to help you cruise through the tournament. Maybe not win it all, but they can help you, even as a lower seated team, let's say get to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight, or if you're lucky enough, potentially get to the Final Four. That's how much one player can mean to your program at the college level. So the one thing that I was really looking forward to seeing was Virginia being one of the best defensive teams in the country. How would Jason Preston's play translate when playing against elite level competition in the NCAA tournament? That's one thing that I was really hoping to see. And we actually got that in this matchup against Virginia. Now, Virginia's dealing with a lot of hurdles themselves. They dealt with some COVID protocol issues early in the season. I mean, they still ended the season well enough to be a 14 seed, 18 and seven on the year. Their defense still looked just as stout. When you're talking about Ohio, they went 17 and seven on the year, a 13 seed. They were able to win out in their conference. But when we talk about this guy, Jason Preston, and you guys just heard his backstory. All right, we talked about how he barely, he didn't play his junior year in high school, barely played his senior year. Didn't get recruited at all. Enrolled at Central Florida just to be a regular student. Randomly got seen by happenstance because he joined a game, a pickup game, a prep school game. And prep schools caught wind of him. Believe Prep School actually picked him up. He played a number of games for them. And then ultimately that led to a number of D1 offers which landed him at Ohio. So he had a very odd route to D1 basketball. And that route, I tell you guys, the route to get to D1 basketball for some people is very odd. His route was extremely odd. But it also tells you about how talent can easily get glossed over. There are a lot of talented players that we never will ever see because they got hit with the politics of basketball even at the high school level. All right, so when you talk about players who've overcome hurdles, this is an extremely big hurdle. I mean, there are hurdles when you get to the D1 level. There are hurdles in high school. I mean, there are definitely hurdles in the pros. He's already been able to overcome two of them. Now, obviously he couldn't get over the hurdle in high school. He still found the path to D1 basketball because he continued to grind. He didn't give up. And he even took a smaller offer. He went to where he was wanted. He went to Ohio. And this coach, Coach Bowles for Ohio is giving him an opportunity to shine. And not just, and it's hard, and you know, as a coach, sometimes coaches can get in the way of their own players. Especially a player this dynamic. He throws a lot of flashy passes, all right? But he is still a high IQ player. But sometimes you can get in the own way of players like this because of how dynamic they are and you can end up holding them back. He's done a good job of allowing Jason Preston to play his own game, all right? And be his own player while he's on the court. Just kind of being that secondary coach on the floor. So we're gonna get to these highlights of this Virginia game because there were a number of things in this game that tell me what he does at the college level can easily translate over to the professional level. And I think based off a few things that I saw, and hopefully you guys picked up on those same things as well. But based on a few things that I saw, I said his game definitely mirrors that of LaMelo Ball. And I feel that his skillset can directly translate into today's NBA game. He has a lot of things that he still needs to improve. He's definitely still a raw talent. But when you look at the potential that this guy has with his size, with his ability to play, make and pass, and the one thing that I like about his game is his ability to control the game with his pace. I think all of those things can directly correlate over into the NBA game. Hopefully you guys can pick up on that as well. Let's go ahead and get over to the drawing board so we can break down the footage of Ohio's upset win over Virginia. That pass down, we gotta break this pass down because again, this is about breaking down the defense and playmaking that can directly translate into the NBA. Tell me right here, is passes like this, is vision like this where it looks so simple when you're on the floor, but to be able to get the angle and get this pass off through a hedge, I think it's underrated. And I think scouts at the NBA level are really gonna be looking at passes like this. So out of the double team against the Virginia defense, that's a tough pass. That's a tough pass. And then it also tells you how dangerous this guy is on the court. The fact that they would, the big just goes into an all out double team, which I think this Virginia big, I think he could have did a better job of shielding off that pass. That just tells you how much of a danger this guy is on the court that they would wanna put with two minutes and 44 seconds to go in the game. And they're out here doubling eight feet beyond the three point line. They're doubling Jason Preston, who's not necessarily an elite three point shooter. That just tells you how dangerous this can carry out. And when you talk about a player who didn't get any experience on a high school level, not any realistic end game experience in big games, all right, he's only had one previous year of college basketball. And with two minutes to go, you're playing the defending champs, the 13 C versus a four. And you're able to slow down to a degree. You're able to slow down against one of the best defensive teams in the country to where you can pick them apart with passes like this. I mean, obviously it takes great teammates because that was a great backdoor cut. I mean, obviously you have to, you know, they know he's a great passer. If they cut, he's gonna get him the ball. I mean, but to be able to get this pass off, I think is big right here. Let's pull that back. We're gonna run that back because I think that's big. I think it's something that's extremely overrated. When we talk about all of the high level scores, maybe with LSU and some of these other teams, we forget about players like this. One is slowing the game down. Two minutes to go. You're only up two. All right. 13 C versus a four. You're not even supposed to be in this position, but who's playing like the high major team. Jason Preston's playing like he belongs on the high. Ohio is playing like the high major team. Virginia is playing like the team that's spread up, sped up and pressing. They're making the mistakes that a mid-major or low-major team would make. All right, the drive. Remember what I talked to you guys about, being able to go from fast to slow and then also make great decisions out of that. Slow down. All right. Now, the eyes. He's talking to his teammates now with his eyes. He goes back door. He's looking. When we look at these stats, man, I told you guys from start to finish, Ohio looked like the more dominant team. Ohio was the team that looked like the more dominant team. They looked like the high major team. They looked like they were more poised. They slowed the game down when they needed to. They played fast when they needed to, and it showed in the stats, man. Now, Preston, 11 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, close to having a triple-double. He controlled the game, played 40 minutes, controlled the game from start to finish. And see, and so when I see players like Preston, when I see players like Preston, you know, when I see this, it actually gives more prudence and credibility to some of the things that LaVar Ball actually says when he's talking about Jell-O and how Jell-O's not getting a fair shot and fair chance in the NBA. And we've seen LiAngelo Ball put up huge numbers on a lot of other stages. Now, again, it's lesser basketball, but we've seen him put up huge numbers. You have LaVar Ball saying that LiAngelo Ball is the best of all three brothers with regards to scoring the ball. He's the best player out of all of them. It really gives more credibility to some of the things that he's saying because out of all of these scouts and all of these great basketball minds out here in the ether, all of these great high school coaches, they let a kid like Jason Preston, who is now playing on one of the biggest stages in basketball, playing in March Madness, played against the defending champions. And all of these AAU teams and all these coaches, they missed over this talent. He belongs on a high major roster. He should have been easily a four-star recruit, possibly a five-star recruit, depending on where he played. But he went under the radar and was potentially gonna be just a regular student at Central Florida before he lucked up and got an opportunity to play in a prep school game with an AAU team. And then luckily, that staff over there at Believe Academy, a prep school, saw him and gave him an opportunity to play for them, where he moved on to get a number of offers to play D1 basketball. So that's why I really believe that, this is where the politics of basketball hurts itself, because there's so much talent that gets glossed over and looked over, simply because maybe this coach doesn't like this coach. Maybe this coach doesn't have a good relationship with this AAU program. And because of small things like that, a great talent like Jason Creston might not get an opportunity. But when we look at the stats, man, they shot 42% from the field, 30% from the three-point line. They could've shot better there, but for me, it was the poison, how they slowed the game down. Free throw shooting for them was crazy. They shot 13 or 14 from the line, 92% from the free throw line. This team right here, this team only had nine turnovers on the night. Against a Virginia team that forces a lot of turnovers, you're talking about one of the best defenses in the country, a defense that shut a lot of big-time schools down, only nine turnovers, it's crazy. It's crazy. And when we look at Virginia's stats, Virginia, on the other hand, even on a night where Virginia actually took care of the ball, Ohio, again, just did a better job of outperforming them. They held Virginia to 35% field goal shooting, 25% from the three-point line, really unlike this Virginia team where they actually, they were actually one of the better three-point shooting teams in this tournament, but today they failed. Hauser showed up with 15 points, Murphy showed up with 12, but other than that, a lot of the guys like Huff, Clark, just didn't show up and give the production that Virginia was hoping for, and now Virginia finds themselves as a fourth seed, going home again, losing to a lower-seeded team. The last time we saw Virginia bounced out, they were a one seed and they lost to a 16, now they're a fourth seed and they've lost to a 13 seed. So Tony Bennett and those guys, they gotta go back to the drawing board themselves. They got a lot of questions to answer going into next season. I know that they've lost a number of recruits. Hopefully they can bounce back in this recruiting stage going into next season and get better. But as it stands now, Jason Preston, now Jason Preston, he's gonna be, as it stands right now, this kid Jason Preston, he's building his NBA resume. He could potentially increase his value to the degree where he can make that leap to the NBA, but I think he's gonna have to show it. I think in their next matchup, he's gonna have to show up. I think he's gonna have to at least get this team to the Sweet 16 for NBA scouts to really put them on their draft boards. But I mean, with regards to point guard play, he's hands down the best point guard in this tournament. Hands down the best point guard in this tournament. So I mean, that's a lot to say with all of the talent. Now we have a lot of scoring guards in this tournament, but as far as pure point guards, you won't find a better pure point guard than Jason Preston. Now he has a lot of things to work on in his game with regards to shot making and things like that. But these were all the same questions. When we look at LaMelo Ball, all of the same questions that we had about LaMelo Ball, his ability to make the three consistently, play defense, LaMelo Ball translated seamlessly into the NBA. So it's hard for me to take those same questions and apply it to Jason Preston, a kid who similar to Melo has had limited opportunities to really showcase his skills. He's actually even had far less opportunities. At least LaMelo was able to go overseas multiple times to showcase his skills in the NBA. This kid really hasn't had an opportunity outside of AAU basketball to show what he can do. And that was an opportunity based off sheer luck. So salute to Ohio. Good luck to those guys in the next round. Can't wait to see how they perform. Make sure you guys keep your eyes open for Jason Preston, man. If you're in the comments now, if you're in the chat now, let me know what you thought about his performance. If you have seen him play prior to today, their game against Virginia, let me know your thoughts about his skillsets, what he needs to work on. Can he be a potential first round draft pick going into this year's draft? I think there are a lot of teams in the NBA right now that could use a pure point guard like that. With the way guys shoot the ball in the NBA. And we saw him, he should have had a double. He should have had a double double. I mean, at the end of the game there, where he threw a perfect dime to the big man, a big man who missed a wide open dunk. And I saw a number of other times where he threw perfect passes and guys just either missed layups or missed the wide open jumpers. He should have had a double double. At the NBA level, those guys are gonna make those shots. And the same thing was said about LaMelo Ball. All right, when he was in Australia, he would throw a lot of really good passes to guys who would miss shots or miss layups. And it kind of affected his numbers. But NBA scouts said they didn't worry about that. They basically said at the NBA level, those are gonna be buckets. And that's what's happened. I think with LaMelo Ball, I think what he's surprising me with was his consistency from the three-point line, his defense. I always knew he was gonna be a great playmaker, but I think it's his consistent ability to score the ball. Not just make threes, but he's scoring the ball. He's able to get to the basket. We saw him start off the year struggling to get to the basket because he was picking his dribble up too soon. Now, halfway through the season, I think he was able to pick up on some of the things he was doing wrong. He made the necessary changes. And the same thing with Preston. I think when he gets to the next level, I can potentially see him struggling early, but a guy like this, we know he knows how to adapt. And like his first year at Ohio was good, not great. He adapted, he came back this year, and now he has Ohio playing in the second round, potentially with an opportunity to get to the Sweet 16. All right, make sure you guys like, comment, and subscribe. Hit the notification bell to the video if you haven't done so already. We are going to be, again, we're going to continue to drop these videos as the upsets happen. Hopefully, you guys, this bracket isn't too, pretty much destroyed. I just saw the news scroll across my phone that the number one seed, Illinois, has been upset by Loyola. So that's something we definitely got to talk about because a lot of you guys were in the chat, and I told you guys, I said, Illinois is a fake number one seed. The Big 10 has just been struggling mightily, but a lot of people crowned Illinois. And I said, that team does not in no way compare to Gonzaga. And we saw, we just now, now they've gotten trounced by a number eight seed. Again, this wasn't a close game. This was a convincing win. Illinois was upset, 71 to 58 by Loyola. So that's something we got to talk about. We're probably going to get to that in our live stream tonight. Probably won't have an opportunity to make a video on that. So luckily, we got a lot of stuff to talk about in tonight's live stream. A lot of news, a lot of NBA news to go over, with the injury to LeBron and Steph Curry. So we got a lot of stuff to catch up on. Cannot wait to tonight's live stream. I hope to see you guys there. Hey, but it's FYF Sportsman. It's been another great video. And we out. ♪ Really late ♪