April 16, 2009
ATLANTA – Derrick Favors, a 6-9 post player from South Atlanta High School who is rated the top senior player in the nation in at least one national recruiting service and is a consensus top-5 prospect, signed a letter-of-intent to attend Georgia Tech on Wednesday afternoon, head coach Paul Hewitt announced Wednesday.
The Most Valuable Player at the McDonald’s All-American Game and the National Player of the Year on Parade Magazine’s All-America team, Favors is ranked No. 1 in the nation by Scout.com, No. 2 in the ESPNU 100 and No. 4 by Rivals.com. He also was named the Naismith National High School Player of the Year.
“My staff and I are very pleased to have Derrick Favors join the Georgia Tech family,” said Tech head coach Paul Hewitt, whose Tech recruiting class is generally regarded as one of the nation’s best and includes three other players ranked among the top 100 prospects in the United States. “We’re especially thankful to his Mom, D’Andra, and his coaches for helping him make the decision to attend Georgia Tech. We look forward to working with him and helping him and the other four members of our freshman class have a productive experience here at Georgia Tech.”
Favors was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Georgia, the player of the year for all classes, this year after leading South Atlanta to the class AAA state championship. He averaged 28.1 points and 13.3 rebounds per game for his senior season, and also averaged five blocked shots, four steals and three assists for head coach Miichael Reddick and assistant coach Jammar Stegall.
In South Atlanta’s 81-62 victory over Westover in the state championship game, Favors scored 38 points and took 21 rebounds. In the McDonald’s All-America game, he scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Favors joins a class that includes two other Georgia state players of the year, 6-3 point guard Mfon Udofia of Miller Grove High School in Stone Mountain, Ga., and 6-8 forward Kammeon Holsey of Hancock Central High School in Sparta, Ga. Udofia led his Miller Grove team to the class AAAA state title.
Also signing with Tech in the fall were 6-5 guard Glen Rice, Jr., of Walton High School in Marietta, Ga., an all-state player in class AAAAA, and 6-4 guard Brian Oliver of William Penn High School in New Castle, Del.
“I’d like to congratulate John O’Connor, Charlton Young (now the head coach at Georgia Southern), Peter Zaharis and our support staff for the work they have done recruiting these student-athletes and bringing this class together,” added Hewitt.
The additions of Favors and Udofia give Georgia Tech four players who led their high school teams to Georgia state high school championships. Favors and Udofia join Lance Storrs of Columbia High School and Gani Lawal of Norcross High School, whose teams won state titles in 1006 and 2007, respectively.
