There are Cinderalla stories in sports, and then there’s Ohio point guard Jason Preston’s story. It’s absolutely incredible.
Preston had the biggest game of his career against No. 8 Illinois with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds on Friday night. Ohio lost the game 77-75, but Preston still had a best career performance that will certainly boost his draft stock quite a bit.
But his performance wasn’t the biggest highlight of the night. Instead, the most memorable moment of the game was when the Kevin Kugler and Stephen Bardo revealed the story of how he got to the point that he did. Every single detail of the story is mind blowing.
Take a listen.
If you haven’t heard this story about Ohio’s @Treballjay11 — take a listen.
Preston scored 31 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed six rebounds vs No. 8 Illinois today. @OhioMBasketball | #MACtion pic.twitter.com/ifi2HbxqaS
— #MACtion (@MACSports) November 28, 2020
“Jason Preston, this is high school now, he’s living in Orlando with his mom’s best friend’s son in an apartment. He’s 6 foot tall, 140 pounds as a senior in high school averaging just two points per game. He was going to UCF, just as a student. He wasn’t going to play ball.”
It doesn’t stop there, though. He ended up being coaxed into prep school by a coach after playing AAU.
“He goes to prep school. They have four teams. The A team is the best team, the B team is basically just the guys at the Y playing ball. He goes to the C team, plays well. They move him to the B team, still plays well. Pushes him to the A team. But he goes back to the C team, posts a triple double…makes his own highlight tape. Puts the highlight tape on Twitter. It got him an offer from Ohio and Longwood.”
Just incredible, man. What a story. Twitter absolutely loved it.