PHOENIX – Six banner flags flap at drivers skirting past an otherwise nondescript industrial park just south of Sky Harbor International Airport.
“Barbering Program,” one reads. “Media Graphic Program,” says another. Others promote the online, evening and college courses offered at Sequoia Choice Precision High School.
Then this: “Home of Hillcrest Prep Basketball.”
That means it’s home for DeAndre Ayton, too.
Every weekday morning at 8:10 a.m., the 7-foot forward/center, who last week became the highest-rated player ever to commit to the Arizona Wildcats, stuffs his long, impossibly athletic frame inside a blank white doorway in one of the generic buildings at the Broadway Tech Center.
Within in the same building, Ayton sits in a small corridor of offices to take his online courses with the help of a home-school teacher and eats at Precision’s cafeteria next door. He also practices under the same roof in Precision High School’s small gym, which on a recent afternoon was “chilled” to roughly the same 95-degree temperature as outside, its swamp cooler hobbled by the late-summer humidity.
“It’s hot,” says Ayton, shirtless and slightly winded after a recent workout, but he doesn’t really care. He’s from the Bahamas, for one thing, and, besides, his comfort level these days has nothing to do with the temperature.
It has to do with basketball, academics and family. They’re all in Arizona, now, and Ayton repeatedly mentions how important that is.
“I made Arizona my home,” he says. “I’m really comfortable in Arizona.”
Short version of this story: Because Ayton loves his “second home” in Arizona, the way Hillcrest coach Kyle Weaver describes it, the Wildcats had a major recruiting advantage and prompted a quick end to his recruitment.
But there is no short story with Ayton. Not with his rapid rise through basketball from raw Bahamian player to No. 1 prospect.
It’s complicated. Sometimes really complicated.
Ayton played a lot of soccer growing up in Nassau, and even ran the 100 meters for a while, but never did play the country’s most popular sport, cricket. “No. It’s pretty hard,” Ayton said, chuckling. “That’s a hard sport.”
So, initially, was basketball. Ayton was big and gifted and oozed potential, but lacked a structure to grow within the game. He didn’t bother with it until about five years ago.
“I didn’t even like basketball,” Ayton said. “I didn’t know how to play, you know? My dad was always trying to put the ball in my hand, but I didn’t know what to do.”
So he hung around the house, being heavily into band but little else. After another lazy summer day before his seventh-grade year, DeAndre’s mother, Andrea, had seen enough.
She pushed DeAndre out the door to Jeff Rodgers’ basketball camp, a longtime Bahamas institution. DeAndre was already 6-foot-7 and just about to blow up in the game at age 13, but didn’t know it.
He protested.
“That camp that got me over here to the states? I didn’t want to go,” Ayton said. “My mom forced me because I was the only kid at home. My sisters and brothers were in summer camps and I didn’t have anything to do.”
The camp was full of coaches and counselors with connections. They quickly spread word of the raw but stunningly skilled big man, to as far away as Southern California.
Before Ayton knew it, he and Andrea were on a plane to San Diego. Andrea fell in love with the city and agreed to put DeAndre in the care of others. He enrolled at Balboa City School, a small private institution where a basketball program would be built around him.
His first few years in the United States followed a script that’s common among elite prospects from families that are inexperienced or disinterested in the ways of high-level recruiting.
DeAndre’s move was sponsored by a wealthy philanthropist, he first lived with a coach who started the Balboa program, then with a host family and, as a sophomore, with a school director.
Conflict came and went, but there was one thing everyone agreed on: Ayton was terrific, a sublime talent whose soccer footwork combines with length and athleticism to make him a wizard around the rim, from midrange and, now even more so, on the perimeter.
“He was obviously a very precocious athlete,” said Ollie Goulston, who coached Balboa during Ayton’s freshman and sophomore seasons. “He was definitely advanced. He had the complete package and the opportunity to be one of the best, with his work ethic, skill and athleticism. He’s a good kid, too.”
Goulston left Balboa after Ayton’s sophomore season. Ayton said he still isn’t sure what happened next.
“It was kind of crazy,” Ayton said. “My family wasn’t with the program in San Diego and there was too much going on. A lot of controversy.”
Finally, Andrea stepped in. DeAndre transferred to Hillcrest as his junior year began last fall, and she moved with him to Phoenix.
By doing so, she effectively tightened the circle around her son. While most of the Hillcrest players live with Weaver in a sprawling, ranch-style home near Precision, she and DeAndre live a few minutes away.
“It’s just him and his mom,” Weaver says. “No snakes. No vultures.”
Gary Franklin noticed the difference. Ayton played for his Cal Supreme in 2014 without Andrea around, but she was there when he rejoined the club this summer.
“She’s done a lot of research herself,” Franklin said. “She’s taken control as she should. She’s been very up-front and open with me, and that’s why I think she was willing to trust us.”
The arrangement, and the lifestyle, appears to work for both of them. While DeAndre spends his days at Precision, Andrea works a day job in janitorial services and returns home, often to cook for him.
“Oh yeah,” he says. “Caribbean food every day.”
An attempt to reach Andrea via Hillcrest was unsuccessful — Weaver said she prefers to stay out of the media — but her son said she has grown to like Phoenix.
“She said this was the last time she’s moving,” Ayton said. “She got comfortable and made a lot of friends. She really likes it. She knows Arizona now.”
Initially, Ayton’s move to Hillcrest appeared to be a surprise. It was just a start-up prep program in 2014-15, fielding a team of only fifth-year seniors, but aimed much higher in year two.
Before the 2015-16 season, Hillcrest hired Marvin Bagley Jr. as associate head coach to join Weaver. While Weaver brought prep school basketball knowledge as a former player for Windward Prep — “you learn the trade,” he says — Bagley brought talent.
Namely, his sons, Marvin III and Marcus. Marvin, who is regarded as the top-rated player in the class of 2018, helped lead Tempe Corona Del Sol to a state title in 2014-15. Marcus, still a high school freshman, received a scholarship offer from Arizona last month.
With the Bagleys and Ayton, Hillcrest had instant star power. In their first game together, against Phoenix College last October, Marvin and Ayton each scored 30 points and showed a strong on-court chemistry.
But by November, the Bagleys were gone. Bagley Jr. told the Arizona Republic he wanted his sons out because of “negativity following the program,” and they later transferred to Sierra Canyon School, a private school in California’s San Fernando Valley.
At that point, Hillcrest had been removed from a planned ESPN showcase game against the team of Thon Maker, a highly regarded big man in the class of 2016. Hillcrest’s academic procedures came into question because its players were enrolled at Starshine Academy, which had core courses that were not certified by the NCAA.
“It was surprising,” said Weaver, Hillcrest’s head coach. “We were told it was going to be NCAA-approved.”
To solve the problem, Hillcrest quickly moved players last fall to the NCAA-certified online courses of the Arizona Connections Academy, and this season all new players were enrolled at Precision.
In some ways, Hillcrest is still recovering from the publicity hit and so is Ayton, by extension, even as he and Weaver insist he’s on track to become college-eligible.
Ayton says he was never enrolled at Starshine, taking only the Arizona Connections classes since arriving in Phoenix. He’ll also take them this season, even as his teammates attend classes next door at Precision.
It was at Balboa City, Ayton said, where issues arose. Before its basketball program began, the school hadn’t needed to seek NCAA certification for its courses.
Some went under review, Weaver said, and Ayton says he’s had to take some courses again, even a class over the summer while playing for the California Supreme travel club.
“I had to catch up, that was the main thing,” Ayton said. “The NCAA said some classes I took at Balboa were not creditable, but all that’s done. … We got that sorted out already, getting transcripts to the NCAA, and I’m taking the SAT in November.”
Goulston and Franklin both said if Ayton had any eligibility issues entering Arizona, it wouldn’t be his fault.
“That’s been a question, but I don’t think it has anything to do with intelligence or ability to get work done,” Franklin said.
“Maybe it’s about one of his schools not being accredited. He’s a pretty intelligent kid.”
While Ayton told reporters in April that only Kansas was heavily recruiting him at that point — a red flag suggesting that other recruiters were scared off by his academics or other issues — Arizona was moving in behind the scenes.
Weaver said UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack called about that time, and the Wildcats’ strong interest over the summer indicated they believed Ayton might clear any eligibility hurdles.
“They knew about the academics,” Weaver said. “They did their own stuff and found out the truth.”
Of course, the eligibility piece is only one of the questions a dominant prospect such as Ayton typically faces. Other big ones: Does he really want to be in college anyway? How much money is he willing to forgo in salary and endorsements playing overseas in the year before NBA Draft eligibility?
UA signee Terrance Ferguson, rated in among the Top 15 players in the class of 2016, faced all those questions, too. Especially the eligibility part, since he spent two years at a Dallas prep school taking classes that were not NCAA-certified.
Ferguson’s answer was to sign a pro contract in Australia and an endorsement deal in the mid-six-figures.
Considering that windfall, there’s no telling what Ayton could get playing somewhere else in 2017-18, as the No. 1 player in the high school class of 2017.
Seven figures, maybe? His own shoe? Ayton may not know, or care.
He says he’s not heading overseas, like Ferguson. And he says he’s not planning to petition the NBA to get in the 2017 NBA Draft as an older high school player, like Maker successfully did last spring by declaring that he had already graduated with his class in 2015.
Ayton would have trouble with such an appeal anyway, since he just turned 18 in July and has not been with a graduating class yet. (NBA rules state players must be 19 and a year removed from high school graduation to be eligible for the draft.)
“One of the reasons I did it on TV, and especially on ESPN, was to let everybody know I’m going to college,” Ayton said. “I wanted to say something about it earlier, about that overseas rumor, or whatever: No.
“My mom doesn’t go that way. She doesn’t take the easy way out. She wants me to really work hard to get to the next level. God forbid, there’s injuries or whatever, but she wants me to get that experience and move on. Take baby steps.”
Ayton insists he will be in Tucson, and insists that he will be for only one season. There is no stated uncertainty about either his college choice or how long he’ll be in college, even as other elite players often publicly waver, keeping zealous fans hanging on their every word.
Ayton said he’s just not into all that.
“Definitely, I’m solid,” he said. “My family and I don’t do drama. When we say something, we do it. If that’s what we want to do, we stay firm. We don’t go back on our word.”
Weaver said Ayton was so sure about playing for Arizona that he purposely scheduled his announcement for last Tuesday, three days before the opening of the fall recruiting period that allows coaches to make in-home visits with players.
In other words, just before Kansas’ Bill Self and Kentucky’s John Calipari were scheduled to visit Ayton .
“I knew already,” Ayton said. “To be honest, I didn’t feel like that at Kentucky. Just couldn’t see myself playing there.”
But while taking a quiet, under-the-radar visit to Tucson last month, Ayton says he could see it.
He could see himself playing for UA coach Sean Miller, and for the often sold-out crowds at McKale Center.
He could see a Final Four, too.
After practice last Thursday, Ayton reviewed his winnowed-down schedule. Pasternack was coming to visit just as the recruiting period opened on Friday, while Miller was expected soon for an in-house visit that promised to be more of a celebration than a sales pitch.
Sounded good to him.
“That’s going to be fun,” Ayton says. “To me, I’m glad I committed to U of A, man. So glad. If I had committed to the others, I think I would have been mad because I didn’t want to leave my family.
“And with a coach like coach Miller, we can make history. I really intend to give him his first Final Four. And I think I can really change the college game.”
