ATHENS — If Georgia can get the same level of competitive fire out of Asa and Jaden Newell that the brothers exhibited during their one-on-one battles under the family goal back home in the driveway, the Bulldogs are going to be in for big things for the 2024-25 basketball season.
Indications are that the fire still burns.
Jaden is 21 months older than his “little brother,” Asa. But Asa is the Georgia basketball player who is creating all the fuss heading into coach Mike White’s third season at the helm of the program. A 6-foot-11, 220-pound power forward from Destin, Florida, Asa was a 5-star signee when he inked with the Bulldogs’ Class of 2024 this past spring. Jaden, a 6-8, 225-pound sophomore, has been laboring in obscurity at UGA as a walk-on player the past two seasons.
Both men are happy to report that Jaden no longer is a walk-on. Georgia placed him on scholarship not long after Asa signed with the Bulldogs.
Call it a finder’s fee.
“I didn’t even really expect it,” said Jaden, who has played in six games and scored only two points in two seasons with the Bulldogs. “I never really saw myself as a walk-on or on scholarship, just a basketball player. But it was really exciting having Asa there and having my family there. It was a really special moment.”
As for the Newell family, one point of interest is that Asa and Jaden lived in Athens when they were young. The family left Athens when Asa was 10 years old and Jaden was 12. Their late grandmother, Jacqueline Mitchell, was an administrative assistant in human resources at UGA and Asa and Jaden attended day care on campus.
The Newell Brothers now represent one third of a reinvigorated front-court presence the Bulldogs plan to unleash this fall. In addition to Asa and Jaden, Georgia’s low-post lineup will include returning starter Dylan James, a 6-9, 210-pound sophomore, junior transfers RJ Godfrey (6-8, 230) from Clemson and Justin Abson (6-9, 255) from Appalachian State and 6-11, 260-pound 4-star freshman signee Somto Cyril of Overtime Elite Academy, who is from Nigeria.
But let there be no mistake about it: Asa Newell is the jewel in the paint. A consensus 5-star recruiting prospect who was pursued by the likes of Texas, Alabama, Gonzaga and most every Division I program in America, Newell has been a hot commodity since averaging 14.7 points and 8.7 rebounds and being named Player of the Year as a sophomore at Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The past two years, Newell has hooped it up at prestigious Montverde Academy, where he fielded a less prominent but more challenging role for a national powerhouse program.
Though Jaden came to UGA with considerably less fanfare, he said don’t take that to mean his little brother is a much more talented player. Asked when it became clear that Asa could outplay him on the hardwood, Jaden bristled.
“I’ve never had that moment in my life. Never,” Jaden said with a laugh. “I don’t see that in the future at all.”
How, then, could he explain Asa’s superior recruiting profile?
“Better marketing,” Jaden quipped.
He was joking. Sort of. But even Asa admitted that their driveway-ball battles remain the stuff of family legend.
“Sometimes it wouldn’t be too pretty at the end of day,” Asa said with a laugh. “Whoever would win would talk their trash, and the whole day would be ruined if I didn’t win or he didn’t win. So, we had to take a little chill pill sometimes and stop playing. Now we can play without butting heads all day.”
The Bulldogs believe that is a decidedly good thing.
