Once an elite prospect at Grayson High, point guard Deivon Smith made his commitment to Georgia Tech on Wednesday after deciding to transfer from Mississippi State after one season.
Smith announced the decision with a tweet. Smith was a four-star prospect at Grayson and was ranked the No. 63 prospect in the 2020 class (247Sports Composite). Tech coaches pursued him hard before he chose Mississippi State.
Landing Smith is a noteworthy win out of the transfer portal for coach Josh Pastner, who has done well in landing transfers returning to Georgia. Pastner previously received center James Banks (Texas), forward Jordan Usher (USC) and guards Kyle Sturdivant (USC) and Bubba Parham (VMI) as transfers, all players from metro Atlanta who had left the state before deciding to return home.
So long as the NCAA, as reported Wednesday, approves legislation granting all athletes to have one transfer without having to sit out, Smith will have four seasons to play, starting next season. Smith played in all of the Bulldogs’ 33 games this past season, starting eight. He averaged 5.2 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 22.5 minutes per game.
“If I’m Josh, I can’t ask for anything else,” Demond Stephens, Smith’s AAU coach, told the AJC before Smith’s decision.
Smith is considered a highly athletic player (he is listed at 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds) who can rebound well and figures to be able to help Tech immediately.
