Meet Jaylan Mitchell, Reitz's incoming freshman with four Division I basketball offers

EVANSVILLE — Jaylan Mitchell glistened in many eyes at Peach Jam. Most of the headlines and plaudits went to older players at the top boys high school basketball event in the country, with the likes of Cameron Boozer and Cooper Flagg making the biggest names in men’s college hoops fall over themselves. Many of the same coaches, however, gravitated toward the then-14-year-old Reitz High School rising freshman playing up for Bradley Beal Elite.

“It’s definitely the best atmosphere I’ve been around,” said Mitchell, who models his game after Kevin Durant. “There’s a lot of people and a bunch of college coaches, the most I’ve ever seen.”

Mitchell entered Peach Jam with two Division I offers — from the University of Evansville and University of Southern Indiana — but departed with his name circled on many loose-leaf pages. Grady Majors, a scout who’s seen Mitchell at two Nike EYBL events, sees limitless potential despite him not touching a ball in high school play.

“I thought that he was just an absolute monster,” Majors said. “I was shocked to hear he was an eighth grader going into ninth grade.”

There are a few reasons Mitchell stands head and shoulders above others — oftentimes literally and figuratively. First, he’s 6-foot-7 with doctors estimating he’ll grow to a height between 6-8 and 6-10, with a wingspan, frame and speed to be successful on both ends. His ability to get to the basket and find the right passes are strengths. He has range and can dribble. Mitchell’s game, especially from playing up, should translate to high school and college ball down the line.

“The biggest advantage is his work ethic. No matter who you’re playing against, if you have a solid work ethic, that’s going to translate very well,” Majors said. “Being able to defend and have a great work ethic are two things I’ll always look for in freshmen coming in because things are going to really stand out.”

A message and an offer came from Illinois after Peach Jam. Twenty-seven hours passed before he announced another from Arizona State.

“I want character,” Fighting Illini coach Brad Underwood told him, “not characters.”

“That really stuck with me because you never want someone on your team that’s gonna act out and that you can’t trust,” Mitchell said. “I always want to be the guy that you can rely on or trust to do the right thing even when no one’s watching.”

Character has been an asset for Mitchell in the infant stages of his career. Having just turned 15 and feeling the weight of expectation laden upon his developing shoulders, character has been one of the biggest developmental focuses for Mitchell and his parents.

With that, he’s flourished. Mitchell is a straight-A student. He has a life off the court, enjoying video games — particularly Fortnite and NBA 2K — keeping up with chores and hanging out with friends. On the hardwood, he’s constantly talking and getting teammates involved.

“I think it starts early on,” Mitchell’s mother Wende Fingers said. “Just a certain mindset you have to have to keep you driven toward success and staying future-minded and thinking about what your goals are and what you need to be doing every day to reach those goals.

"Balance, I think, is huge for these kids. Jaylan is naturally a perfectionist and puts a lot of pressure on himself in anything he de does. ... It's important to just let him be a kid."

Jaylan Mitchell and ‘the gift of basketball’

Jeremiah Mitchell, Jaylan’s father, took him to the YMCA to play when he was 3 years old. And he was amazed. Jaylan was dribbling, with his tiny arms and legs and a big smile on his face, without traveling. He was scoring on a 10-foot rim. Jeremiah, himself a college player at Vincennes University and Oakland University, saw his son’s potential and needed to tell someone.

“How is this little boy already understanding how to dribble the basketball?” Jeremiah thought. Jaylan had already had the ball in his hands regularly, but this was something else — he was different. “What in the world? I think this boy’s got the gift.”

What he saw wasn’t normal, not for a 3-year-old. Jeremiah had been around the sport his entire life. His whole family played. What he saw of his toddler son, though, was unlike anything he’d seen.

“There’s a difference between people who work hard and they get far in basketball (and) between people who actually have the gift of basketball,” Jeremiah said. “Jaylan has the gift of basketball. Like, he was made for basketball. It’s different.”

Jeremiah went home. “Jaylan’s gonna be a great,” he said. He was met with laughs and disbelief. Fingers recalled the early conversations.

“He is advanced,” Jeremiah told her. “I know I sound crazy, but he’s really good.”

“Oh, he’s just three,” she responded.

“No, he has the gift,” Jeremiah said. “I think the boy has the ability to be a pearl if God blesses him with the size.”

Jeremiah was unwavering in his belief. They began working out more in a small gym with a concrete floor and rims protruding from the cemented walls for $20 a day. Jeremiah sometimes threw a portable rim in the back of his truck. Hours piled up and sweat puddled in the small arena. Jaylan loved it, wanting every tiny detail to be perfect: form shots, defensive slides, sprints, attacking the rim, rebounding.

The work in that bit-sized concrete gym is now visible. Four D-I offers before Jaylan’s 15th birthday are evidence for that.

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“It’s amazing; it’s kinda surreal,” Fingers said. “Positive reinforcement has always been a good motivator for him, so getting some of these offers motivates him to want to work harder.”

“There’s not even words to describe how happy I am for him because he’s put in the work,” Jeremiah added. “Jaylan Mitchell has earned everything that he’s done, everything he has right now. People might have an opinion, but that boy has spent thousands upon thousands of hours of working.”

Fingers saw the same thing when Jaylan started playing kindergarten ball at the YMCA. He was bigger and faster than most kids, yes, but there was more to his game than size and speed. His movement, passing, shooting and defense were beyond his single-digit years. Jaylan started recognizing his strengths at the same time.

He had, as Jeremiah said, the gift.

“Hey, he is pretty advanced compared to other kids. This is crazy,” Fingers said. “We just started putting in as much effort as he wanted. We kinda matched energies, so as much as he’s willing to invest, we’re willing to invest.”

The gift, Jeremiah said, is someone who is physically built for the game with the hunger to be a professional. That was evident when Jaylan was in his seventh-grade championship. He jumped and grabbed a one-handed rebound, dribbled once and beamed a full-court pass to a teammate for an assist. That, Jeremiah said, is an example of the gift.

“You don’t teach that. You can’t,” Jeremiah said. “There’s no training for that skill. He does things that you can’t train for, somebody who can do those things and recognize those things.”

'The country is about to know the name Jaylan Mitchell'

Mitchell recently grabbed a ball in Reitz’s practice gym, where the raincloud-gray walls stand a few feet off the dark blue inbound lines. He was casual in his approach, lobbing the ball from halfcourt and banking it in with the look of an early-game free throw. There was no reaction from him or the other freshmen who populated the floor, the effortless shot receiving the plaudits of a layup or any other basic basketball function.

Coach Austin Brooks will have a young core of players on his varsity team this season with Mitchell and sophomore Braylen Langley expected to lead the Panthers. Brooks has been impressed with Mitchell’s work ethic, the high-IQ plays and how he’s humbly meshed with the rest of the team.

“You don’t expect the unseen hours that he puts in,” Brooks said. “He’s got the determination, he’s got the motivation and he’s got that character piece that really just takes over everything else.”

Mitchell’s first high school year, like much else, will be about balance. Brooks knows the potential, as do college coaches. “Over 30” college coaches have reached out to Brooks to talk about Mitchell, he said, though he doesn’t say who exactly has called to not put more pressure on him.

“It’s very exciting, especially knowing all the work I’ve put in so far and being patient and letting it come to me and trusting God,” Mitchell said. “That process, it’s been a really good one. I’m gonna continue to work hard.”

Brooks believes Mitchell has the potential to change basketball at Reitz and in Evansville in general. Jeremiah does as well. Bradley Beal told Fingers about how impressed he’s been with Mitchell. Jeremiah said a coach in Beal’s program compared him to Jayson Tatum.

“The basketball world in Indiana’s gonna know his name this year,” Jeremiah said, “and the nation’s gonna know his name big time in the next year or two.”

“He knows his expectations and he knows that he pushes himself more than anybody else,” Brooks added. “He’s accepted that challenge."

Mitchell’s work is how he’s earned four pre-high school offers and the inquiries of countless others. Brooks said it’s already spreading to other players in his program. Mitchell’s work, character and maybe some of the gift have led him to this point, with more likely still to come.

"The country is about to know the name Jaylan Mitchell," Jeremiah said, "and it's because of the work Jaylan Mitchell has put in. He has earned it. If there's one thing I want people to hear from me, it's that Jaylan Mitchell has put in thousands of hours and he's the one that has earned it."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Jaylan Mitchell: Indiana 2027 forward has four D-1 basketball offers