The Georgia boys basketball player rated the highest by recruiting gurus is Greenville's Kentavious Caldwell, a five-star prospect who signed with Georgia.
The player getting the most postseason awards is Milton's Shannon Scott, a McDonald's All-America point guard who was named Player of the Year by Gatorade and the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
But the player who has seen his stock rise the most since last summer, and perhaps the best of them all this season, is Greater Atlanta Christian's
Malcolm Brogdon, a 6-foot-4 guard who was named the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Georgia Player of the Year last week.
His coach, Eddie Martin, says Brogdon was as well-rounded as any player he has coached. That's meaningful considering that Martin's former players include Jodie Meeks, Al-Farouq Aminu and Gani Lawall, who are playing in the NBA.
‘'There's no one thing I can say [that he did] that was exceptional, but he didn't do anything bad,'' Martin said. "I've had some other guys where maybe their speed was so good, or their rebounding or their size. There's nothing like that for Malcolm, but he can do so many things well.''
Martin called Brogdon a complete scorer, a player who could shoot from the perimeter, drive to the basket and draw fouls. Brogdon averaged 25.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.3 steals for a team that won Georgia's Class AA for the second straight year.
For his career, which included stops as a freshman at Woodward Academy and as a sophomore at Fayette County, Brogdon scored 2,242 points and had 1,213 rebounds.
Brogdon transferred for his junior season to GAC. The school's coach was Martin, who had won state titles at Norcross in 2006, 2007 and 2008 with Meeks, Aminu and Lawal.
But Brogdon didn't come in thinking about instant championships. The private school in Norcross had not won one since 1977.
‘'I knew the academics were good,'' Brogdon said. "I just wanted a situation where I could have an immediate impact [in basketball] and where the team really welcomed me.''
Welcoming a player of that caliber proved easy.
For the first championship team, GAC had 6-foot-8 Trent Weideman, who signed with Charleston, giving the team excellent balance. This season, three starters needed replacing, and one question mark was the team's ability to rebound without the size it had.
Brogdon took on much of that role. Though he's only 6-foot-4, he got more than 12 rebounds per game and led Gwinnett County, home of five of Georgia's 10 state champions.
At Missouri's Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions in December, Brogdon set rebounding records of 21 in one game (against California state champion Lutheran of La Verne) and 48 for the tournament. He also averaged 32.7 points for the three games, all against nationally prominent teams.
Brogdon's stock as a recruit rose dramatically just months before. He was an honorable mention all-state player as a sophomore at Fayette, so he was not a late bloomer. But his performance in a showcase called the Nike Peach Jam in Augusta helped make him a sudden national recruit with 30 offers.
‘'Overnight, my phone started ringing off the hook,'' Martin said.
A student with a 3.6 GPA, Brogdon chose Virginia last August.
All that was left was winning a second state title, something Brogdon says he didn't consider when he first came to GAC.
"I didn't realize how good we would really be,'' Brogdon sad. "The state titles were like icing on the cake.''
