The Rise of Jason Preston by:Trevor Metke

 The Rise of Jason Preston


Four years ago, Ohio Bobcats guard Jason Preston was a 6’2, 140-pound high school basketball player in Orlando, Florida. He was living with his mom's best friend's son in a little apartment. Jason’s mother had passed away and his father was not in the picture. Jason was averaging 2 points per game in high school and was not even planning on playing basketball in college, he was going to attend the University of Central Florida as a student. One day, one of Jason's high school friends asked him to play in an AAU tournament. After Jason played in this AAU tournament, he got convinced to play at prep school by a coach who saw him at the AAU tournament. So, Jason ended up going to prep school to play ball instead of attending UCF. At the school, they had 4 teams, and Preston ended up making the C team. He played well on the C team, so they ended up moving him onto the B team, and once again Preston performed well so they finally moved him up to the top team. Jason ended up getting moved down all the way to the C team, but he never gave up. He dropped a triple-double, and in order to get his name out there, he posted this highlight reel on Twitter, which ended up getting him two D1 offers, from the University of Ohio and Longwood. Jason ended up picking Ohio and he committed to play there on May 7th, 2018. Jason started in 22 games in his freshman campaign averaging 6 points,3.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists when shooting 43.4% from the field. This was a very solid start to Preston's college career, but he wasn't done yet. He had a huge breakout season his sophomore year, leading the Bobcats with 16.8 points per game, 6.4 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game, leading Ohio to a 17-15 record, earning all MAC 2nd team honors. This year he has even been better. Ohio started off the season with victories over Chicago State and North Carolina A&T, with Preston leading the team in assists in both games. The next game for these Bobcats was vs the 8th ranked team at the time, the Illinois Fighting Illini. Preston led the Bobcats with 31 points and 8 assists, nearly leading Ohio to a massive upset, but they, unfortunately, fell short with Illinois taking a close 77-75 win.


After this game, Preston received national attention and his social media accounts blew up as well as getting attention from ESPN, The USA Today, and many more major media sources. Preston has dedicated his basketball career to his mother for making him the person he is, and also God. Preston is a player to keep an eye for in the coming years and has NBA potential as a scorer and a playmaker, so far averaging 21 points and 7 assists in 3 games. Ohio should be a very solid MAC team behind the leadership of Jason Preston, and they could end up possibly making some noise in March Madness.

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