Jayden Scrubb wasn’t always bound to have a chance to play for Team USA or even get an invite to training camp, for that matter.
But he's one of 31 players at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs searching for destiny to collide with skill, as Team USA Under-19 FIBA World Cup tryouts are in full swing.
Scrubb is different from the rest. His journey is both heartbreaking and awe-inspiring.
The to-be junior college sophomore was written off as a lifelong failure after flunking out of Central High School in Louisville, Kentucky as a freshman. He grew up on the west end of town, didn’t have much and was given up on by “the system,” as his father, Jason Scrubb, described the situation.
“We were from a tougher part of town, which some would consider the hood,” Jason said. “He had struggles in the classroom. In terms of home life, we had our struggles. A lot of people said he wouldn’t make it.”
Four years after failing from an academic standpoint, Jayden holds an offer to play Division I basketball at Louisville, a town where some people once said he’d never amount to anything. Oh yeah, he also has scholarship offers from Kansas State, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Xavier, Texas Tech and Wichita State – the icing on the cake.
“I’m glad I had good people in my corner that were watching over me and making sure I made the right decisions,” said Jayden, the sole JUCO player at training camp. “I’m just excited to showcase my talent that I’ve been grasping on (to) for years.”
It all started with a simple slogan growing up: “Get it out the mud.”
“The west end is like the bad area, so ‘get it out the mud’ means going to the gym when nobody is watching,” Jayden said. “It gave me a toughness.”
‘It’s been a magical thing’
Once Jayden failed freshman year, he got his head in the books over the summer. He even spent a few 16-hour days doing homework while still managing to sneak into the gym at night. The goal was to make sure he met minimum requirements in order to begin his sophomore year.
The mission was successful, but Jayden didn’t attend Central High anymore. Instead, his life took a 360-degree turn as he took a need-based voucher and enrolled in Trinity High School, a Catholic, all-boys, college preparatory institution in St. Matthews, Kentucky.
Trinity was nothing like Central High – not even close.
“He left one of the worst schools statistically and was blessed to go to one of the better schools,” Jason said. “They took a gamble after seeing his potential, and it was one of the best things that could’ve happened to him.”
While Jayden was preparing to go to Trinity, his family helped put him on a learning plan at the new school, especially after believing he may have had a learning disability.
“We were on and off medications and things like that,” Jason said. “It was a real journey.”
Jayden was forced to sit out his sophomore year due to transfer rules, but he made an immediate impact as a junior. The following season, as a senior in 2017-18, he averaged in 17.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and was named the Seventh Region Player of the Year by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches.
Most all of that was based on skill alone, but it also helped that Jayden shot up from 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-6 over the summer between his sophomore and junior year, he said.
Despite the high school success at Trinity under coach Mike Szabo, Jayden wasn’t a qualifier for a Division I scholarship due to his academic struggles as a freshman. His father said he was in such a hole that it was nearly impossible to escape.
So, on April 11, 2018, Jayden signed to play basketball at John A. Logan College, an NJCAA program in Carterville, Illinois, ran by coach Kyle Smithpeters, who was named the Grand Rivers Athletic Conference Coach of the Year just a season prior to Jayden's arrival.
“I was a bit skeptical at first,” Jayden said. “As I did my research and learned more about it, I realized that people are going to gravitate toward talent no matter where it’s at.
“I’m just excited that people recognized before it’s too late.”
‘I believed in him’
Jason was upset his son’s planned Division I route didn’t work out. He remained proud of Jayden deep down but was quite frustrated at the circumstances and tough road ahead. He kept the latter a secret from his son.
“I couldn’t let him see that,” Jason said. “I had to let him know I had his best interest at heart and that I believed in him.”
Jayden quickly turned heads at John A. Logan, filling up the stat sheet with 19.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists per game and 48 total blocks as a freshman in 2018-19. He shot 54.6 percent from the field, 46.4 percent from 3-point range and 79.1 percent from the free throw line over the course of a 27-5 season. What Smithpeters said separates Jayden from the rest is his natural ability to score, both inside and outside, and his defensive tenacity to stay in front of his opponents without fouling.
Coaches from all across the country began pouring in to watch him play. Right now, Jayden said he’s most interested in Cincinnati, Louisville, Oregon, Ole Miss, Alabama and Memphis.
“Jay is the one that’s continuously made the decision to get better, and I think that’s one thing that gets lost in the process,” Smithpeters said. “The kid hit a fork in the road and made the best of the situation. He was dealt a tough hand and is coming out on top.”
One of Jayden’s mentors at John A. Logan was guard David Sloan, a sophomore.
Sloan, named conference player of the year, averaged 16.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 10.2 assists. He signed to Kansas State in May 2019, and Jayden got a front-row view of his junior college journey.
Kansas State’s coach, Bruce Weber, is also the coach of the Under-19 team for the FIBA World Cup. With Weber’s knowledge of the JUCO game, he evaluated Jayden’s film, checked the numbers and named him as an Under-19 training camp invitee on May 22.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to be a part of something special,” Weber said of Jayden. “Whether he makes it or not, it’ll help him down the road. He’s got elite athleticism, and you see him get out on the break. He can shoot the basketball from the perimeter.”
Finalists for Weber's team will be selected Tuesday morning. The official 12-man roster is slated to be released sometime over the following week before the team departs June 24 to Greece for the 2019 FIBA U19 World Cup.
The only NJCAA player to ever make the Under-19 team was Randy Reed in 1979 from Forest Park College in Missouri, and Jayden could become the second.
Regardless of what happens, Jayden still has another year at John A. Logan and will leave following the 2019-20 season with an associate degree in hand. He has top-notch schools finally pushing for his services and is sure to make an impact wherever he lands.
Jayden will have two years of college basketball eligibility remaining, and he could make a return to Louisville – a town with a handful of people that wrote him off years ago.
“It’s a big thing for me, being from Louisville,” Jayden said. “I like coach (Chris) Mack, and I see what he’s trying to do to clean up the program. He’s my kind of guy.”
If the Division I route out of high school would’ve worked out for Jayden, he said there’s a possibility he could’ve been preparing to enter the 2019 NBA Draft in a few days as a one-and-done.
But things didn’t go as expected, and Jayden may have said it best.
“Just get it out the mud,” he said, smiling. “If I could go back, I wouldn’t change a thing. Never give up on yourself.”
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