Mustaf opens up about decision to stay in Atlanta, choose Georgia Tech
Atlanta will be home for Baltimore native, Rivals150 G Jaeden Mustaf for a little while longer.
Mustaf moved to the city earlier this summer after enrolling at Overtime Elite, and on Thursday afternoon in front of his classmates and family, he committed to Georgia Tech.
First-year head coach Damon Stoudamire and his staff were able to hold off a Maryland program that got Mustaf's last visit, as well as other finalists Indiana, Arkansas, Florida State, and North Carolina State.
Mustaf is the first commitment of the 2024 class for Stoudamire, and he spent some time with JOL to break down his decision.
"It feels great right now," Mustaf said of his decision to commit to Georgia Tech. "I'm pretty relieved but overall it feels great right now."
The reaction to his decision from his OTE teammates and people at his ceremony made an impression on Mustaf as well.
"Everybody went crazy and was cheering especially because OTE is in Atlanta," he said of the reaction. "Everyone went crazy because I'm still going to be here."
Mustaf's Jerrod father played at Maryland in the late 1980s and later in the NBA and overseas before settling in Baltimore. The Mustaf family is happy for Jaeden that he can have a smooth transition from going to school in Atlanta to college there.
"Everybody in my family is very excited especially because it is going to be an easy transition for me. From here to really close to here," he said.
What ultimately vaulted the Jackets to the front of the pack was Stoudamire and his ability to develop guards along with his NBA background.
"Coach Damon, I've been saying this to everyone who has asked me, all the things he can teach and I can learn from him," Mustaf said as to his reason for committing to Tech. "Even the other coaches on his staff, I think he is the ultimate players' coach because he was in the league with one of the top teams in the league (Boston Celtics) and then him playing the point guard position and everything he knows about that makes him the ultimate players' coach."
Stoudamire had the reaction Mustaf was hoping for when he told him he was committing.
"He was ecstatic and I'm his first actual 2024 recruit coming in, so he was really excited when I told him," he said.
He said that Stoudamire also has a clear vision for how he sees Mustaf fitting into the new-look Jackets' basketball team.
"(Coach Stoudamire) sees me as a combo guard on and off the ball. He sees me bringing a lot of excitement back to the program. Winning, I'm the ultimate competitor and he is the ultimate competitor and you don't like to lose and I don't like to lose so I think we are very much in sync on that. His vision to me is to lead the team basically and play both on and off the ball at the same time," he said.
The decision was a tough one with several programs in play including Florida State, Maryland, Indiana and NC State. Mustaf said the decision came this week.
"Within the last couple of days, I decided. It was a tough decision with all the schools, Florida State, Maryland, Indiana, Arkansas, and NC State. It was really tough because I really enjoyed all the coaching staffs, all the campuses and all of the visits. The last couple of days I really decided yeah (Georgia Tech) is going to be it," he said.
Mustaf said the call to Maryland was maybe the toughest for personal reasons beyond it being where he dad played ball. Overall he found it difficult making the calls to schools to tell them he wasn't coming.
"It was tough because with Maryland, coach Mike Jones is my former high school coach and having to tell him and coach (Kevin) Willard that I didn't want to go there and I loved my visit and that is home," he said. "Coach (Kevin) Nickelberry and coach (Leonard Hamilton) Ham at Florida State, coach Nickelberry I've known him forever too. It was really tough telling these coaches. I really loved NC State as well so telling them it was really tough to tell them."
As hard as those calls were for Mustaf, the next phase will probably have some of those coaches annoyed with him as he puts on his recruiting hat to help land more talent around him at Georgia Tech.
"The last few days I've been sitting here wishing I could start recruiting now, but don't worry as soon as we get off this call I'm going downstairs to start recruiting," he said.
The Jackets are still in hot pursuit of a pair of Mustaf's teammates, forward Jahki Howard and Darrion Sutton from the 2024 class alone so things could get interesting on that front as well.