America’s top PG to try to win at Geico in Memphis
Kennedy Chandler left Briarcrest Christian last year as the No. 1 high school point guard in America, a TSSAA state champion and a two-time Mr. Basketball winner.
But he wanted to tackle an even bigger challenge. He wanted to travel the country and play the very best competition. And he wanted a shot at winning the Geico High School Nationals. So he teamed up with some of his EYBL teammates from Mokan Elite and enrolled at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kansas.
"Right after the state championship game last year at Briarcrest, and I mean right after the game, he knew that this was what he wanted to do," said his dad, Kylan Chandler. "He told me that when we got home. So we made the move and here we are."
Sunrise (19-2) has one regular-season game left and it will be played at Arlington High on March 12 against Montverde Academy. There's a chance the winner could end up with the No. 1 seed at the Geico Nationals.
The teams have split the season series and Chandler hit a buzzer-beater 3pointer to win the last one in overtime Feb. 5. The shot was No. 1 on the "Sportscenter" Top 10 plays that night.
"That was pretty cool. It was a bigtime three," Chandler said. "I had to get the shot off in time. It was a tough shot but I made it. I know it was time to get the win for that game and we ended up getting it."
And there's no better place than back home in Memphis for Chandler to try for an encore.
"It's going to be a big thing for me to come back and play in my hometown in front of my fans, my friends, and my family," Chandler said. "It's going to be a big game for me and especially a big game for Sunrise to get that one seed for Geico."
Chandler said his time at Sunrise has been the longest time he has been away from home and that it has been good preparation for being on his own in college.
"We live in a house, not far from school. I room with (five-star Baylor signee) Kendall (Brown), and a couple of other players live there," Chandler said. "It's like a regular house with players
and two coaches. It's nice, it's not bad at all. It's funny. You get to know them better during quarantine and stuff like that. Just getting to know them and building chemistry with them."
After the season, Chandler plans to enroll at Tennessee this summer so he can get a head start on training and classes, his dad said.
"The main goal is to possibly get to Tennessee kind of early. It just depends on how the scheduling goes with COVID and everything going on and how soon he can enroll," Kylan Chandler said. "We'd love to get him down there in May or early June. Until then we'll do the summer hoops. He'll do some training out in California and get in shape and get ready for this upcoming season."
Kennedy Chandler said he's been keeping in touch with the Vols coaching staff regularly.
"I talk to them all the time. Just about the season and how I've been doing and stuff like that," Chandler said. "They can't watch me sometimes so they just ask how I'm doing. And I watch them a lot."
He's also looking forward to catching up with former Briarcrest teammates and current UT football players Omari Thomas and Jabari Small in Knoxville.
"It's going to be fun seeing them in college and us being together all the time and watching them play football and them watching me play basketball. I'm excited," said Chandler.
But first, he has one last high school game in his hometown followed by the playoff run for which he joined Sunrise.
"It's been about me playing against all the top competition and getting ready for the next level," Chandler said. "That's what I've been doing this entire season. My goals when I came to prep school were to get better every single day and win the Geico national championship. We have a great chance of winning."