STARKVILLE — As Quinndary Weatherspoon approached the media, he asked, “What are y’all going to ask me about?”
A reporter responded, “Your brother.” Weatherspoon smiled and answered, “I don’t want to talk about him.”
Weatherspoon knew questions about Nick, his younger brother, were going to come Wednesday because Nick, Auburn (Ala.) High School forward Garrison Brooks, and Lawrence County High School forward KeyShawn Feazell signed with the Mississippi State men’s basketball team.
The class is ranked 16th in the country by 247Sports. MSU men’s basketball coach Ben Howland landed the ninth-best recruiting class for 2016.
“I’m excited I get to play with him again,” Quinndary said. “I really enjoyed us playing together in high school. We had a lot of fun growing up and playing together.”
Nick, a senior at Velma Jackson High in Canton, is rated as a four-star prospect and the top player in the state of Mississippi by 247Sports Composite. The recruiting site also has Nick the No. 5 point guard and the nation’s No. 27 player.
Quinndary said he played the “laid-back role” and didn’t say too much to his brother during the recruiting process. Although he wanted to play with Nick again, he didn’t try to influence Nick’s decision.
Quinndary and Nick helped Velma Jackson win Mississippi High School Activities Association Class (MHSAA) 3A State championships in 2014 and 2015. Last season, Nick averaged 22.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 2.1 steals per game as Velma Jackson lost to Kemper County in the Class 3A semifinals.
The 6-foot-2, 173-pound guard chose MSU over North Carolina State, Alabama, Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina, and others.
Getting to play with his brother again was a big deal for Nick.
“I looked up to him a lot because I saw during middle school he wasn’t as good and then he started developing going into high school, shooting the ball, putting the ball on the floor, and I started really paying attention,” Nick said. “I saw how good he was getting and he was really serious about the game. I’ve been looking up to him most of my whole life.”
Quinndary averaged 12 points and 4.7 rebounds last season en route to earning All-Freshman Southeastern Conference honors.
Howland said the Weatherspoon family is “close,” and that Quinndary’s presence at MSU was a big reason that Nick decided to come to Starkville.
When Howland was hired in March 2015, he inherited a recruiting class that included Quinndary from former coach Rick Ray. Once Quinndary decided to stick with him and MSU, Howland said he began to notice Nick. He recalls watching him play in a tournament in Las Vegas last summer and being blown away.
“He’s the only player I’ve ever watched where he reminded me of Russell Westbrook,” said Howland, who coached Westbrook, now a star point guard for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, at UCLA. “That is about the ultimate compliment I can pay a player and it’s because of his motor. What makes Russell Westbrook special is what makes Nick special, the competitive toughness, desire to win, and plays both ends of the floor.”
Quinndary recalls he and his brother beginning to play basketball together when he was in the fifth or sixth grade. They played in the backyard, but they found their way into gyms or onto courts and began to play with other people as they got older. They even played one-on-one games, which Quinndary said he won every one. Nick said he had to win at least once, but they haven’t played one-on-one since Quinndary was in high school.
“He still hasn’t caught up with me,” Quinndary said with a smile. “Around my ninth-grade year, his seventh-grade year, around that time he started catching up. I could see his body developing a little more as a basketball player.”
Brooks is the son of MSU assistant coach George Brooks. Garrison, a four-star prospect and fourth best player in the state of Alabama, according to 247Sports Composite, chose MSU over Auburn, North Carolina, Alabama, LSU, among others.
Howland called Brooks’ recruiting “long and arduous” and that he’s glad it is over.
“He’s really going to be a good player,” Howland said. “He was so good this summer and is physical and (has the) ability to run the floor and rebound and score around the basket. What’s really special about Garrison is his ability to step out and shoot threes. He didn’t really get a chance to display that this summer on his AAU team because he was asked to play a five (center).”
Brooks averaged 15.9 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks as a junior. The 6-foot-10, 220-pounder holds the Auburn high school record for career blocked shots (253).
Feazell averaged 17.3 points and 8.6 rebounds as a junior. The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Monticello native chose MSU over Iowa State, Alabama, Baylor, Ole Miss, Pittsburgh, among others.
“He’s a really phenomenal athlete,” Howland said. “His hands are the biggest hands I think of any player I’ve ever coached. He’s got gigantic hands, can shoot the ball well as a 6-9 player.”
MSU will kick off the 2016-17 season at 7 p.m. Friday (SEC Network+) when it plays host to Norfolk State at Humphrey Coliseum.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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