Edwards spending late nights in Athens working on his game
ATHENS, Ga. - UGA freshman Anthony Edwards is the nation's top-scoring freshman and on Thursday was named a mid-season All-American by The Sporting News. The 6-5, 225 pound Atlanta native is averaging 19.1 points per game.
Through half a season at Georgia we have come to expect some spectacular things from Anthony Edwards, but his free throw shooting at Auburn last Saturday wasn't one of them. So how did 4 of 11 from the charity stripe sit with the freshman?
"As soon as I got back I got to the gym and shot free throws.Every workout that I did, I made sure that I made 22 for 22 and then made 10 in a row and then I did 10 rapid fire free throws," says Edwards.
Edwards made 7 of 8 free throws against Tennessee on Wednesday. That kind of obsession with his game seems to be common for Edwards. It's something that his dog London knows and so does UGA Graduate Manager Reed Ridder.
"I was in here until 1 o'clock [AM] on Monday. I got the best GA in the country. His name is Reed. I got tired of playing with my dog and told him I had to go. So I called him Monday and was like 'let's shoot.' It was like twelve o'clock maybe and he was like 'alright let's do it.' Most of the time I'm always in here late-night because that's when I like to shoot, that's when I have my most energy," says Edwards.
"He's got a lot of pride. He didn't like the way he played the other day. He didn't like missing the free throws, those type of things. He's very, very serious about being a winner. He's very, very serious about learning how to be efficient, right, and learning what all those things take, and he's also 18, right," says UGA Head Coach Tom Crean.
Georgia freshman Anthony Edwards celebrates a win against the Volunteers in Athens
While he is locked in, the southwest Atlanta native is not afraid to let loose.
"Basketball is always business for me because I'm trying to make a lot of money playing this game, but you never let the fun be taken away from you. That's why you play, because it's fun. Somebody earlier asked me about the crowd, that's fun to me to get the crowd get really hype. I never let the fun get taken from me," says Edwards.
An amazing feat considering the pressure and eyes that are on an athlete who left high school early to get to UGA.
" Who's going through college basketball like he is right now? I mean, who is? We talk about that all the time. People want to be Anthony Edwards. Do you really? There's a lot of notoriety and a lot of accolades and a lot of attention, and we pull up in Memphis and there's 15 to 18 people waiting to get autographs. I mean, it's a different deal. And he's 18. He should be a high school senior and has a lot to learns," says Crean.
And he'll spend his next few months in Athens doing just that, at all hours of the night.