David Martinson paused before responding, with a hint of laughter through the phone.
"My first thought is I might be the worst high school basketball coach in this country," Martinson said.
Martinson, the head coach at Boone High School in Orlando, Florida, was referring to a former player, one who didn't actually play much during his time at Boone under Martinson. As a senior, the player scored 52 points total.
Fast forward four years, and that player is one of the premier mid-major guards in the country. Forget 52 points in an entire season, he scored a combined 52 points in back-to-back games late last month. He notched a triple-double last season, and he's on the draft radar of several NBA teams.
So what happened in between for Ohio star guard Jason Preston?
"Sometimes I even play in my head, maybe I should have played him more," Martinson said. "But God has a plan for all of us. And that was Jason's plan."
While Preston's basketball abilities might have taken some time to surface, his love for the game did not. Martinson recalls seeing Preston at the local rec center in sixth and seventh grade, working on moves by himself. He could rattle off historical stats and debate player comparisons across different decades, and he loved watching YouTube highlights of older NBA players.
And later, after high school practice ended, Preston was going straight to the rec center to work out some more.
"His passion for basketball is unmatched," Martinson said. "If Jason didn't go on to play at the next level, he would probably be the best basketball player in Orlando at the Y and at the parks."
After Preston's mother, Judith, died from lung cancer before his junior year of high school, life changed dramatically for the teenager. His mother was the main person in his life -- most of the extended family lives in Jamaica -- and Jason ended up living with the son of his mother's best friend as he attempted to overcome the trauma of losing a parent.
"In a lot of ways, he lost his junior year," Martinson said. "He was not himself. He had to handle some things away from basketball. His living situation changed, maybe even more than once, through that course of time. He wasn't able to put in as much work on the basketball court."
On top of that, Preston was only 6-foot, 140 pounds. While Boone pushed for a state championship, Preston played sparingly. By the time he graduated from Boone, playing basketball was an afterthought. He enrolled at UCF for summer classes, ready to pursue a career in journalism -- he had already written some articles for FanSided and Bleacher Report. Preston wanted to stay around basketball, even if playing at the next level seemed off the table.
Then one of his friends asked if he wanted to play in an AAU tournament; the team needed a fifth player for a couple of upcoming events. Preston didn't even know he was allowed to play AAU ball after already enrolling in college, but he figured why not?
"Everyone was playing 40 minutes a game," Preston said. "It was more of an opportunity. I didn't have a chance in high school, I was more of a shooter. I played on the ball a lot [in the AAU tournaments]."
He impressed at the two tournaments to the point that Wes Long, then an assistant coach at UNC Asheville and now at Middle Tennessee, approached him about playing in college. Asheville was out of scholarships for the upcoming season, but Long recommended Preston go to prep school for a year and try to pick up some scholarship offers. Preston connected with a coach at Believe Sports Academy in Athens, Tennessee, and decided to put UCF on hold to play a year at prep school in Tennessee. Then the coach who brought him to Tennessee, Brad Trainer, left after just two weeks.
Yet another dramatic life change that left Preston to figure things out on his own.
Tyson Waterman remembers Preston arriving at Believe Prep Academy.
"This kid came with a duffel bag and one big carry bag to prep school," said Waterman, who took over as the head coach at Believe and is now an assistant coach at Wichita State. "He had one pair of shoes. We talked and talked. He didn't really have a lot. I took him down one night, to a small store called Hibbett [Sports] in Athens. We got him a pair of Paul George shoes. He was so grateful for that. That's what made me fall in love with him.
"It was a 20-minute car ride. And he asked, 'You think I'll be able to get a scholarship in college?' He really didn't know."
It wasn't easy, of course. The prep school had five teams, and tried to keep those teams even from a competitive standpoint -- except when they played against national opponents, such as Oak Hill (Virginia) Academy or Hargrave (Virginia) Military Academy, and would put the best players on what was considered the A team. Preston wasn't getting much run on that team.
Preston's two roommates were on the C team and they approached the coaches at Believe to ask if Preston could move to that team on a more permanent basis.
That's when things began to change. Preston got more comfortable and eventually started getting minutes against some of the tougher opponents on Believe's schedule. Maryland-Eastern Shore became interested, and Preston took a visit to its campus. Waterman took Preston and teammates Dexter Dennis and Tae Hardy to Georgia Tech, and head coach Josh Pastner said he liked Preston but had already recruited Jose Alvarado at the point guard spot.
After a late-season game, Believe had an eight-hour bus ride back to campus. Preston decided to take advantage of the down time.
"I don't have any film of myself," he said. "I asked coach for all our film, so I'm screen-recording on this bus ride all of my film. I get all the clips and send it to one of my friends back home. He sends it back with a mix."
"The fact he had the will, he wanted to do a little more. He did that on his own, man," Waterman said. "He got his buddy to clip it up. I said, 'Bring it to me, let me push it out to as many coaches as possible.' That's when a lot of other schools started calling. ... It was word of mouth."
Believe Prep Academy tweeted out the highlight video. Up until a couple weeks ago, Preston still had it as his pinned tweet.
Highlight of 6'5 PG Jason Preston!! Several D1 offers! @Treballjay11 pic.twitter.com/LOiYNMfa2P
— Believe Prep Academy (@BelievePrep) April 10, 2018
And although Georgia Tech was not interested in Preston, the meeting with Pastner would pay dividends. Waterman said Pastner called Will Ryan, son of former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan and then an assistant coach at Ohio (now the head coach at Green Bay), to suggest they start recruiting Preston, but the Bobcats didn't begin to heavily pursue Preston until the highlight reel showed up on Twitter. Longwood was another school that began to consistently talk to Preston following the video's emergence.
"They were both like, I loved seeing this film. We would love to get on a phone call with you, possibly get you on a visit here," Preston said. "I went on a visit to both schools, took about two weeks to decide. It was pretty late in the process, I didn't have much time to relax at home."
Even as a contributor at the Division I level, Preston's early career at Ohio had a familiar ring to the previous legs of his journey. He started 22 games as a freshman under Saul Phillips, but the school parted ways with Phillips after the 2018-19 season and hired Stony Brook head coach and Ohio alum Jeff Boals.
By that point, Waterman was an assistant coach at Wichita State and Preston could have transferred to the Shockers or elsewhere, but he wanted to remain loyal to the school that took a chance on him coming out of prep school -- and Boals wanted him to stay in Athens.
"Being an alum, I would watch a couple games when I could," Boals said. "When I got the job, I watched a few more games toward the end of the year. They started playing him on the ball the last eight games of the year, the offense moved better, had better flow. You could tell he had great vision, just by watching those last few games."
During the first offseason under Boals, Preston put on 20 pounds of muscle and stood at 6-foot-4 and nearly 190 pounds. But more than adding to his frame, Preston underwent a mentality change on the offensive end. Boals noticed it in the first three games of the season. In the opener against St. Bonaventure, Ohio was down to eight scholarship players due to injury and Preston played all 40 minutes, handing out 13 assists in a road win.
Eight days later, in a road game at Iona, Preston went in with the same mindset, looking to distribute. But the Gaels stayed tight to Ohio's wings on the perimeter, limiting Preston's passing options. After the first media timeout, Boals told Preston he needed to be more selfish on the offensive end.
"He's as good as any guard we've played since I've been here. He's got great athleticism, unbelievable demeanor on the court. ... He doesn't have a weakness."Illinois coach Brad Underwood on Preston
"Iona locked onto our wings, not letting us get 3-point shots. We were running our offense, [Preston was] getting into the paint whenever he wanted to, but he kept looking to pass the ball," Boals said. "I said, JP, you have to shoot. He's inherently pass-first, but he started shooting. You could see his confidence level go up."
Preston finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in another road win for Ohio.
Boals, who spent seven seasons as an assistant coach under Thad Matta at Ohio State before taking over at Stony Brook, compared Preston's vision to former Buckeyes stars Evan Turner and D'Angelo Russell. He also said, early on, Preston would get frustrated when teammates weren't in the right spot to receive a pass -- similar to how Turner would get back in college.
"I tried to tell Jason, people can't see what you see," Boals said. "He's never been the best player on a team."
Preston went from averaging 6.0 points per game as a freshman to putting up 16.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 7.4 assists as a sophomore in 2019-20. He began to surface on the national radar after several impressive performances last season, including a triple-double against Miami (Ohio) in early February, but perhaps his biggest breakout effort came in late November of this season.
Ohio's game at Illinois tipped off at 1 p.m. ET on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so much of the sports world was still nursing turkey hangovers and wanted nothing more than to sit on the couch and watch television. And Preston put on a show against All-American Ayo Dosunmu and the Fighting Illini's elite backcourt. He finished with 31 points, six rebounds, eight assists and zero turnovers, matching Dosunmu bucket for bucket and nearly willing Ohio to the upset win before falling 77-75.
"He's as good as any guard we've played since I've been here," Illinois coach Brad Underwood told ESPN. "He's got great athleticism, unbelievable demeanor on the court. ... He doesn't have a weakness. Great vision, he's a great passer, very good athleticism, deep range on his jump shot. He's got a lot of tools in his bag. Just a guy that elevates all of his teammates."
Back to the original question: What changed for Jason Preston since the time when he barely saw the court as a high school senior?
Aside from growing a few inches and adding strength and weight, he simply got the opportunity -- and the chance to consistently play basketball for the first time.
"How many guys are gonna take a chance on a 6-foot, 140-pound kid?" Boals said. "He's been through so much adversity, it made him who he is today. The only person he had was himself. A lot of college kids, they played varsity as a freshman and sophomore. It's almost like he's heading into his senior year of high school right now, from an experience standpoint."
More than his on-court performance, Preston's coaches focus on his personality, unselfishness and humble attitude -- none of which has changed, they say, despite the increased attention.
"One thing that sticks out is his appreciation for everything," Boals said. "No mom or dad to send him $20, talk to him about life situations. If he's sick, there's nobody to call. Anything you give him -- a meal, the gear he gets, an article to read -- he's just super appreciative."
"He was dedicated in the classroom, he worked," Martinson said. "Had he not gone on basketball-wise, he was going to major in journalism. He was never cussing, never hollering around the hallways. He is just a good person."
"I'm so happy for him to have the kind of respect he's getting. He's a hell of a player and an even better person," Waterman said.
"You're talking about a kid that would have been happy with Division II."
Preston's basketball journey didn't end at the D-II level -- but it might end in the NBA.
He gained the interest of a few teams as a sophomore, and his early-season showings this season have only boosted his stock. In ESPN's initial top 100 for the 2021 draft, Preston checked in at No. 69 overall, within reach of the second round, and the No. 16 point guard prospect in the draft.
"If he keeps progressing this whole year like he's been playing, he'll have a decision to make," Boals said.