Tyrin Lawrence Returns To Georgia For Graduate Season
ATHENS, Ga. — Tyrin Lawrence, the 2019 Georgia Class 3A Player of the Year at Morgan County High School and a 1,000-point career scorer at Vanderbilt, will return to his home state and play for the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2024-25 campaign. Head coach Mike White announced Lawrence’s signing on Tuesday.
A 6-4, 200-pound guard from Monticello, Ga., Lawrence started 79 of 104 games played for Vanderbilt over the past four seasons, including 61 of 63 contests as a junior and senior. He wrapped up his career with the Commodores with exactly 1,000 points (9.6 ppg) as well as 385 rebounds, 134 assists and 96 steals. Lawrence notched 47 double-figure scoring outputs, including 14 20-point performances, with a career-high 25 points against Yale in the opening round of the 2023 NIT.
Lawrence averaged 13.1 ppg in 2022-23. Last season, he upped those contributions to 14.1 ppg overall and a team-high 14.6 ppg in SEC action. Lawrence was a standout in the classroom as well, earning SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition in 2021, 2023 and 2024 and graduating as a double major in Human and Organizational Development & Sociology.
Lawrence capped his high school career by leading Morgan County to the Georgia 3A state title as a senior in 2019. The Bulldogs finished 30-2 that season, headlining a three-year run when MCHS was a combined 84-10 and also finished as state runner-up in 2017 and reached the semifinals of the 2018 state tourney. Lawrence was twice named all-state by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, earning first-team honors in 2019 after being a second-team selection in 2018.
Lawrence also played a postgraduate season at Sunrise Christian Academy, where he was part of a class that sent seven players to Division I programs.
Lawrence is the seventh newcomer set to join Georgia’s roster for the 2024-25 season. That group includes a pair of top-50 prep prospects in the Class of 2024 and five transfers. The Bulldogs’ combined recruiting class is currently ranked No. 15 nationally by 247Sports.com.
The class of newcomers includes:
• Frank Abson, a 6-9, 235-pound junior forward from Pompano Beach, Fla., who was named the 2024 Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year after finishing No. 4 nationally in blocked shots last season at Appalachian State.
• Somto Cyril, a 6-10, 252-pound freshman center originally from Enugu, Nigeria, who has played with the Overtime Elite program in Atlanta for the past two seasons. He is ranked as high as the No. 42 recruit nationally by On3.com.
• RJ Godfrey, a 6-8, 228-pound junior forward from Suwanee, Ga., who was a two-time first-team all-state honoree at North Gwinnett High School and helped Clemson reach the “Elite Eight” of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
• Dakota Leffew, a 6-5, 185-pound graduate guard from Jonesboro, Ga., who earned first-team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) honors last season as a senior at Mount St. Mary’s.
• De’Shayne Montgomery, a 6-4, 190-pound sophomore guard from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who won 2024 MAAC Rookie of the Year accolades also playing for Mount St. Mary’s during 2023-24.
• Asa Newell, a 6-10, 215-pound freshman forward from Destin, Fla., who was ranked as the No. 12 prospect in Class of 2024 by ESPN.com, making him the Bulldogs’ second-highest ESPN recruit ever behind only Anthony Edwards.
The 2024-25 season will be White’s third with the Bulldogs. Each of his first two teams showed significant improvement. Georgia upped its regular-season win total from the 2021-22 season by 10 victories in 2022-23, the second-largest increase of any Power 6 program. The Bulldogs advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 NIT en route to their first 20-win effort since 2016.
