Aaron Nesmith

Aaron Joshua Nesmith was born Oct. 16, 1999 in Charleston, South Carolina. He is the son of Benard and Erine Nesmith. He has a brother, Eddie, who attended Harvard and plans to go to medical school. Nesmith's advice to young people is to "Always work hard and give that little extra effort when your peers are not." For high school, he attended Porter-Gaud in Charleston and was first called up to the varsity basketball team as an eighth-grader. During his time at Porter-Gaud, he led the team to three Class 3A state championships. As a senior, he was named South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. For college, Nesmith attended Vanderbilt for two seasons and studied human and organizational development. Before suffering a season-ending injury in his sophomore season, Nesmith was on pace to have one of the best three-point shooting campaigns in college basketball history, converting 52.2 percent of his shots from distance. Nesmith was an immediate contributor at Vanderbilt in his freshman season, appearing in a total of 32 contests and averaging 11.0 PPG. He made his first start of the 2018-19 season Jan. 9 against Georgia, and through the remaining 19 games, he averaged 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds. His season high of 26 points came Feb. 13 against Florida, and he put up 24 points and 14 rebounds in the very next game against Auburn. Nesmith picked up right where he left off in his sophomore season, averaging 23.0 points in the first 14 games to place himself among the nation's top scorers. He set a new career high with 34 points against Richmond on Nov. 14 and later matched that total against UNC-Wilmington on Dec. 21. His season unfortunately ended due to a foot injury in January that cost him Vanderbilt's final 18 games. The 6-6 wing had been shooting 52.2 percent from beyond the arc prior to the injury -- a skill that drew the attention of NBA scouts. He officially turned pro in late-March.