MAGNOLIA — ESPN 4-star and Magnolia guard Derrian Ford signed his national letter of intent with Arkansas in front of several hundred supporters on Sunday.
Ford, 6-5, 205 pounds, had more than 20 scholarship offers from schools including Baylor, Kansas, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, LSU and others.
Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman and the program's family feel helped lure him to Fayetteville.
"Just like a family. It's just a family," Ford said. "I don't think there's another college that could've gotten me better than Arkansas. Arkansas is a place I feel at home and I'm comfortable. I'm excited about my decision."
He was named the Gatorade Arkansas Player of the Year and the Class 4A Player of the Year by the Arkansas Basketball Coaches Association after averaging 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists per game as a junior.
"I feel like I've put in a lot of hard work and I feel like I've become a better overall player," Ford said. "I feel like one area I could improve in is my help defense. My on-the-ball help defense and I feel that's just effort and I have a lot of effort in me."
ESPN also rates him the No. 13 shooting guard and No. 68 overall recruit in the nation for the 2022 class. He made an official visit to Fayetteville on June 1-3.
Paul Biancardi, the national recruiting coordinator for ESPN, is high on Ford.
"Another prospect who had an outstanding high school season," he said in an earlier interview. "He has displayed effectiveness both inside and beyond the arc with his jumper. He creates space well for himself and can read the floor and make the assist. He also earns a fair share of points from the free throw line at a good percentage."
The ceremony was held in the new $8 million state-of-the-art Magnolia Performing Arts Center. Seeing so many people from the community at his signing was humbling to Ford.
"It just shows the support I have. I am grateful for all the people that came out to share this moment with me," he said. "I don't think I could ever have another moment like this. I think this is as great as me actually making it to the NBA, because I won't see this moment again."
The starting time of the ceremony was listed as 5:03 p.m. Ford explained the reasoning for that.
"The three represents one God, one faith, one baptism, because (my family has) God in everything we do," Ford said. "The 5:03, I just had to put that in there, because that's very important to us."
Musselman and his staff have signed all five commitments to letters of intents in the past week. ESPN rates the class No. 3 nationally behind Kentucky and Duke.