2025 Nike EYBL Peach Jam MVP JJ Andrews on Leading Bradley Beal Elite Back to Championship Glory

Last summer, Bradley Beal Elite got a taste of glory with an E16 championship. This year, they reached the pinnacle. In grassroots basketball, nothing looms larger than Peach Jam. And now, JJ Andrews, along with his BBE brethren, sit at the summit.

With a peach-filled trophy in one hand and MVP honors to go along with it, JJ has cemented one of the most decorated EYBL runs in the history of the circuit. The 6-7 five-star prospect from Little Rock, AR, just led BBE to its second Nike EYBL Peach Jam title, a 75–55 win over New York Renaissance. JJ delivered a brilliant performance—20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists—setting the tone on both ends and leaving no doubt who the best player on the floor was.

“Winning Peach Jam on 16U was cool. It was definitely a blessing, I won’t even lie to you,” he tells SLAM in a sitdown interview moments after the game. “But we all had to refresh and forget about what happened last season and move on to this season.”

A glance at the box scores from their week in North Augusta might lead you to believe that BBE’s path to the Peach Jam crown was seamless. At times, they made it look that way, but don’t let the margins fool you, nothing about their run was easy. In a tournament loaded with future pros, projected NBA stars and rosters flushed top to bottom with DI talent, BBE grinded through the week with just seven players—and, at one point, only six. They had no cushion. No margin for error. But most importantly, no excuses. “We couldn’t feel sorry for ourselves; we had to push through,” JJ says. 

What carried them through, more than anything, was JJ’s growth as a leader, a trait he credits as his biggest evolution since last summer’s title run. 

“I tried to lead by example a lot last year, but I didn’t talk as much as I needed to. So this year, I just had to take my leadership to another level,” he says.

That kind of maturity isn’t new for him, though. Back home at Little Rock Christian Academy, he’s been that guy for a minute. He’s the face of the program. And quite honestly, he’s the face of Arkansas basketball. He’s embraced the responsibility that comes with being a star in his city, and instead of taking his talents elsewhere, he’s decided to stay right where it started. After his upcoming senior season, JJ will suit up for Coach John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks, keeping his homegrown dream. 

At just 17, Andrews has already built a résumé that reads like a seasoned college vet: two-time state champion, three-time all-conference, three-time all-state, MaxPreps All-American, Gatorade Arkansas Boys Basketball Player of the Year, and now, two-time Peach Jam champion and 2025 Peach Jam MVP. JJ is on a fast track, and if he keeps on this path, he might not be in college long enough to add a ton of college awards to that résumé.

And yet, individual accolades alone don’t capture the full essence of his impact on a program’s culture. While JJ’s game commands the attention of coaches, fans, NBA scouts, and really anyone who’s caught a glimpse of him in action, it’s his infectious spirit—his ability to uplift, to lead, to will people with him—that leaves the deepest imprint. 

His eagerness to put the work in is the foundation of his basketball prowess. It’d be easy to look at his trophy case, the hundreds of social media posts admiring his greatness and feed into the much-deserved hype machine behind his success thus far. But not JJ. He’s focused on growth. 

“You want to be in the moment and celebrate and be with your family and all that. But I mean, after that, it’s right back to work,” he says. “I got a few more camps to finish out this summer, and I got a high school season to finish off as a senior—and I plan on making the McDonald’s All-American game as well. So I gotta continue to stay working and stick with it.”

The way he’s trending, it feels less like a dream and more like destiny.

In a grassroots culture that oftentimes rewards flash over substance, JJ Andrews is built differently and stands out for all the right reasons. He’s a student of the game, a worker, and above all else, a winner. “Being on a winning team that wins championships, that’ll carry over to college, and in the League as well,” he says. “I plan on building that in Arkansas and continuing to build my legacy as a winner.”

But for JJ, winning goes beyond what happens between the lines.

“I’m just a person that really wants to win,” he continues, not only on the court, but off the court as well. “I want to see others around me win as well, like my family, friends, my teammates, who I consider my brothers. I just want to see everybody win and help bring people along with me as we succeed.”

So, when JJ thinks about how he and his Brad Beal Elite squad will be remembered a decade from now—after back-to-back Peach Jam titles—his answer is simple.“I hope they say that I’m a winner. I mean, you can’t say that I don’t win, and that I don’t have winning qualities, and that my teammates don’t have winning qualities as well,” he says. “Looking back 10 years from now, we’re always going to remember this, and you know, I want people to remember that we pushed through adversity only having seven players, and we found a way to win.”

Portraits by Zach Wolfe.

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