How Ole Miss’ Jaemyn Brakefield is using NIL to strengthen bond with ‘little brother’
ATLANTA – Playing in the NCAA Tournament is one of the main reasons Jaemyn Brakefield returned to Ole Miss. The fifth-year senior and four-year player for the Rebels is second on the team in scoring at 11.1 points per game, helping the program to its first March Madness appearance since 2019 and first Sweet 16 since 2001. No. 6 seed Ole Miss plays No. 2 seed Michigan State in Atlanta on Friday.
But there was another benefit to Brakefield’s return. Last spring, Brakefield moved his “little brother” Brandon Hill to live with him in Oxford, Mississippi. Hill, 16, is actually the nephew of Arkell Bruce, Brakefield’s high school coach at Huntington Prep in West Virginia. Hill used to hang around the team when Brakefield was in school, developing a brotherly bond.
The two have been close since. After he inked a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal that kept him with the Rebels for his final college season, Brakefield asked Hill to come stay with him. Both grew up in single-parent homes, and Brakefield saw an opportunity to give Hill a different path and perspective.
“Being able to change his life and move him out of the situation that he was in and move him to Oxford and be like the father figure for him, it’s been great,” Brakefield said Thursday. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be able to do that without NIL.”
Hill is enrolled in Oxford High School, works out with Brakefield before class in the morning and has become a constant presence around the Ole Miss practice facility.
“Mississippi is just a way better environment (for me) than West Virginia,” Hill told CBS Sports for an article in January. “In West Virginia, there’s nothing to get into besides trouble, really. It’s just, like, a bad environment. So I just wanted to come here and get a fresh start.”
Brakefield, who had similar mentors growing up in Wisconsin and then Huntington, understands there are mixed opinions on NIL and its impact on the sport in recent years. But he holds up his own experience as a positive, life-changing example – for himself and Hill.
“I kind of see myself in him a lot,” Brakefield said of Hill. “We’ve been able to build a bond. … It’s been a great road.”
A former four-star recruit, Brakefield spent his freshman year at Duke, on the only Blue Devils team to miss the NCAA Tournament since 1995. The 6-foot-8 forward was a regular starter through his first three years at Ole Miss but embraced a different role this season, coming off the bench as a sixth man.
That depth and versatility has been critical for the Rebels down the stretch, including 16 points in a must-have win over Oklahoma on March 1 and a game-high 19 points in a win over then-No. 4 Tennessee a few days later. Brakefield had 12 points against North Carolina in the first round and 19 against Iowa State in the Round of 32.
“It’s about getting the right guys back,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said Thursday, when asked how continuity and culture have boosted this year’s roster. “It gives you a real advantage.”
Enough to get the Rebels to the second weekend for the first time in almost 25 years. Hill will be in Atlanta to witness it, too.
“He’ll be at the Sweet 16,” Brakefield said.