February 17, 2009
This week’s game I traveled to was played at Deep Run High School of Glen Allen, Virginia, and they were the host team, playing against visiting Hermitage High, from Richmond, Virginia. The gym was easy to watch a game in, compared to many gyms I’ve been in! A sign on the wall read, “Welcome to Wildcat country, where pride runs deep.” The game was a first-round Colonial District game. Before the game, Thomas Jefferson High School of Richmond, Virginia played the Deep Run High’s girls’ team and was routed. At the game, various high school and AAU coaches were sitting behind me in the stands. On my car dashboard, I have a printed out list of the mileage markers that are on the way from Charlottesville, Virginia to Richmond, and what are at certain ones: gas stations, rest areas, restaurants, etc. I take this route often to scout players!
The player I drove 70 miles from my house in Charlottesville, Virginia to see was Hermitage’s 6-0 180 freshman (!) Class of 2012 point guard Micah Thomas. He is shown wearing jersey number 10 in the photos here. I had read about Micah Thomas first on this website: the “Elite 75 Prep High School Exposure Camp,” when I was checking to see if there were any high school freshmen to scout in the state of Virginia this season! One player he was matched up against was Virginia Tech football-signee Antone Exum. I knew that Antone Exum was a great athlete. But I didn’t know that he was this outstanding a basketball player! Antone Exum has the physique of an NBA player. He seemed to weigh twice whatever Micah Thomas weighed, and was just as quick, maybe quicker! I’ve never seen him play football, but he may have a better future if he plays basketball for Virginia Tech!
Antone Exum pretty much did anything he wanted, from anywhere on the court, at any time! He’s an intimidator from the guard position. “ESPN.com” rates him the #144 basketball player in the country this year, so he may be more highly-ranked as a basketball prospect than as a high school football player! What an awesome athlete for a basketball backcourtman! At the end of the first quarter, Hermitage led 15-13. But it was all downhill for Hermitage from there. Micah Thomas burned Antone Exum for 7 quick points to begin the game, which is how Hermitage got their quick lead. But things changed. Still, Micah Thomas is a fearless player who has all of the skills. But he needs to develop a three-point jump shot: his shot from that distance is a set shot. It does go in, but in order to play big-time college basketball, he’ll have to convert that in to a jump shot.
At the half, Deep Run led 36-25. At the end of three periods, Deep Run led 54-47. They won, 77-65, but it wasn’t that close for most of the second half. Micah Thomas finished with 28 points, although I didn’t have him for that many in my informal statistics. Antone Exum had 21 points for Deep Run High. Both schools’ records were an identical 13-10 after the game.
