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(This page from the Jan. 15, 2010, Steward School (Richmond, Virginia)-Richmond Christian School (Richmond, Virginia) boy’s junior varsity and varsity basketball games held in Richmond, Virginia!)

I went to see two players: Class of 2011 Adjehi Baru and Class of 2014 Joe Branin ,(he appears in the top two photos). The “hoopscooponline.com” rates Joe Branin among the top 75 players in the nation for the Class of 2014 Joe Branin is wearing jersey number 12 in both of the top two photos below!

Usually I only scout 10th-12th graders. However, as time goes on, college coaches are being paid higher and higher salaries, so they are scouting players at younger and younger ages. And also AAU basketball is becoming more and more popular with players, and at younger and younger ages. So scouting players at younger and younger ages has become more and more important in the world of college basketball recruiting.

The second player I came to scout today, Adjehi Baru, is shown in the rest of the photos on this page! He’s 6-9 and in the 11th grade: in other words, he’s a member of the high school Class of 2011. He transferred to Steward from Archbishop Carroll High in the Washington, D.C. area. As for Joe Branin, although he’s listed at 5-7, he appears to be headed to at least the 6-0 range. His older brother, who plays on the Steward varsity, is a 5-11 junior.

I left my house at 1:48 P.M. that Friday afternoon. On the radio, I listened to Charlottesville, Virginia’s radin station 1260AM, where a caller was calling in to the host on a political talk show. “I think you’re a good American and doing a very good job,” the caller told the host. Sure….okay!

At 1:58 P.M., I arrived at the 5th Street Market and got gas. On FoxSportsRadio (1400AM here in Charlottesville), Shaquille O’Neal was advertising a product and spoke: “No pain, no mess.” I listened to the North Carolina-Georgia Tech men’s basketball game on the radio on radio station WKAV 1400AM. The announcer yelled: “Virginia Tech takes the three-to-nothing lead!”

The junior varsity game started at 5:12 P.M. Joe Branin started off slowly, but you could tell in pre-game warmups that he was a polished player! Richmond Christian led 12-9 at the half. High school junior varsity basketball can be low-scoring! At the end of three quarters, Richmond Christian led 17-13 over Steward. Steward lost 27-22. I counted that Joe Branin had 7 points.

The varsity game started at 6:58 P.M. Adjehi Baru is a big-time prospect! This guy is an athlete, not just a 6-9 basketball player! He is co-ordinated, strong, and can jump! He’s a jumping-jack. He scored his first basket at the 5:56 mark of the first quarter, and it tied the game at 2-2. He had 4 points in the first quarter. Steward led 15-12 at the end of the first. Steward led 33-21 at the half. They won 61-41 and Adjehi Baru finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds. I drove home. I turned on the radio. The University of Virginia was playing the University of Miami, and winning 12-1!. At 8:39 I had stopped at a BP gas station. At 5:51 P.M. Virginia was ahead 23-12!

After the game, I headed out of Richmond. On the radio, the University of Virginia was beating the University of Miami in men’s basketball, 12-1. I stopped at a BP gas station and UVa was winning 23-12 at the 5:51 mark!

I was wondering why Top 10-in-the-nation rising senior 6-9 220 forward Vernon “Big Ticket” Macklin of Portmouth, Virginia I. C. Norcom High School, and outstanding rising senior combination 6-3 guard Stefan Welsh of two-time Group AAA basketball state champion Woodside High of Newport News, Virginia would both “break the mold” and head to Hargrave Military Academy of Chatham, Virginia instead of the nation’s top basketball program, Oak Hill Academy of Mouth-Of-Wilson, Virginia, for their senior years, so I emailed Stefan Welsh to ask him. Was it because he was going to play football for Hargrave in addition to basketball? After all, Oak Hill has no football team. He responded:

“Hello Mr. Kane , I have decided to transfer to Hargrave (I will be playing with the post-grad team under Coach Kevin Keats ) over Oak Hill for many reasons. They offered me a partial scholarship and Hargrave offered me a full. Coach Keats is a very good coach and we developed a good relationship. I think that I will be in a a more impact role at Hargrave. I took visits to both schools and then I felt Hargrave would a better situation for the both of us. I think that Hargrave will prepare me better to go be an impact player my freshman year of the college I choose. I will be surrounded with about 9 division 1 players. Will be one of the top teams in the country. I hope I answered all of your questions: feel free to drop an email anytime.”

Butch Keller, the basketball coach of 6-10 230 junior Mike Dejworek of The Steward School in Richmond, Virginia, says that “Mike Dejworek has sparked some interest by his play in the Porter Gaud Christmas Tourney in Charleston (South Carolina). Coastal Carolina (is interested in him)…Wofford is interested…Presbyterian has also shown interest…He is just on their radar screens. He is a legit 6-10 and has great feet and better than average hands.”

“He runs well but not anything like (former Steward and present College Of Charleston player) Ben Brown. He is averaging almost 14 ppg, over 10 rebounds and just under 3 blocks.”

New high schools opening in Virginia in September of 2005 are Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, VA (they’ll be known as the Falcons of the Group AA Dulles District); Freedom High School in South Riding, VA (they’ll be joining the Group AA Dulles District); South County High School, in Fairfax, VA (they’ll be joining the Group AAA Patriot District); and Mountain View High School of Fredericksburg, VA (they’ll be joining the Group AAA Commonwealth District).

The two Group AA schools, Briar Woods High and Freedom High, will be fielding independent JV football teams, not varsity football teams, in 2005-06. Then, they’ll be fielding independent varsity football teams in 2006-07. Finally, they’ll be fielding Dulles District varsity football teams in 2007-08.

Freedom High of South Riding, VA is not to be confused with another high school, Freedom High of Woodbridge, VA (a Group AAA school that competes in the Cardinal District).

I went to scout a player I had heard a lot about, 6-7 190 junior (he appears to play every position but point guard) David Jefferson of Norfolk, VA Lake Taylor High School. He was rated by the “HoopScoopOnline.com”as the nation’s number 165 player in the Class Of 2005, but is sure to move way up. Jefferson’s Lake Taylor Titans were blitzed by the Woodside High School Wolverines from Newport News, VA by a score of 102-75. The game was the second of a double-header in the Eastern Region Boy’s High School Basketball Tournament, held at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Virginia.

David Jefferson is as good as advertised, and is a sure ACC-caliber prospect. He has a beautiful jump shot, something that is rare to see these days, when every player who can hit the backboard considers himself to be a three-point shooter. He can sprint up and down the court, block shots, and put the ball on the floor. His only weakness is that his chest, not his arms, is thin, but that can be corrected with a few years of weight-lifting.

David Jefferson wears number 33 for Lake Taylor. He scored 22 points, but his team was run off of the court from the outset, falling behind 33-14 after the first 8-minute quarter. Finally, toward the end of the game, exasperated with a no-call, he didn’t bother to run back on defense, and instead shouted at the nearby official. No matter. He’s a fine prospect, and has the kind of young body that suggests that he’s not done growing yet.

For Woodside High School, 6-2 185 sophomore point guard Stefan Welsh is, in the words of the sportswriter Kyle Tucker of “The Virginian-Pilot,” ‘unbelievable.’ At least in this game, Welsh was. Welsh scored 40 points, 22 in the first half, and showed why he will be a high school All-American by his senior year. Welsh wears number 14 for Woodside, and will in all likelihood be the last number 14 to wear it once this sophomore finishes his terrific career and the school retires it. He had 6 three-pointers, drove by his defender(s) at will, and could have scored 50 had his coach played him more.

The other guard for Woodside High, 6-1 junior Calvin Baker , scored 27 points despite foul trouble, and is a great high school player in his own right. According to sportswriter Michael C. Wright of the Newport News ‘Daily Press,’ both Calvin Baker and Stefan Welsh even lived together for awhile while Baker’s mother shopped for a house in the Woodside High School district when he transferred there from Phoebus High of Hampton, VA.

For whatever reason, Calvin Baker is not being heavily recruited, possibly because his three-point shot is mostly a set shot, but Baker can certainly play at the ACC level. He has an extremely soft shot, is never in a hurry, and the twosome of Baker and Welsh are the best public-school backcourt I’ve seen in Virginia since NBA All-Star Allen Iverson and eventual Wake Forest University starting guard Tony Rutland were both starring at Bethel High in Hampton, Virginia.

It appears that 6-6 junior forward Willie Bell , who scored 17 points for Woodside High, is also a Division 1 prospect. He can jump and run also, although I don’t consider him a big-time player, just a Division 1-caliber player. David Jefferson was wearing white shoes with a red sold and stripe up the back, a white uniform with a thick red stripe up the side, a red warm-up jacket, and his jersey said “LAKE TAYLOR,” across the front. His team is all African-American, as are all of the Lake Taylor High School cheerleaders. Churchland High is a big school with a large gym that’s big enough to be a college gym. Every seat in the gym appeared to be taken during the second game, so I’d say about 4,000 people were there. It says “CHURCHLAND TRUCKERS” on the baseline at the ends of the court, the gym is comprised of orange benches, it has 3 practice baskets on each side of the court, and dozens of square and rectangular banners that hang in rows from the ceilings. These aren’t athletic banners, but appear to be for decoration. The ceiling of the gym is intricate-looking, with an endless amount of metal holding up the roof. It’s a great-looking gym, and a perfect place to hold a regional tournament. Now if Churchland High would only spare a dime to buy soap for the men’s room.

In the first game of the night, Granby High of Norfolk, VA played rival Maury High of Norfolk. As I go to these games basically to scout underclassmen, a player who immediately caught my eye was 6-6 junior forward Terrance Woodbury of Granby High. Woodbury, wearing number 32 in above-left photo, is a great athlete. His team played a poor game and lost 69-49. He only scored 7 points, but you can see that the talent is there. He came in to the game averaging 16 points-per-game. He appears to be a “tall” 6-6, and weighs about 210. He can make a snappy pass when necessary, can put the ball on the floor while closely guarded, and looks like a future Division 1 player to me. ACC-caliber? Too soon to tell. He has thick calf muscles, which are a sign of a frontcourt player who has promise.

Maury High School had no underclassmen who impressed me. Their star is 6-5 (looks about 6-6) string bean Bryant Wiggins , who appears to be a Division 1 prospect. He’s a real slam-dunker, but thin 6-6 players don’t get to dunk in major college basketball. As former Marquette head basketball coach Al McGuire once said, high school coaches who play 6-5 guys inside around the basket are hurting the player’s chance for a Division 1 scholarship, but I realize that if the 6-5 guy is the tallest quality player on a team, the high school coach owes it to his school to try to win. Physically, Bryant Wiggins looks exactly like North Carolina State All-American Julius Hodge, but he’s strictly an inside player. However, with his great leaping ability, he has the potential to improve in college. According to sports writer Larry Rumbamba in the “Virginian-Pilot” newspaper, Bryant Wiggins has received recruiting interest mostly from Virginia Tech, George Mason, Old Dominion, and Delaware. He has a cousin who is one of the nation’s best female collegiate point guards, who plays women’s basketball for West Virginia. He averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds as a junior on a 25-4 state semi-finalist, but had some academic troubles as a freshman at Maury, so he spent his sophomore season at Coastal Christian School of Virginia Beach. Bryant Wigginswas unstoppable, and even Woodbury couldn’t stop him from dunking. I also was able to observe Granby High’s star junior football quarterback Bobby Rome , who I’ve already seen play football, play some basketball. He’s powerful and although listed at 6-1, looks about 5-11 215. He was wearing dark blue socks. He didn’t play a lot, but he’s not a basketball player anyway, just a football player, and reportedly a very good one.

Granby High wore white uniforms with thick blue stipes on the sides, blue numerals on their jerseys, white shoes with black laces, and Woodbury wore white socks. Maury High wore orange uniforms with black stripes down the sides, yellow/white numerals on their jersye, and white warm-up tops. The crowd around me went bonkers each time Bryant Wiggins of Maury slammed one, and eventually drew a technical foul for celebrating on the out-of-bounds area after one 4th-quarter dunk. After these wins, Maury High is now 23-3 and Woodside High is now 25-3.