December 26, 2008
    I was in Danville, VA on Friday night, at Averett University's "E. Stuart James Grant Convocation and Athletic Center" Large school (Group AAA) George Washington High School of Danville, Virginia was playing small school (Group A) Gretna (Virginia) High School basketball game. The game was part of the "26th annual Register & Bee (newspaper's)Holiday Shootout." George Washington High, also known as G.W.-Danville, has a long history of having produced good athletic teams, and is a basketball power. I was here to see George Washington High's publicized 6-8 tenth-grade forward C. J. Barksdale (who wears jersey number 42) and another college prospect, 6-4 Paul Stone (seen wearing number 45 below), but I learned they also have another player to watch: 6-8 fellow sophomore Daniel Clark(who wears jersey number 30).

    Daniel Clark had a nice dunk in the first period. GW-Danville (as they are always called) slaughtered this team, jumping out to a 30-6 lead. The halftime score was 46-22. Daniel Clark didn't touch the ball a lot. He made a nice driving layup from the left side of the lane (if you were standing behind that basket) to make the score 61-26 in the third quarter. It could have been much worse, but the G.W. Danville Eagles played their startersonly about half of the game. They won 85-48.

    I expect to see C. J. Barksdale in the NBA one day. He reminds me of NBA star Kevin Durant : we're talking about a high school version however, okay? I saw Kevin Durant Kevin Durant play for Oak Hill Academy when he was in the 11th grade and he was many times better than C. J. Barksdale , but I'm saying that based on body type and style, not talent, there are close similarities! Interestingly-enough, in the game right before the G.W. Danville-Gretna game, Lynchburg Christian edged Reidsville (North Carolina) High School 50-45. The only reason I found this of interest is because Lynchburg Christian has a junior football quarterback who also plays basketball, by the name of Mike Rocco He showed athletic talent here and finished with 9 points. The Roanoke Times recently rated him number 48 in their list of the states stop juniors (members of the high school Class of 2010.) He has many relatives who were big-time college quarterbacks.

    December 22, 2008
    The fun of scouting college basketball/football prospects is getting out of Charlottesville and away from the internet to see these players myself instead of just reading about them. However, I had a terrible cold! So, due to that and the fact that there almost no high school games around the state of Virginia anyway, I decided to go see a local player play. He's a 6-7 215 junior (Class of 2010) named Cameron Anderson (he's wearing number 35 in the red jerseys in the three photos in this article) , who plays for Albemarle County High School here in Charlottesville, Virginia. Albemarle County High School is located about 4 miles from the University of Virginia campus. Cameron Anderson's appearance reminds me somewhat of former UCLA All-American Ed O'Bannon, for those who can remember him. According to "cvasports.com" "At 6-7, Albemarle High's Cameron Anderson has a ton of intrigue and upside."

   Albemarle County High School, which is a Group AAA (the largest high schools in Virginia) was on the road playing a Group AA school, Monticello High, a cross-town rival about 10 miles-away. One of the odd things about this gym is that the visiting fans are placed on a side of the court with bleachers that only stretch out to about 20 feet from the court. It's crazy. Haha! It's like trying to watch a game with a court inbetween the court you're trying to watch! So I sat on the home side. The Mustangs (see above photo) of Monticello County High have no college basketball prospects, yet this was a game that went down to the very end. Monticello won a very low-scoring contest 47-46. Cameron Anderson had 9 points, 14 rebounds, and blocked 3 shots. Cameron Anderson had 6 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in the first quarter, which ended with Monticello ahead 8-7, but the action slowed to an extremely lost scoring pace after that. Clearly, this was not high school basketball at it's best. Cameron Anderson is presently being recruited by mid-major programs. He can hit the three-pointer and mid-range jump shot, block shots, play with his back to the basket, throw outlet passes, and pass the ball from the high post and from inside. I can not tell at this point whether he can handle the ball. Considering the need for talent on the University of Virginia's basketball team, it would not shock me at all to see him in a Cavalier uniform one day! He may still be growing.

    December 16, 2008
    I drove 120 miles from Charlottesville, Virginia to Christchurch, VA (north of Richmond, Virginia) to see Mike Gbinije play. He's a 6-5 180 member of the high school Class of 2011 (presently a sophomore) who is already nationally-recruited. However, he was sitting on the far end of the bench in street clothes, including a black t-shirt. A scorekeeper told me that he's had sore knees. So, he wasn't able to play, although he had played well in Christchurch's last game, a win 3 days ago. However, there was another player there who I was just as interested in seeing play: Austin Colbert. He's an EIGHTH-GRADER (a member of the Class of 2013!) who could be a future NBA player one day. He's listed at 6-8 and dunked the ball behind his head in pre-game warmups. Finally, a third player I was able to see play was 6-3 point guard/shooting guard James Ford, (who hails from Hopewell, Virginia) a player I had seen play as a 7th-grader two years-ago for a high school in Richmond: Evangel Christian.

   Christchurch is a very old private school, where white is the main school color. The "wild, loud, rowdy, Duke-student-section-type" student body all dressed in white for the home game: long underwear, t-shirts, etc. James Ford had nine points in this game. He hit a 3-pointer to give Christchurch an 8-5 lead in the first quarter. Christchurch led 12-7 at the end of the low-scoring period. Austin Colbert came in off of the bench at the 2:52 mark. He would have come in earlier, but he was wearing a white t-shirt under his jersey and had to take it off: a t-shirt has to be the same color as a jersey. He made a basket and then a very nice pass to a teammate: assist. Then he blocked a shot and kept it inbounds. Quickly after, he smashed another shot out of bounds, bringing a gasp from the home crowd!

    Norfolk Collegiate continued it's fine play with some blazing outside shooting and the home crowd fell silent as Christchurch trailed 35-27 at halftime. Austin Colbert made a nice jump shot from the side for 2 of his 5 points on the night. What impressed me about him is that he always was prepared to catch the ball, even on unexpected passes, and he always showed good hands and co-ordinated moves. He's not a big man who "needs to work on his hands": players like that never seem to improve having bad hands. Austin Colbert wore jersey number 33 (like former Georgetown All-American Alonzo Mourning, a player he recently met?) James Ford wore jersey number 15. After three periods, Norfolk Collegiate led 45-44, and won 64-57. Maybe the absence of Mike Gbinije hurt Christchurch: maybe it didn't. On the other hand, if Mike Gbinije had played and done well, maybe Austin Colbert would have played more and Norfolk Collegiate still would have won. Norfolk Collegiate is the kind of place that people send their kids to prepare them for life at an Ivy League-type university. The tiny football stadium had stands that appeared to seat no more than 20 people. It was raining. As often happens, the only store near the campus was a 7-11. I ate there. I'm getting used to the "menu" at 7-11's!

    December 9, 2008
    There was a player I had been reading about on "www.roanoke.com" for a couple of years: his name is Josh Henderson, and he attends the same high school that has produced recent Duke University collegiate basketball "National Player-Of-The-Year" J. J. Redick. Josh Henderson is an 11th-grader: in other words, he is a member of the "Class of 2011." He is listed on websites as being anywhere from 6-8 to 6-10, but in the Roanoke, Virginia Cave Spring High School basketball program, he's listed at 6-11. He's certainly at least 6-10, if you compare him to the 6-8 player on the Cave Spring roster. Cave Spring High School is a Group AA (medium-sized high schools in Virginia) school.

   Physically, Josh Henderson looks exactly like another former Duke All-American: long-time NBA player Christian Laettner. That may be all you need to know about his recruitment, if Duke decides one day that they want him. How many times has UVa out-recruited Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyewski for a player from the state of Virginia? There's only one player that I can think of that Coach K is 100% sure to have offered a scholarship to from the state of Virginia, who he wanted, and who went to UVa: NBA player Bryant Stith. Anyway, this wasn't a good night for scouting Josh Henderson. His teammates threw up a lot of outside shots, he's about as unselfish a player as a high school star can be, and he scored four points before leaving the game in the second quarter after being hit in the knee. He spent the rest of the evening with an ice bag attached to his knee! But make no mistake about it: his team is only going as far as Josh Henderson takes it. It's "his" team, so he needs to be thrown the ball more.

   He's an all-around player. He blocks shots, rebounds, takes charges, is a good passer, etc. I didn't see any weaknesses. Another player I noticed was Cave Spring High School's All-River Ridge District tight end Erik Jacobsen, a 6-4 190 football prospect for at least the Football Championship Subdivision (Division 1-AA) who wears jersey number 12 in both basketball and football. He seems like an outstanding athlete. Anyway, the junior varsity game ended, and immediately the junior varsity boy's team, instead of leaving the gym, lined up with the cheerleaders to form two lines for the varsity boy's team to run through. Now that's self-discipline! How many other boy's junior varsity teams would be willing to do that?

   Within 60 seconds, the varsity team came running through. The game started soon, and it became obvious that Josh Henderson was not going to be passed the ball. Not sure why. Is their game plan not to build their offense around him? Had he been having knee problems due to the fact that he apparently keeps growing each year? Hopefully not. He's a great prospect. It was too bad. Early in the game, he got his hands on passes on defense on two seperate occasions. He grabbed an offensive rebound at the 5:58 point of the first quarter. He drew a charge at the 5:44 mark. At the 5:21 mark, he got a defensive rebound. Then, he blocked a shot at the 5:19 point. Josh Henderson grabbed another defensive rebound at the 4:15 point of the first period. Finally, he scored at the 3:42 mark of the first quarter. Cave Spring High School was winning easily: at the 2:50 point, they were ahead 12-2. They stretched their lead to 20-4 when the scoreboard read 6:20 to go in the first half. Josh Henderson made a great play soon, racing ahead of the defense, catching a well-thrown pass, and slamming home a two-handed dunk that drew a roar from the home crowd. But with under two minutes to play, he was hit on the knee, and he went to the bench. He never returned to the game. His team led 33-10 at the half. They won 62-34 as they connected on a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

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