	January 16, 2009 3 miles north of the North Carolina/Virginia border: that's where I was tonight. I was at Magna Vista High School (a Group AA medium-sized high school) located in Ridgeway, Virginia, which is near Martinsville, Virginia. I was there to see a high school freshman basketball player named Shaquille Patterson of Magna Vista. Shaquille Patterson is a member of the high school Class of 2012 and being recruited by Atlantic Coast Conference colleges. His Magna Vista High School Warriors were playing at home against the Martinsville High School Bulldogs. At one time, Martinsville High was considered the best Group AA basketball program in Virginia, but that was back in the 1980's. This was a long, long ride from where I live near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. First I had to drive 130 miles south to Danville, Virginia. Then, it was about 30 miles west until I finally got to Ridgeway, Virginia. Shaquille Patterson has a lot of potential. He's listed at 6-4 190, and might be closer to 6-3. He plays small forward in high school. He dribbles well and has a nice outside shot, but he really is more of a low-post/mid-range player. Shaquille Patterson wears jersey number 24 in the photos in this article. It was in the low-20's, which is cold for the state of Virginia, and was predicted to get in to the single-digits that night. I noticed a number of University of North Carolina fans at this game, wearing their Carolina blue. I didn't know if they were there to see Martinsville High or Shaquille Patterson play. I try to make my website different by talking about some non-basketball things. So, here's the time it took to go to this game. I left Charlottesville at 12:50 P.M. on Friday. At 2:11 I was in Amherst, VA. At 3:25 P.M., I was in Chatham, Virginia on Route 29 South, where I heard station 1000AM, the CNN all-news station. By 4:23 P.M. I was 3 miles east of Martinsville, VA. The game started at 7:40 P.M. I left the game and was in Danville, VA at 10 P.M. In Danville I could hear radio stations from the state of North Carolina. students. I was in Lynchburg, VA on Route 29 North at 11:30 P.M. I got home at 1:15 A.M. on Saturday! In this part of Virginia near the NC/VA border, high school basketball is taken very seriously. In front of a roaring crowd, Magna Vista defeated Martinsville 49-46 in the junior varsity game. Shaquille Patterson started off well. He missed the opening shot of the game, but grabbed the rebound and scored. In the first half, he had 8 points and 5 rebounds, but his team trailed 29-19. He had hit on 4 out of 8 field goal attempts. However, for the rest of the game, his team made no attempt to get him the ball. As a result, Martinsville won, 68-53. Martinsville basically ran a layup drill against Magna Vista High, which was playing without it's injured point guard. Games like this often result in a star player transferring to a private high school. Hopefully Shaquille Patterson won't do this, because I think it's a big mistake for a player to do it. At a private high school, players don't get the individual attention they do playing for their local public school. Plus, what do they gain by playing another private school and winning by 70 points? If they don't play much, I think they actually regress at private schools. He should stay for 4 years at Magna Vista, in my opinion. Shaquille Patterson finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Magna Vista fell to 7-5. Martinsville team went to 9-5, but 3 of their losses have been to Group AAA (the larger classification in Virginia) high schools. On a side note, this high school had the strangest set-up I've ever seen for basketball. Although it did have three parallel basketball courts, the main middle court was surrounded by a double-railing, which blocked the view of spectators. This may have been because the side basketball courts were elevated, and the idea was to use the railing to prevent players from falling off of the outer courts. Who wants to watch high school basketball like this? Haha.

    January 16, 2009
    3 miles north of the North Carolina/Virginia border: that's where I was tonight. I was at Magna Vista High School (a Group AA medium-sized high school) located in Ridgeway, Virginia, which is near Martinsville, Virginia. I was there to see a high school freshman basketball player named Shaquille Patterson of Magna Vista. Shaquille Patterson is a member of the high school Class of 2012 and being recruited by Atlantic Coast Conference colleges. His Magna Vista High School Warriors were playing at home against the Martinsville High School Bulldogs. At one time, Martinsville High was considered the best Group AA basketball program in Virginia, but that was back in the 1980's. This was a long, long ride from where I live near the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. First I had to drive 130 miles south to Danville, Virginia. Then, it was about 30 miles west until I finally got to Ridgeway, Virginia. Shaquille Patterson has a lot of potential. He's listed at 6-4 190, and might be closer to 6-3. He plays small forward in high school. He dribbles well and has a nice outside shot, but he really is more of a low-post/mid-range player.

    Shaquille Patterson wears jersey number 24 in the photos in this article. It was in the low-20's, which is cold for the state of Virginia, and was predicted to get in to the single-digits that night. I noticed a number of University of North Carolina fans at this game, wearing their Carolina blue. I didn't know if they were there to see Martinsville High or Shaquille Patterson play. I try to make my website different by talking about some non-basketball things. So, here's the time it took to go to this game. I left Charlottesville at 12:50 P.M. on Friday. At 2:11 I was in Amherst, VA. At 3:25 P.M., I was in Chatham, Virginia on Route 29 South, where I heard station 1000AM, the CNN all-news station. By 4:23 P.M. I was 3 miles east of Martinsville, VA. The game started at 7:40 P.M. I left the game and was in Danville, VA at 10 P.M. In Danville I could hear radio stations from the state of North Carolina. students. I was in Lynchburg, VA on Route 29 North at 11:30 P.M. I got home at 1:15 A.M. on Saturday!

   In this part of Virginia near the NC/VA border, high school basketball is taken very seriously. In front of a roaring crowd, Magna Vista defeated Martinsville 49-46 in the junior varsity game. Shaquille Patterson started off well. He missed the opening shot of the game, but grabbed the rebound and scored. In the first half, he had 8 points and 5 rebounds, but his team trailed 29-19. He had hit on 4 out of 8 field goal attempts. However, for the rest of the game, his team made no attempt to get him the ball. As a result, Martinsville won, 68-53. Martinsville basically ran a layup drill against Magna Vista High, which was playing without it's injured point guard. Games like this often result in a star player transferring to a private high school. Hopefully Shaquille Patterson won't do this, because I think it's a big mistake for a player to do it. At a private high school, players don't get the individual attention they do playing for their local public school. Plus, what do they gain by playing another private school and winning by 70 points? If they don't play much, I think they actually regress at private schools. He should stay for 4 years at Magna Vista, in my opinion. Shaquille Patterson finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Magna Vista fell to 7-5. Martinsville team went to 9-5, but 3 of their losses have been to Group AAA (the larger classification in Virginia) high schools.

    On a side note, this high school had the strangest set-up I've ever seen for basketball. Although it did have three parallel basketball courts, the main middle court was surrounded by a double-railing, which blocked the view of spectators. This may have been because the side basketball courts were elevated, and the idea was to use the railing to prevent players from falling off of the outer courts. Who wants to watch high school basketball like this? Haha.

	January 7, 2009 Spotsylvania, Virginia. That's where Justin Anderson lives. So I decided to go see him play high school basketball. He's either wearing jersey number 23 or the green warm-up shirt in each photo in this article. Okay, so he plays for a private high school in Maryland. And okay, so I've never reported on an out-of-state high school basketball game. But Justin Anderson is such a highly-ranked college basketball prospect, and he does live in Virginia, and he did play for Courtland High School of Spotsylvania, Virginia last year as an eighth-grader (when he played on the high school junior varsity team!), so I decided to scout him. I drove from my house in Charlottesville, Virginia up to Rockville, Maryland to see Justin Anderson's Montrose Christian School Mustangs play at home against KIMA (the Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers of Washington, D.C.).It was a 123-mile trip each way. As you can see from the photos on the left (Route 495 North) and right (Route 270 North), the weather on the highways in northern Virginia was cold and rainy. I left Charlottesville at 12:15 P.M. on Tuesday, January 6 (yesterday), and got to Culpeper, Virginia at 1:35 P.M. (I drove slow: what was the hurry? The game didn't start until 7:30 P.M.) On the way, I listened to radio station 840AM out of Charlottesville, and the Jerry Miller Sportsrap show. I lost touch with it around 2:00 P.M. at the Route 66 West turn off which went toward Winchester, VA, but I was going to go farther north toward the Route 66 East road, which went east toward Washington, D.C. At 2:10 P.M. I stopped at my third gas station/convenience store of the day.The hoopscooponline.com ranks Justin Anderson as the tenth-best high school freshman in the nation! (He's a member of the Class of 2012). Justin Anderson was a student at Spotsylvania Middle School last year as an eighth-grader, although he played for Courtland High's junior varsity. At 2:20 P.M. I was in Gainesville, VA. At 2:30 P.M. I got to Route 66 East. Finally, at 3:05 P.M., I crossed the Maryland state line. Montrose Christian School has one of the nation's top 5 high school basketball programs year-in and year-out. They are located in Rockville, Maryland, which is northwest of Washington, D.C. At 3:15 P.M. I arrived in Rockville, and at 3:35 P.M. I got to Montrose Christian School! I make sure I get to any high school before it gets dark. It's almost impossible to find a school in the dark with cars around you driving 70 miles-per-hour while you try to read Mapquest. So the junior varsity game wasn't going to start until 6 P.M. though. I went to Boston Market (the restaurant) In the most recent edition of USAToday.com, Montrose Christian was ranked number 11 in the nation among the country's high schools. Justin Anderson is the only freshman on the team. Is transferring to a private high school a good idea? Not in my opinion. More on that later. The weather was horrible. It was just warm enough not to snow, the sky was white, and the rain was icy. After I ate I went to the junior varsity game in the tiny gym. Montrose Christian won. The JV game ended at 7:23 P.M. and the varsity game started at 7:52 P.M.Justin Anderson played little. At the 3:16 mark of the first period he got in, with Montrose Christian leading 17-10. He immediately made a nice assist from the wing. Then, at the 1:14 point of the same period, he committed a foul. I was reminded constantly throughout the game of former University of Virginia coach Terry Holland, who once said that players regress when they sit on the bench. Justin Anderson is an amazing athlete, but he'd be better off playing for a coach who'd let him bring the ball up the court all of the time. Justin Anderson got a rebound. He later got the ball and was called for traveling. The first period ended with Montrose Christian ahead 21-13. He sat on the bench for almost the entire second period, finally getting in at the 0:38 mark. His team led 31-21 at the half. The second half started. At 8:50 P.M. there was a leak in the ceiling. The game was halted for 30 minutes with Montrose ahead by 15 points. A Montrose employee was raised up near the ceiling, where he attached a bucket to catch the falling water, and the game continued. At the 1:20 mark of the third quarter, Justin Anderson entered the game and committed his second foul with 0:26 seconds to go. His team led 47-28 after three periods. He re-entered the game in the last period, blocked a shot, and quickly scored on a layup. Then he left at the 7:02 mark and didn't get any more playing time. His team won 63-47. I left immediately. At 11:50 P.M. I stopped at East Coast gas and bought three bags of Potato Chips. I reached Culpeper on 29 South at 12:10 A.M. At 12:45 A.M. I was in Madison, VA. At 1:10 A.M. I was back at home in Charlottesville. Then, I started to type what you're reading right................now.

    January 7, 2009
    Spotsylvania, Virginia. That's where Justin Anderson lives. So I decided to go see him play high school basketball. He's either wearing jersey number 23 or the green warm-up shirt in each photo in this article. Okay, so he plays for a private high school in Maryland. And okay, so I've never reported on an out-of-state high school basketball game. But Justin Anderson is such a highly-ranked college basketball prospect, and he does live in Virginia, and he did play for Courtland High School of Spotsylvania, Virginia last year as an eighth-grader (when he played on the high school junior varsity team!), so I decided to scout him.

   I drove from my house in Charlottesville, Virginia up to Rockville, Maryland to see Justin Anderson's Montrose Christian School Mustangs play at home against KIMA (the Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers of Washington, D.C.).It was a 123-mile trip each way. As you can see from the photos on the left (Route 495 North) and right (Route 270 North), the weather on the highways in northern Virginia was cold and rainy. I left Charlottesville at 12:15 P.M. on Tuesday, January 6 (yesterday), and got to Culpeper, Virginia at 1:35 P.M. (I drove slow: what was the hurry? The game didn't start until 7:30 P.M.) On the way, I listened to radio station 840AM out of Charlottesville, and the Jerry Miller Sportsrap show. I lost touch with it around 2:00 P.M. at the Route 66 West turn off which went toward Winchester, VA, but I was going to go farther north toward the Route 66 East road, which went east toward Washington, D.C.

   At 2:10 P.M. I stopped at my third gas station/convenience store of the day.The hoopscooponline.com ranks Justin Anderson as the tenth-best high school freshman in the nation! (He's a member of the Class of 2012). Justin Anderson was a student at Spotsylvania Middle School last year as an eighth-grader, although he played for Courtland High's junior varsity. At 2:20 P.M. I was in Gainesville, VA. At 2:30 P.M. I got to Route 66 East. Finally, at 3:05 P.M., I crossed the Maryland state line. Montrose Christian School has one of the nation's top 5 high school basketball programs year-in and year-out. They are located in Rockville, Maryland, which is northwest of Washington, D.C. At 3:15 P.M. I arrived in Rockville, and at 3:35 P.M. I got to Montrose Christian School! I make sure I get to any high school before it gets dark. It's almost impossible to find a school in the dark with cars around you driving 70 miles-per-hour while you try to read Mapquest. So the junior varsity game wasn't going to start until 6 P.M. though. I went to Boston Market (the restaurant) In the most recent edition of USAToday.com, Montrose Christian was ranked number 11 in the nation among the country's high schools. Justin Anderson is the only freshman on the team. Is transferring to a private high school a good idea? Not in my opinion. More on that later. The weather was horrible. It was just warm enough not to snow, the sky was white, and the rain was icy. After I ate I went to the junior varsity game in the tiny gym. Montrose Christian won. The JV game ended at 7:23 P.M. and the varsity game started at 7:52 P.M.Justin Anderson played little. At the 3:16 mark of the first period he got in, with Montrose Christian leading 17-10. He immediately made a nice assist from the wing. Then, at the 1:14 point of the same period, he committed a foul.

   I was reminded constantly throughout the game of former University of Virginia coach Terry Holland, who once said that players regress when they sit on the bench. Justin Anderson is an amazing athlete, but he'd be better off playing for a coach who'd let him bring the ball up the court all of the time. Justin Anderson got a rebound. He later got the ball and was called for traveling. The first period ended with Montrose Christian ahead 21-13. He sat on the bench for almost the entire second period, finally getting in at the 0:38 mark. His team led 31-21 at the half. The second half started. At 8:50 P.M. there was a leak in the ceiling. The game was halted for 30 minutes with Montrose ahead by 15 points. A Montrose employee was raised up near the ceiling, where he attached a bucket to catch the falling water, and the game continued. At the 1:20 mark of the third quarter, Justin Anderson entered the game and committed his second foul with 0:26 seconds to go. His team led 47-28 after three periods.

   He re-entered the game in the last period, blocked a shot, and quickly scored on a layup. Then he left at the 7:02 mark and didn't get any more playing time. His team won 63-47. I left immediately. At 11:50 P.M. I stopped at East Coast gas and bought three bags of Potato Chips. I reached Culpeper on 29 South at 12:10 A.M. At 12:45 A.M. I was in Madison, VA. At 1:10 A.M. I was back at home in Charlottesville. Then, I started to type what you're reading right................now.

	December 29, 2008 When a player is a great college prospect as a high school freshman, it's interesting to see him play once-a-year to see how he develops: I had seen John Manning play for Chantilly, Virginia High School last season, and today I went back to see him play a second time. John Manning is wearing the white jersey number 54 in the 6 photos that appear in this story. John Manning was a star even as a 6-10 freshman last year (as a member of the high school Class of 2011). Now, he's listed as 6-11, and who knows how tall he'll get? I saw him play tonight when Chantilly High played at home against visiting West Springfield High. He's on national recruiting lists and is a dominating shotblocker who has been watched by colleges for years in AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) off-season play. Chantilly High School is located near Dulles, Virginia and it's 98 miles north of Charlottesville where I live. In tonight's game, he was unstoppable. To get to the point, he scored 19 points, hitting on 9 out of his 10 shots, and his team won 66-53 over West Springfield High of Springfield, Virginia. (The photo at the bottom left of this story shows the final score. The photo at the bottom right is of the larger scoreboard at the other end of the court, and was taken before the game started.) Both Chantilly High and West Springfield High are Group AAA schools: Group AAA schools are the largest in terms of enrollment in the state of Virginia. They are schools that have over 1,000 students. Chantilly High is one of the better teams in Group AAA and West Springfield is not considered a talented team. So, the game was never in doubt. The loss dropped West Springfield's record to 2-6, and extended Chantilly's to 9-0. This game was in a tournament called the "Pohanka Chantilly Classic." However, this was actually the closest game Chantilly had played this year! That itself was an interesting fact, considering that Chantilly's goal is to win a state championship. After all, the "Washington Post" ranks Chantilly number 12 in it's rankings of all of the high school teams in northern Virginia, Washington (DC), and southern Maryland! The only difference between the two teams was John Manning, and he played a perfect offensive game. Manning scored 15 points in the first half, as his team led 36-24. His coach substituted a lot in the second half, possibly because of the fact that the team would be playing several games in a short period of time.

    December 29, 2008
    When a player is a great college prospect as a high school freshman, it's interesting to see him play once-a-year to see how he develops: I had seen John Manning play for Chantilly, Virginia High School last season, and today I went back to see him play a second time. John Manning is wearing the white jersey number 54 in the 6 photos that appear in this story. John Manning was a star even as a 6-10 freshman last year (as a member of the high school Class of 2011). Now, he's listed as 6-11, and who knows how tall he'll get? I saw him play tonight when Chantilly High played at home against visiting West Springfield High. He's on national recruiting lists and is a dominating shotblocker who has been watched by colleges for years in AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) off-season play. Chantilly High School is located near Dulles, Virginia and it's 98 miles north of Charlottesville where I live.

   In tonight's game, he was unstoppable. To get to the point, he scored 19 points, hitting on 9 out of his 10 shots, and his team won 66-53 over West Springfield High of Springfield, Virginia. (The photo at the bottom left of this story shows the final score. The photo at the bottom right is of the larger scoreboard at the other end of the court, and was taken before the game started.) Both Chantilly High and West Springfield High are Group AAA schools: Group AAA schools are the largest in terms of enrollment in the state of Virginia. They are schools that have over 1,000 students. Chantilly High is one of the better teams in Group AAA and West Springfield is not considered a talented team.

   So, the game was never in doubt. The loss dropped West Springfield's record to 2-6, and extended Chantilly's to 9-0. This game was in a tournament called the "Pohanka Chantilly Classic." However, this was actually the closest game Chantilly had played this year! That itself was an interesting fact, considering that Chantilly's goal is to win a state championship. After all, the "Washington Post" ranks Chantilly number 12 in it's rankings of all of the high school teams in northern Virginia, Washington (DC), and southern Maryland! The only difference between the two teams was John Manning, and he played a perfect offensive game. Manning scored 15 points in the first half, as his team led 36-24. His coach substituted a lot in the second half, possibly because of the fact that the team would be playing several games in a short period of time.

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