After Tony Bennett and assistant coach Orlando Vandross watched 6-foot-6 shooting guard Cam Christie last week in Chicago at the UAA Finals, CavsCorner was able to catch up with Christie about where things stand in his recruitment and his relationship with Virginia.

“The recruiting process is going very well,” he explained. “I am hoping to commit some time soon but I might still be trying to take some official visits just so I know I fully made the right decision because it is obviously a big decision. Minnesota is definitely prioritizing me, California has been, Missouri is and Virginia certainly has too.”

UVa is quite possibly one of the schools that could secure an official visit from Christie as the Hoos were one of the first to really start actively recruiting him.

“Tony Bennett is a great coach and his staff are great people too,” Christie said. “They are a very historical program and have had some great players the past years and they are really building a reputation of getting players into the NBA and that is my ultimate goal so it is a really good program and a place that could definitely help me reach my goal of playing in the NBA.”

In fact, Bennett has had conversations with Christie about playing in the NBA and Bennett thinks it is definitely a strong option for him.

“Coach Bennett really thinks I can do it all and keeps telling me that I am a three level player and a three level scorer,” he said. “He has also been saying that if I keep improving my game it will translate to the next level and like I said, that is my goal so I have enjoyed having those types of conversations with him and it obviously means a lot coming from someone like him.”

Christie also knows that Bennett is a defensive minded coach and that’s something that would allow him to fit well in Virginia’s program.

“I think as long as I keep playing hard, the defense will come eventually and I could fit well in that particular system,” he said. “In order to be ready for a system like that I need to keep making sure I am always guarding the best players on the other team and just keep preparing for the next level.”

Max Christie is the brother of Cam Christie who was just drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers played his college basketball at Michigan State but was a prospect Virginia looked hard at when he was coming out of high school. That familiarity benefits teams like UVa.

“I have known about Virginia for a long time,” the younger Christie said, “because they recruited my brother and I have been learning about the program and the school ever since, so that has definitely helped. All of the schools that are recruiting me pretty much reached out about my brother so I know most of them pretty well and that has only helped me in my recruitment process.”

So far Christie has taken official visits to Minnesota and Iowa State but seems to want to set up some more official visits before making a college decision.

“As of right now I don’t have a particular time frame but definitely before the high school season,” he said. “But I have no particular date right now and again I would like to possibly take an official visit to California, Virginia, Villanova, and Missouri.”