Class of 2025 guard Omari Witherspoon took an unofficial visit to UVa on Saturday for the game against Georgia Tech.
The 6-foot-4 combo guard is coming off a terrific season at St. John’s College in Washington, D.C. and was a First Team All WCAC selection as a junior. To those in an around the DMV, that’s a pretty prestigious honor since the conference is regarded as the best in high school basketball.
Needless to say, the season he put together has helped his recruitment receive a serious uptick.
“I think a lot of coaches saw my ability to lead a team with my play this year,” Witherspoon told CavsCorner. “I was asked to do a lot on offense this year and then guard the opposing team’s best player so I was definitely looked upon as a leader this year.
“Before this past high school season I was really only talking to A10 schools,” he added, “but now I am starting to get ACC interest from Virginia, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.”
Witherspoon clearly had a good time during his time in Charlottesville this weekend, including the chance to talk to head coach Tony Bennett.
“The Virginia visit was great,” he recalled. “They really do have some amazing facilities. I really enjoyed seeing their arena and locker room. I was able to speak to Coach Bennett after the game on Saturday and we had a great conversation.
“My talk with Coach Bennett was probably the best part of the visit as we agreed on a lot of stuff,” Witherspoon added, “and we connected on a lot of stuff, so overall it was a great visit.”
During that conversation, Bennett explained to Witherspoon the type of players he likes to recruit and why he thinks the DC standout fits that bill.
“His main focus was telling me about the type of kids he likes to recruit,” Witherspoon explained. “He wants to recruit really humble kids and does not want kids in the program that are really high on himself but also people that are not too low on themselves. He knows that I am not super cocky or arrogant but he also knows what I am capable of and he really just preached on that.”
Going into the visit to UVa, Witherspoon felt pretty good about being able to fit into the system the Wahoos run. After watching them Saturday, that remained the case.
“I am glad I was able to see them play this past weekend because it really confirmed that I would be able to fit well there,” he said. “I feel like defensively I can really fit in right anywhere. I think that I can guard one through three and sometimes all the way to the four spot. I have been in some offenses before that do a lot of screening like Virginia does so I am pretty familiar with their main philosophy on offense so I think I would really thrive in their system.”
The trip to UVa was the first visit Witherspoon has taken since his high school season ended but he said he knows he has some more on the horizon.
“Virginia is the first visit that I have been to recently,” he said. “Now that my high school season is over, my family and I just have to talk to some schools and figure out when I can go look at some more places.”
