Four-star forward Cam Ward out of Maryland is in the middle of an intense recruitment that has coaches from all over the country pursuing him.

And on the heels of his official visit to UVa, the Largo High School standout has even better feel for one of his biggest options.

“Man, I have seen everyone this fall,” Ward told CavsCorner. “A lot of different coaches are recruiting me and they are all saying great things. The coaches have been to my workouts, my classes, my lunches and just everything. They are all making hard pushes for me, I am really blessed.”

One of the schools Ward just saw in person was Virginia and that official visit certainly got his attention.

“The visit was great,” he recalled. “It definitely shocked me a little bit and really opened my eyes to see what they have going on there. They have changed their system of play and they changed it to be a lot more up pace now. They definitely will look to run up and down a lot more. They are still going to run their sets on defense and try to slow you down but their play is going to look a lot different this year and I view that as a plus.

“What really caught my eye was their development plan,” Ward added. “The way they put it was really straightforward. They simply want to develop me to get where I want to be and if they can do that, I will be able to help them win a lot of games and win a lot of games in the NCAA Tournament. Overall their development plan was second to none and I enjoyed getting on the court to see how they put their guys through a workout and things of that nature.”

There were also other aspects of the program that he responded well to seeing.

“Another thing that really stood out was the way they treated me and my family,” he said. “They had great hospitality and always were just making sure we were taken care of.”

Ward tends to think he would be a great for Tony Bennett’s system.

“I think I would fit in well,” he explained. “They were telling me that they can really see me grabbing rebounds well and pushing the ball up the floor immediately on offense. Another thing is my ability to spot up and catch and shoot, we talked a lot about that. One thing also that I liked was just the amount of freedom I would have to go and get a bucket.”

Earlier this year, Ward took an official visit to Marquette. Shaka Smart and his staff have been there since Day 1 with DMV product.

“Marquette is high energy and just straight to the point,” he said. “They are telling me they will get me in here and that I will be a huge part to them winning games. They are telling me how they would change my body and develop me. At the end of the day, coach Shaka Smart is just such a great guy. I have known him my whole life because he actually coached with some of my family when he was at VCU so there are some strong ties there. I have been really locked in with him for a while and we have a tremendous relationship. The assistants have great energy too, they are all locked in together and they want to do whatever it takes to win and I love that.”

Right before visiting UVa, Ward took a trip to Vanderbilt and Nashville certainly stood out to him.

“Their message was really clear, which was to come to Vanderbilt and be a pro and they just said it over and over again,” he recalled. “The campus was second to none. In all of my visits, I don’t think I have seen a campus like that. The campus was crazy because the city interacts so well with the school and the basketball team. The school has so many different NIL options to offer like the businesses and just the different people that are part of Vanderbilt. They really offer a lot of opportunities for the players to really grow their brand and that really stuck out to me.”

Ward still has trips planned this fall to see Kansas State, Alabama, Michigan State and Maryland. With a wide variety of schools all over the place involved, it seems unlikely that location will be a factor in his college decision.

“I don’t think location will matter for me,” he said. “I want to go somewhere that I think will make me have the best ability to be a pro. The two things that matter to me are where I will develop best to be a pro and where I can play right away to show my pro potential.”