One of the latest rising juniors to pick up an offer from UVa, four-star Isaiah Abraham is coming off an impressive summer as he transfers in to Paul VI to finish out his high school career.
The 6-foot-7 small forward played a very important role in helping Team Takeover advance to the EYBL Peach Jam Championship where Tony Bennett and Jason Williford were courtside for most of his games.
With Abraham now playing in the WCAC, expect his name to become a lot more popular in the coming year.
“It is awesome to get an offer from a program like Virginia,” Abraham told CavsCorner. “It is a really good school and I really like Coach Bennett and Coach Williford. Now that I have an offer from them I am excited to keep building a relationship with them. One of the most important things in my recruitment will be how well of a relationship I build with the program.”
Williford has been the lead recruiter for Abraham and the two have had good communication thus far.
“Coach Wiliford keeps on telling me that he is really interested in me,” Abraham said. “He likes me as a player both on and off the court. He likes how I attack the game and he really likes my motor.”
With UVa building that relationship early on, Abraham was able to take an unofficial visit to Virginia earlier this winter for a game against Duke.
“It was a crazy environment and I loved the facilities,” he recalled. “The environment was so crazy. After every basket UVa scored, the whole crowd would go crazy and I think being able to play there would be so cool especially on that stage on that level. I loved it.”
To this point, UVa has been active in 2024 with offers and Abraham knows what it means to be among those rising juniors.
“It is awesome to get an early offer from Virginia this early in my recruitment process,” he explained. “It is good for me because I feel like it is more of a value offer. Sometimes you will see schools offer a whole bunch of people and just throw offers out left and right.
“When Virginia offered they had a really good talk with me and had a lot of good things to say about my game,” Abraham added. “They talked to me about how I would fit in the program. They want to keep on building a relationship with me which is big because I am all about relationships.”
The words culture and fit are thrown out a lot when talking about the Cavaliers and Abraham thinks he would fit in well with the program.
“As the relationship grows we will talk more about how I fit on the court but the coaches are telling me I would fit well because of my motor and how I play defense,” he said. “A lot of programs value defense and Virginia is obviously one of those schools that values defense a lot.”
Abraham was not able to take any visits this summer due to his schedule but has a few places in his mind that he would like to see in the coming weeks and months.
“I want to visit UVa, Pitt, Marquette and Villanova soon,” he said.