With an offer in hand, Kaiser sees UVa as a "dream school"
Virginia has officially entered the race for the services of 2023 shooting guard Jamie Kaiser of Bishop Ireton, a player who has been one of the biggest stock risers nationally after a great first two live periods on the 3SSB circuit with New World.
In addition to picking up an offer from Virginia, Kaiser has received offers from Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Utah State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Boston College and Indiana.
He spoke with Cavs Corner this weekend about how the past month has been for him and what’s ahead in his suddenly-growing recruitment.
“Our team is a bunch of hungry guys so we all wanted to have a big April,” he explained. “I really wanted to have a big April as well and once my shot started to fall and my team started to win a lot of games, it kind of all just started to click together. It turned out to be a good month for my team and myself but most importantly my team won a lot so that is what the most important thing is.”
Kaiser, who has been known as a big time shot maker, showed colleges this April that he is more than that and can actually be a big time defender, something which Tony Bennett obviously loves.
“When I am at my best, I think it is when I am defending the better players on the opposing teams because it really gets me going,” the Alexandria product explained. “It makes me more intense and gets me going on both sides of the ball. Whenever I am going against people that are viewed better than me is really when I get going.
“When I am playing hard and the type of intensity I need to be at,” he added, “I play better overall as my shots go in and winning plays are made at a high level.”
UVa has known about the 6-foot-6 Kaiser for a while but it was not until this year when things started to get really serious.
“I first started getting interest from Virginia when I was a sophomore,” he recalled. “After the first live period I started talking to them almost on a daily basis so I figured the offer was going to come at some point.”
Once the conversations with Kaiser picked up, Bennett really broke down how he could use him on the floor.
“Coach Bennett obviously wants me to come in and be a shot maker but also be an important defender for them,” Kaiser said. “Virginia has a defense that is usually ranked No. 1 in the country so he would want me to come in and really get after it and he doesn’t think that should be a problem for me.”
Kaiser said he has considered Virginia being a “dream school,” so the offer from the Wahoos really meant a lot to him.
“Virginia has been a dream school of mine since I was younger,” the former two-sport star explained. “I was a big fan of Ty Jerome and really loved watching him during his time at UVa. Justin Anderson and Malcolm Brogdon are other guys I really enjoyed watching. I think I fit the culture well and their playing style well which is obviously really important.
“I am a big guard that can really shoot it so that is what Coach Bennett was really excited about when he watched me play,” Kaiser added, “and I am still on Cloud 9 when I officially got the offer.”
Kaiser has obviously watched a lot of Virginia in the past and he knows how important winning it is to the program.
“Whenever I watch them I see how tough those dudes are,” he said. “They are not always highly recruited guys but they always make it out somewhere and they know how important it is to have a winning culture at Virginia so they do whatever they can to keep winning games. They are very close to being considered blue blood.”
At this point, Kaiser has taken an official visit to Wisconsin already and has set up another official visit to Virginia on June 2 and a visit to George Mason on June 9.
