City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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One of the top senior prospects in Philadelphia is off the board.

Friends’ Central (Pa.) wing DeAndre Hunter committed to play college basketball for head coach Tony Bennett at the University of Virginia on Saturday night while on an official visit to the school.

The news was first reported by Scout.com’s Evan Daniels.

A 6-foot-7, 185-pound wing, Hunter had a very strong summer on the Under Armour circuit with Philly Pride, where numerous high-major schools fell in love with his size and scoring ability from the wing combined with his athleticism and upside.

He averaged 14.0 ppg during the Under Armour events after a junior year at FCS that saw him average 21.6 ppg and lead the Phoenix to a 22-8 record and spot in the Friends' League semifinals.

When CoBL last spoke to Hunter just last week, he had set official visits to Oklahoma State, Notre Dame and Miami (Fl.), but he scheduled a trip down to Virginia shortly after that and committed on his first official trip.

By the time he committed, Hunter had garnered offers from close to 30 schools, keeping the above group and Villanova, Arizona State, UConn, Southern Methodist, Saint Joseph’s, Maryland and Alabama in a final 11 he’d decided on in August.

Hunter joins a Virginia recruiting class that is now four-deep, including Iona Prep (N.Y.) point guard Ty Jerome, a top-50 player in the class, plus Lawrence Central (Ind.) sharpshooter Kyle Guy and Voyager Academy (N.C.) big man Jay Huff.

The Cavaliers have won 30 games in each of the last two years under Bennett, who's 136-64 (.680) in his six years as head coach.

CoBL will have more on this story shortly