Brian Flinn:
Future150 National Recruiting Analyst. Covering high school basketball nationally.
Springfield, MA (Future150) -- This past Summer Josh Reaves flew a bit under the radar; which is easy when your AAU teammates are Franklin Howard, Marcus Derrickson, and Kevin Dorsey, among others. With those four forming the nucleus of the of Paul VI (VA) squad this year, they were to be considered one of the top programs in the country.
Then Franklin Howard went down with an injury.
While Paul VI is exceptionally deep, losing one of the best combo guards in the country would surely hurt them, right?
Wrong.
Josh Reaves has broken out this year, showing that he is more than just an athlete and lockdown defender. He has become one of the team’s top scorers and their primary weapon from the perimeter. He was stellar throughout their games at the City of Palms and was fantastic again against St. Anthony’s (NJ) at the HoopHall Classic on Martin Luther King Day weekend.
An improved shooting stroke has helped Reaves to become harder to guard. He gets to the rim with ease and finishes over defenders, but now defenses can’t sag off of him.
“We always have to be ready to play, we get after it in practice. You just go hard when you know your teammates are all top 100, top-50 guys,” Reaves said of his improvement. He is quickly flourishing into a high-major lock thanks to his improved game as well as his lockdown defense.
As of now, Reaves holds offers from Penn State, Villanova, Temple, and VCU. Georgetown, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia are all showing interest as well.
With Reaves’ rapid improvement it would appear that he will take on a bigger role with Team Takeover this spring and summer, and with it will come more attention and more schools starting to recruit him, but Reaves is up to the task. Look for him to prove that he is in fact a top 100 player in his own right before the year is over.
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