Notes: Virginia Hosting 4-Star Shooting Guard Noah Locke

By: Chris Horne |
Locke ~ Photo courtesy of Jon Lopez of Nike

Virginia hosts McDonogh (Owings Mills, MD) class of 2018 shooting guard Noah Locke on an unofficial visit today. The visit, which was reported earlier this month, was confirmed again last night by Team Melo (Locke’s AAU) recruiting coordinator Dwayne Wise.

UVA will be the latest of a handful of college visits the 6’2”, 180-pound Locke has made recently. He began with a trip to Notre Dame before going to Michigan for an unofficial on June 20. He left Ann Arbor with some good news
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Locke also visited Pittsburgh unofficially last week. Virginia is his first stop this week. He then plans to go to Blacksburg to see Virginia Tech tomorrow. All of the schools mentioned so far have offered scholarships. Florida, Maryland, and Xavier are among the other schools that have offered as well.

The sharpshooting Locke has had an excellent spring on the hard court, averaging 18.2 points per game while draining 49.5% of his 3s. He helped Team Melo make Peach Jam, which is the EYBL’s championship event. The consensus 4-star (Scout, Rivals, 247, ESPN) prospect and top 100 recruit has seen his stock rise as a result.

UVA has five scholarship spots available in the class of 2018. However, at this point we don’t expect the staff to use all five spots. Following today’s visit, we should have a better idea of where Locke stands on Coach Bennett’s wish list, so stay tuned.

Battle Visits UVA

Roselle Catholic (N.J.) class of 2019 wing Khalif Battle took an unofficial visit to UVA this Tuesday. Per his father, the visit was “awesome.”

Battle, a 6’4” shooting guard, is the younger brother of Syracuse Orange rising sophomore Tyus Battle. Virginia heavily pursued the latter, who initially committed to Michigan but ended up Syracuse. Cavalier fans may remember Tyus going for 23 against Virginia last season.

The younger Battle currently does not have an offer from Virginia, but he is definitely on the radar. Rutgers and St. Joseph’s have come through with offers.

Kelly Visits UVA

Another class of 2019 wing, Lynchburg (VA) Virginia Episcopal School’s Patrick Kelly, was on Grounds last Saturday on an unofficial visit.

VES head coach Curtis Staples described Kelly as follows in an interview this spring. As of now, Virginia has not offered.

“Patrick Kelly is a 6’8”, 6’9” two-guard,” Staples said. “He’s really, really good. He’s bigtime. Before it’s over he may be 6’10” and still a wing player. He’s very athletic and can shoot. He’s young and you can tell the mistakes he makes, but before it’s over he’ll be very good.”