PREP BASKETBALL
Hueitt cements choice after summer of work
• The 6-foot-3 shooting guard received numerous scholarship offers before committing to Old Dominion.
By Stephen Schramm
Staff writer FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER
Northwood Temple Academy guard Michael Hueitt heads into his senior season with loads of confidence after a stellar summer on Nike’s EYBL circuit.
And he’s also got some clarity after setting his college plans.
Hueitt, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, committed to Old Dominion earlier this month, ending a recruiting process that began when he was 15.
“They believed in me since I was young,” Hueitt said of the Monarchs. “They watched me develop and they believed in me. They never changed up on me. They still told me everything that they told me when I was younger. I felt that was a school I could trust.”
Old Dominion was the second school to extend Hueitt a scholarship offer — James Madison was the first — and coach Jeff Jones and his staff closely followed Hueitt as he embarked on a winding journey through high school hoops.
Hueitt started his prep career at Village Christian Academy. He had spent the previous two seasons attending High Point Christian and playing alongside Bam Adebayo, who is now a freshman forward at Kentucky.
This summer, Hueitt returned to Fayetteville and enrolled at Northwood Temple, where he will play for coach Corey Baker. Hueitt was already comfortable with Baker, who spent several seasons as an assistant at Village Christian. Hueitt “It’s really good because he knows how I am,” Hueitt said. “He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. … He’s like my mentor.”
Baker said he sensed an added hunger in Hueitt as he headed into his final high school campaign. Known as a shooter, Hueitt has worked to expand his game.
“He was committed to becoming better in every aspect of his game,” Baker said. “… He was a gym rat. He was constantly asking what he could do to get better.”
The work showed this summer as Hueitt averaged 14.1 points per game for a CP3 squad that reached the EYBL Finals at Peach Jam. He led all of the EYBL in 3-pointers made with 56.
The performance was good enough to bring in roughly a dozen more scholarship offers.
“A lot of interest turned into offers, finally,” Hueitt said.
But when he made his visit to the Monarchs’ Norfolk, Virginia, campus on Sept. 23, he said all the new attention didn’t matter.
“At ODU, it was a lot of love,” Hueitt said. “As soon as I stepped off the plane, they had two coaches there for me to greet. They showed a lot of love.”
He has since scrapped plans to make official visits to Buffalo, Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee State and Providence. He said Boston College, Richmond and Rutgers were also in the picture.
But for Hueitt, the commitment Old Dominion showed him from the beginning convinced him it was where he needed to be.
“Mike is a relationship guy,” Baker said. “Relationships are very big.
Hueitt cements choice after summer of work
• The 6-foot-3 shooting guard received numerous scholarship offers before committing to Old Dominion.
By Stephen Schramm
Staff writer FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER
Northwood Temple Academy guard Michael Hueitt heads into his senior season with loads of confidence after a stellar summer on Nike’s EYBL circuit.
And he’s also got some clarity after setting his college plans.
Hueitt, a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, committed to Old Dominion earlier this month, ending a recruiting process that began when he was 15.
“They believed in me since I was young,” Hueitt said of the Monarchs. “They watched me develop and they believed in me. They never changed up on me. They still told me everything that they told me when I was younger. I felt that was a school I could trust.”
Old Dominion was the second school to extend Hueitt a scholarship offer — James Madison was the first — and coach Jeff Jones and his staff closely followed Hueitt as he embarked on a winding journey through high school hoops.
Hueitt started his prep career at Village Christian Academy. He had spent the previous two seasons attending High Point Christian and playing alongside Bam Adebayo, who is now a freshman forward at Kentucky.
This summer, Hueitt returned to Fayetteville and enrolled at Northwood Temple, where he will play for coach Corey Baker. Hueitt was already comfortable with Baker, who spent several seasons as an assistant at Village Christian. Hueitt “It’s really good because he knows how I am,” Hueitt said. “He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. … He’s like my mentor.”
Baker said he sensed an added hunger in Hueitt as he headed into his final high school campaign. Known as a shooter, Hueitt has worked to expand his game.
“He was committed to becoming better in every aspect of his game,” Baker said. “… He was a gym rat. He was constantly asking what he could do to get better.”
The work showed this summer as Hueitt averaged 14.1 points per game for a CP3 squad that reached the EYBL Finals at Peach Jam. He led all of the EYBL in 3-pointers made with 56.
The performance was good enough to bring in roughly a dozen more scholarship offers.
“A lot of interest turned into offers, finally,” Hueitt said.
But when he made his visit to the Monarchs’ Norfolk, Virginia, campus on Sept. 23, he said all the new attention didn’t matter.
“At ODU, it was a lot of love,” Hueitt said. “As soon as I stepped off the plane, they had two coaches there for me to greet. They showed a lot of love.”
He has since scrapped plans to make official visits to Buffalo, Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee State and Providence. He said Boston College, Richmond and Rutgers were also in the picture.
But for Hueitt, the commitment Old Dominion showed him from the beginning convinced him it was where he needed to be.
“Mike is a relationship guy,” Baker said. “Relationships are very big.
