Jerry Wainright can officially begin to focus on the Class of 2005. His Richmond Spiders landed their fifth and final commitment on Thursday when A.D. Vassallo, a 6-7 swingman from Faith Christian in Hurt, Va., picked the Spiders.
Vassallo was set to visit Providence this weekend but the Spiders hosted him on an unofficial this week and sealed the deal.
“It really had most of the choices I wanted: small school, nice campus, good basketball and it was close to home,” Vassallo said of Richmond.
“When they talked to me, Coach Wainright really appreciated me as a person. He appreciated me as a grown man. He appreciated me as a person and basketball player at same time.”
What Wainright will really appreciate is production and Vassallo sounds like he can bring it. He averaged 19 points a game last season. Plus, he’s coming off a summer in which he played for the Puerto Rican Junior National team that finished 6th at the world championship.
“I always had the dream of playing ball in the United States to try to get to the NBA. That’s my dream still. I had this person in Puerto Rico who gave me a chance to come to Virginia to play basketball. I came and took that chance.”
And the Spiders are glad he did.