Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Nick Prevenas Oak Hill Academy guard Brandon Jennings heads down the floor in a win over Dudley High School, a game in which he scored 49 points, in McKale Center on Dec. 22. Jennings, a UA signee, has been named the 2008 Naismith National High School Player of the Year.

It's good to be part of the Arizona men's basketball program knowing that ESPN.com's No. 1 high school player will be a Wildcat next season. It's even better to know that the player, Brandon Jennings, is legitimately the best high school player in the nation.

Jennings, a 6-foot, 170-pound guard from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., has been named the 2008 Naismith National High School Player of the Year. He is the first future Wildcat to be given the award and follows in the footsteps of Kevin Love (2007), Greg Oden (2006), LeBron James (2003), Kobe Bryant (1996) and Alonzo Mourning (1988), just to name a few.

Jennings led his the Warriors to a 34-4 record and a No. 4 ranking by ESPN.com. He finished his senior season averaging 35.5 points, 6.4 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 steals per game.

En route to his stat-heavy season, Jennings broke several Oak Hill records, becoming the single-season scoring leader with 1,312 points on the year and the single-season scoring average record holder. He also scored 49 points in McKale Center at the GOAZCATS.com Showdown on Dec. 22 and set an Oak Hill single-game record when he dropped 63 on Bonner Academy on Feb. 19.

"Those records are going to stand for a while," said Oak Hill's head coach of 23 years, Steve Smith, in a phone interview Thursday. "I knew he had the talent and the ability to possibly be the player of the year."

Smith said he expects Jennings to be awarded several other player of the year accolades, including the Gatorade Player of the Year Award, which will be announced on March 17.

Attempts to reach Jennings were unsuccessful.

Oak Hill is the alma mater of current NBA players Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Jerry Stackhouse. But Ron Mercer (1995) is the only other Oak Hill player to win the Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award.

"I was very excited that Brandon won because I had Carmelo and all those guys and they didn't get those awards," Smith said. "Carmelo was supposed to win it - they called me the night before and told me. But lo and behold Raymond Felton got it (in 2002)."

Continued...

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