Versatile Kelly draws big-time interest

A 6-foot-8 former college basketball player and a 5-foot-7 former college volleyball player have a child together.

What do you have 17 years later?

A freakishly talented, 6-foot-9 basketball player who is being recruited from coast to coast.

Rising high school senior Ryan Kelly, who has been in Charlottesville all week for the NBA Top 100 Camp, is one of Virginia’s main targets for the Class of 2009.

“He’s a very skilled big man who can score inside or out,” said recruiting guru Bob Gibbons. “He passes well and he’s the ultimate competitor.

“It’s all ahead of him. What he needs is some strength and conditioning, but I think he’ll be a major college player and possibly a future pro.”

Virginia has gone after a player of Kelly’s ilk in each of the last two years. In 2007, West Virginia prep star Patrick Patterson chose Kentucky over UVa. In 2008, Richmond’s Ed Davis eschewed the Wahoos for North Carolina.

However, Virginia looks to have a better shot at landing the skinny, 205-pound Kelly than it did Patterson and Davis.

Kelly’s parents were both Ivy Leaguers — his dad played at Yale, while his mom played volleyball at Penn.

Kelly, who grew up in New York but now resides in Raleigh, N.C., seems to be placing an equally high priority on academics.

“I think Virginia would offer a great academic opportunity since he’s a really good student,” Gibbons said. “I think [Dave] Leitao and his staff have an excellent chance.”

Kelly arrived for the NBA Top 100 Camp a day early so that he could get a little better look at the Virginia campus than he did on his first visit last summer. Kelly’s tour guides were UVa players Sammy Zeglinski and Will Sherrill.

“I’m trying to meet the players because those are the guys you’re going to be with all the time,” Kelly said. “I think that’s one of the biggest factors because there’s got to be somebody who you like being with. You got to like the guys.”

Kelly, who watched Virginia players take part in a pick-up game on Monday night, is rated as 4-star recruit (out of five) by Rivals.com. He looks to be a more talented version of the Plumlee brothers, Mason and Miles, whom Virginia recruited last year but are headed to Duke.

Kelly’s biggest attribute is his court savvy. He sees the floor like a guard and seems to understand the game extremely well.

Of course, Virginia is not alone in its pursuit of Kelly. The other schools in the hunt are North Carolina, Wake Forest, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Davidson, Georgetown, Notre Dame and N.C. State.

Kelly says the fact that UNC appears — as usual — to be completely loaded at his position will weigh into his decision.

“You certainly have to look at that,” he said, “but at the same time as a basketball player, you kind of have to go into it knowing that you’re going to be the best player and are going to work your hardest to be the best player. I look at it that way. I worry about me. I’m going to do my best and I think that’s going to be the best.”

Kelly hopes to trim his list of schools down to four or five by the end of July. He says he wants to go through the process at his own pace.

“To be honest, if I really got a gut feeling and really wanted to go somewhere, I would [commit],” he said, “but I’m just taking it one step at a time.”

Kelly called Virginia “a great academic institution” and Leitao “a great coach.”

“What I like hearing from coaches is not necessarily what I’m good at,” Kelly said, “but what I need to work on. [Leitao] makes a point to tell me those things, which is good because I want to get better and need to know the things I need to work on.”

Kelly refuted the notion that UNC, Wake and N.C. State might have the inside track on him because of their proximity to his home in Raleigh.

“I live in North Carolina,” he said, “but I’m from New York. I wasn’t like an ACC fever kind of guy. I just love college basketball, so that’s not really a factor for me.”

Kelly has liked what he has seen from Virginia on the recruiting trail — namely the addition of McDonald’s All-American Sylven Landesberg — and the direction that the program is headed.

“One of the things they struggled with last year was that [Sean] Singletary — he was just their whole offense,” Kelly said. “Now they’re bringing in more players that can do different things and in the future are looking really positive.”

Kelly is a fan of the motion offense that Leitao employs. It’s similar to the one his Ravenscroft High squad uses.

“I can be the guy that’s in the post,” said Kelly, who averaged 24 points, nine rebounds and four blocks as a junior, “or I can be the guy that can flash high post, do pick-n-roll, shoot 3s, do a lot of different things and showcase my versatility.”

Like only the son of a basketball and volleyball player can.