Point guard Aaron Young was the third player to join Princeton's 2014 recruiting class, committing in late August. The Virginia Episcopal School senior reportedly chose the Tigers over interest from Brown, Fairfield and Loyola of Maryland.
Yesterday I had a chance to talk with Young's current coach, former University of Virginia standout Curtis Staples. Exclusive quotes and analysis from Staples plus links to player evaluations and videos featuring Young as a both scorer and a distributor can all be found after the jump.
"Aaron's an exceptionally hard-working person in general. Everything he does, he goes the extra mile to make sure he’s once of the best at it. Whether it is in the classroom, where he’s excelling into the highest levels there, or whether it is on the basketball court or in the weight room, he’s always been a very self-driven person," Staples said of his 6'1" point man whom he estimated currently weighs around 165-170 lbs.
"He is a really good point guard but he can really shoot the ball," Staples detailed. "I think that’s one of his advantages. He has really good range on his shot."
As he prepares for his senior season, Staples didn't see much Young needs to add to his skill set. "The biggest thing is for him to refine his game even more," shared Staples, who is in his seventh season coaching the VES Bishops. "There are a lot of things all of our guys need to improve on, but with Aaron I’m just looking forward to him running this team night in and night out. He doesn’t do a lot of things wrong."
This will be the second campaign for Staples with Young running his team. Young transferred to Virginia Episcopal from another private school in the same conference, John Paul The Great. Prior to that he attended George Mason. VES is not a post-graduate school - Young simply switched squads while remaining in the VISAA, which Staples called "The most competitive league in Virginia."
Last year the Bishops went 21-4 and were ranked seventh in the state, with Young averaging around 11 points and seven assists per game. VES fell in the Division II championship game, which you can watch below.
Staples has noticed one area of significant improvement by Young during the offseason. "He’s good defensively, but he’s better this year than he was last year," Staples stated. "He worked on that over the summer. That was one of the more obvious things that I noticed about his game when he came back on campus."
Young will serve as one of Virginia Episcopal's captains as a senior, and the expectation is for Young to led by his example.
There was not much Staples could dish out about Young's recruitment by the Princeton staff, but he did add that he felt Young would fit in with the style of play the Tigers use and that the coaches are excited to get him heading north in a year's time.
"You guys are getting a real good one," Staples concluded. "Good player, good person."
Verbal Commits has a page on Young (left) and ascribes him a two star ranking.
Young's Yahoo! page doesn't add much beyond saying his handle is "outstanding."
Here's the official Virginia Episcopal School article on Young's commitment.
The News & Advance covered Young's recent press conference.
A WSET story has a brief quote from Young on his decision.
Big Shots Recruiting scores Young a 75 out of 100 adding the following notes: "Pass 1st PG, initiates offense, good FT shooter."
Young is ranked 34th by Phenom Hoop Report in their Class of 2014 Virginia Top 50.
At the 2012 Under Armour Hoop Group Pitt Jam Fest, Young made the All Tournament Team.
There are some more Young quotes in a game story from last December.
HoopGroup was at 2013 Summer Classic East: Championship Day and wrote briefly: "Young came up big when his team needed it most, draining a corner three-point shot as time expired to capture a 39-37 win for East Coast Fusion."
Full 2012-13 season highlights for VES includes plenty of Young's work. He's wearing #2 in the clips.
You can also find some stats from last year on Young's MaxPreps page plus stats from his season at John Paul here.
Young was named A Bull Run All-League by the Washington Post in 2010 as well as Honorable Mention All-Region B.
Additional highlights. You can watch another full game video here.
The full VISAA Division II championship game, which VES lost to Christchurch in overtime.
Young spent time at George Mason High School and 2011-12 with John Paul The Great. Here he is talking about the latter prior to that season.
Young playing with his AAU team, East Coast Fusion.
Young received the Randolph College Book Award at VES' 2013 end-of-year Academic and Athletics Awards Assembly.
I believe that Young attended George Washington's March Madness in 2011, though that potentially could be a different player with the same name.
