Cam Whitmore, Spaldings five-star basketball prospect, commits to Villanova
Around the Archbishop Spalding boys’ basketball program, the play that put forward Cam Whitmore on the national map is known as “The Dunk.”
Spalding was holding onto a late lead against Gilman in its conference playoffs in February 2020 when Whitmore caught the ball on the wing and exploded to the basket. As Whitmore rose for a dunk, a 6-foot-9 defender jumped with him, but as the defender started falling, Whitmore kept rising. Whitmore threw down a one-handed tomahawk that sealed the Cavaliers’ upset victory.
That sequence, a part of Whitmore’s 34-point performance as a sophomore, convinced Spalding Coach Josh Pratt that Whitmore would play at a high-Division I college program.
Pratt’s prediction proved true Thursday afternoon, when Whitmore, a five-star recruit, announced his commitment to Villanova, one of the nation’s top programs.
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Whitmore, 6-foot-7 and 210-pounds, is ranked the nation’s 24th-best recruit in 247Sports’ composite rankings. The 17-year-old senior is the D.C. area’s highest-ranked prospect in the Class of 2022.
“He’s a prototype NBA-type player,” Pratt said. “He’s got to continue to work on his perimeter game, but I definitely think he can play in the NBA if he continues to work, and that’s his goal. And that’s why he chose Villanova. They have a great developmental program.”
After Spalding endured five consecutive losing seasons before the 2019-20 campaign, Whitmore led the Cavaliers to their first playoff win in over a decade. This past season, Spalding finished 12-3 in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association’s condensed season behind Whitmore, who was named the league’s player of the year after averaging roughly 22 points and 12 rebounds.
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This past summer, Whitmore ascended recruiting rankings when he received more exposure in front of college scouts playing with Spalding and Team Melo, his AAU program. At a game at DeMatha in June, Whitmore threw down a reverse alley-oop that made SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays.
Whitmore, who selected Villanova over North Carolina and Illinois, is the eighth player from the D.C. area to commit to the Pennsylvania private school in the past decade. Whitmore is the area’s first Wildcats commit since DeMatha guard Justin Moore, the 2019 All-Met Player of the Year, enrolled at Villanova in 2019. Under Coach Jay Wright, the Wildcats won the 2016 and 2018 NCAA titles and have developed several NBA players.
Whitmore is the second high-profile recruit from the area to announce his college choice this week. DeMatha guard Rodney Rice, a four-star prospect, committed to Virginia Tech on Sunday. The senior is the first Stags player to commit to the Hokies since former DeMatha coach Mike Jones departed in May to become Virginia Tech’s top assistant.
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