UVa recruit Will Regan draws frequent comparisons to Christian Laettner

The latest basketball standout at Nichols Schools in Buffalo, N.Y., where Christian Laettner starred in the late ’80s, is Will Regan.

Like Laettner, Regan is a skilled frontcourt player, and the 6-8, 220-pound rising senior has heard others compare him to his illustrious predecessor.

“I get them a fair amount,” said Regan, who recently committed to UVa. “Obviously, I’m a different player, but I come from the same high school, so it’s kind of inevitable.”

Regan, who’ll turn 18 in January, was strictly a low-post player when he entered high school, Nichols coach Greg Plumb said, but “ever since his freshman year he’s been kind of (moving) farther and farther away from the hoop. Now if he’s open from 3, you better be on him, or he’s going to shoot it on you.”

Asked if Regan reminded him of another big man, Plumb answered, “It’s hard to say. You feel like he’s almost like he’s got the toughness of a (Kevin) Pittsnogle. I don’t think he’s quite as out in left field as Pittsnogle was — he doesn’t have any tattoos or anything like that — but he’s very versatile.”

Regan needs to work on his “strength and explosiveness,” Plumb said. “He’s lean like an athlete, but now he needs to get bigger and wider at this level.”

Recruiting update

The sixth football player to commit to UVa for 2010 is, like the first five, from out of state.

Pablo Alvarez, a rising senior at Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami, recently visited Virginia with his family. Alvarez, an outstanding student, chose UVa over offers from Colorado State, Duke, Iowa, Kansas State, Marshall, Northwestern, Purdue and Tulane.

The 6-3, 190-pound Alvarez, also a track star, is projected to play cornerback at UVa.

On a big stage

Six UVa recruits played in the fourth annual Under Armour All-American boys lacrosse game Saturday night.

One of them, midfielder Chris LaPierre, was named the MVP. LaPierre, who’s from the southern part of New Jersey, had two goals and four assists to lead the South to a 19-16 win over the North.

The other future Cavaliers at Towson were Howie Long from St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, attackman Connor English and attackman/midfielder Nick O’Reilly from Long Island, N.Y., attackman/middie Matt White from Connecticut and defenseman Harry Prevas from Baltimore.

“I think we were really proud of how they all played and carried themselves in the game,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, who was an interested observer at Towson University.

The 6-2, 210-pound LaPierre, who also was a record-setting tailback in high school, is “a monster,” said Starsia. “I think his play Saturday night was a little bit of a revelation for a lot of guys who were probably seeing him for the first time, because Shawnee High School is not on everybody’s stop list for high school games.”

In 2010, Starsia said:  “I think (LaPierre) could play on the first midfield. I think he could face off. I think he could play on the second midield. He could play on the defensive midfield. I think he could do anything we ask him to do and do it well.”

For the North, White had four goals and two assists, O’Reilly had three goals and English had one goal.

ODU adds ex-Cavalier

Former UVa football player Jason Fuller will use his final season of eligibility at Old Dominion University.

Fuller, who graduated last month from Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, is the Monarchs’ first transfer from a program in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. ODU is about to embark on its first season in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Coach Bobby Wilder, in a statement, said Fuller “has everything we are looking for in a student-athlete at Old Dominion. He has an undergraduate degree from one of the top business schools in the country, he is a great person, and he is passionate about playing football at Old Dominion.”

Fuller, a 6-5, 255-pound defensive end, is from Virginia Beach’s Kempsville High. He was redshirted at UVa in 2005 and played sparingly thereafter.

- White is a sports writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.