Haverford School Star Hoopster Looks Toward The Future

It’s been an interesting year for nearly 7-foot Chinese exchange student .The starting center went from parachuting into a new country, hardly knowing the English language, to becoming very welcomed and quite immersed in what has been a very gratifying experience not only for him, but those around him.

Now the next step.

The 6-foot-11 Xu has achieved senior status and took the SAT for the first time Saturday, March 10. He’s received considerable interest from Drexel, Penn, Niagara and Princeton. Xu may need to take an extra year at a junior college, if he does not reach the SAT qualifying score, but it appears Xu is headed in a good direction.

“It’s been fun to watch Tao develop,” Fords’ basketball coach Henry Fairfax said. “Here’s this kid that got off a plane with a pretty severe (back) injury and became someone every team we faced had to prepare for, and he certainly helped in what we’re trying do to here, and that’s build a winning program.”

Fairfax made the point that Xu adjusted well from the style of basketball in China to the speed of the game played in the United States. A reserved kid by nature, Fairfax said, Xu began breaking out of his shell to the degree he was able to give PowerPoint presentations.

“Tao still knows he has a long way to go before he’s a finished product,” Fairfax said. “But you can tell Tao is going to be quite a success. The thing I learned from working with him is how much more he values the educational component in his life. Tao would like to go to college, but he may need another year to transition to the states.

“There are some local junior colleges and Tao aspires to go to high-level academic school. He’s going to reach for the stars, and selfishly, I wouldn’t mind seeing Tao go to Penn or one of the local schools, but ultimately it’s up to him. It’s all about finding the right fit for Tao. Some of the schools have realized he’s likely to get another year and they’ll go back and reevaluate where he is. At that Division-I level, it’s all about the class, level and the need for a school. The good news is schools haven’t backed off.”

Fairfax noted that a number of schools are interested in Xu. That if Xu
makes the score and was ready to go in August, schools would line up to get a shot at him.

“My position on Tao’s future, from my experience, is for Tao to be smart and open minded about his options,” Fairfax said. “He’s here and has the opportunity to choose the right fit for him that will be critical for the rest of his life. I’m advocating for him to choose a place that’s best for him. Having the opportunity to coach him for a year, I’d like to see him go to a place where they’re sensitive to him still adjusting to the game.”