The Lady Razorbacks are hoping this 6-3 center will beef up their inside game.

Ruby Vaden didn't grow up dribbling a basketball. In fact, the way the standout 6-3 center for Osceola (Ark.) High School got started with hoops had more to do with NOT wanting to participate in another activity.

"I never put a ball in her hand or had a basketball goal," her mother, Patricia Vaden, recently told nwaonline.net. "She told me that when she was in the fourth grade she didn't want to jump on the trampoline one day and asked to go to the basketball court. That's how she started playing basketball."

And Ruby played it very well. When she got to high school, she was able to help the varsity team almost immediately. "Ruby first got attention as a ninth-grader when she joined us late in the season, helped us make the state tournament for the first time in 15 years and had 18 points and 17 rebounds against (eventual champion) Siloam Springs," said Osceola coach David Moon.

Since then, Vaden has gone on to have more success at Osceola. As a junior, she averaged 20.1 points and 8.3 rebounds while leading the school to its first conference championship in nearly 50 years. And as a senior, Vaden averaged 23 points per game, leading Osceola to the Class AAAA state semifinals before falling to Harrison, 63-50, despite her scoring 36 points.

Vaden has been a good high school teammate, one who has grown into a leadership role. "She is very coachable," said Moon. "Her mother has done a good job with her. She's become more of a verbal leader this year and is really enjoying that role on the team."

Considered one of the top national recruits in the Class of 2002, Vaden considered Connecticut, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Southwest Missouri State, before deciding to enroll at Arkansas this fall. "Arkansas' coaches are wonderful people," Vaden told nwaonline.net. "And the Lady Razorbacks are No. 6 in the NCAA in percentage of women's basketball players graduating. Academics is what won us for Arkansas." She plans to major in computer technology or physical education.

By staying in her home state, Vaden will give the Lady Razorbacks the inside game they have lacked for years. "If there is anything we have missed in the past, it was having an all-America caliber player in the low post, particularly in SEC play," said Head Coach Gary Blair last November. "She will rank among the all-time great post players from the state, but she will be the first one to stay home.

"She runs the floor and has the power game we've been searching for," Blair added. "She is very much a team player who enjoys her teammates and her family."

This spring, Vaden was selected to participate in the first-ever McDonald's All-American High School Basketball Girls Game in New York's Madison Square Garden. She scored 13 points to help lead the West team to a 94-85 victory. Vaden was also chosen as one of 10 finalists for the Naismith Award, which honors the outstanding prep basketball players in the United States.

Article written by Gball Associate Editor Jim Catalano.

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