Since finding a new school, he has developed new basketball skills, a new attitude and new friends.

The 6-foot-4 point guard at Raleigh Word of God also is getting national recruiting attention from many of the top college basketball programs in the country.

His rise in national rankings has been meteoric.

Last fall, he didn't make the Broughton High varsity team.

Today, he is ranked No. 6 among high school juniors by Scout.com. On Thursday night, he worked out at the Word of God gym in front of coaches from North Carolina, N.C. State, Virginia and Oklahoma State.

Word of God basketball coach Levi Beckwith said he can recall only one other player going from such obscurity to national prominence: Tracy McGrady -- the Floridian who transferred to Durham Mount Zion and rocketed to the top of the national rankings after outstanding play in one summer camp.

But Beckwith isn't surprised with the attention that Wall is garnering.

"John is a legitimate point guard who is 6-4," Beckwith said. "The sky is the limit for him."

Wall's route to Word of God was filled with unexpected twists.

He started on the junior varsity at Garner High during his freshman year. But he and his mother, a bus driver for the Wake County school system, moved into the Broughton district. Wall tried out for the Broughton team and was stunned when he didn't make it.

"I couldn't believe it when someone told me," he said. "I had to go look for myself. I still don't know what happened."

Beckwith has an idea.

"John has always been very respectful -- yes, sir; no, sir -- but he had a terrible attitude on the court," Beckwith said. "He would let his temper get the best of him.

"If he made a pass and someone missed it, he'd really get angry.

"Broughton is rolling out 20-game winners every season. I'm not surprised that John didn't fit in."

Broughton coach Jeff Ferrell said diplomatically that Wall just didn't fit the path that his team was taking.

"If his experience here at Broughton helped him become a better person and player, I am delighted," Ferrell said. "I wish him nothing but the best.

"Sometimes you have to go through some valleys to reach the peak. He is an outstanding player."

Wall transferred to Word of God in November, but he couldn't play until after the end of the first semester in December because of the school's transfer policy.

During the second semester, he averaged 17 points per game for the Warriors and helped them win the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association 1-A championship.

He also got an attitude adjustment.

"If I got mad on the court, I was sent to the bench," he said. "I learned I had to control my emotions if I wanted to play."

The small environment was helpful, too. Word of God has about 200 students, and one of Beckwith's responsibilities is to report to parents regularly.

"I learned to become a better person," Wall said. "I'm a whole different person than I was a couple of years ago."

He has a new set of friends, too.

"The guys I used to hang with are good people, but they sometimes went places where bad things happened," he said.

Amazing things happened for Wall when he went to the Headliner Tryout Camp in Chicago.

He was one of only five of the 120 underclassmen at the camp who were invited to the Reebok U camp in Philadelphia.

Wall had been getting some national respect before the Reebok camp, but he shot above most of his peers with his play there.

"The first night there, I was playing against Brandon Jennings and Isaiah Thomas [two of the top ranked senior point guards in the country,]" Wall said.

"I realized I could do the same things against them that I had against other players. I could beat them off the dribble and get to the rack. If it worked against them, it would work against anybody. They are good quick defenders, and I could still play my game."

Wall will be playing with another of the country's best players at Word of God.

C. J. Leslie, a 6-8 sophomore who committed to N.C. State after his freshman season, has transferred from Holly Springs.

"C. J. is going to really benefit from playing with John," Beckwith said. "I asked [national recruiting expert] Dave Telep how many players in the top 20 take charges, dive for loose balls and play defense like John," Beckwith said. "He said none.

"Some of that is going to rub off on C. J. And John is going to have someone who can play at his level."

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