During a recent Webster Groves basketball practice, a missed shot descended toward a thicket of tangled teens.

No one in Roberts Gym seemed surprised when it was the willowy, 6-foot-4, 170-something-pound point guard who climbed an invisible ladder to snag the ball.

If you were a stranger, No. 13 would have been far down the list of players you picked to win this battle.

If you know Courtney Ramey, you’re just used to it by now.

“Best rebounding guard I’ve ever seen,” Webster Groves coach Jay Blossom said.

Webster Groves’ do-it-all point guard is the subject of our local high school hoops scene’s biggest guessing game: Where’s Ramey going?

Colleges covet him. Scouting services rank the four-star senior as the top player in the state. Among point guards who have not yet committed or signed scholarship papers, he’s considered one of the top two. In the country.

He’s a point-producer. A pass-maker. He can play stifling defense. And wow, does he rebound.

He wasn’t yet seven years old when his father and first coach, Terrell Ramey, took him to a rec center and set him free. The other kids ran with the ball, like in football. Courtney kept his dribble, and dribbled with his left.

Courtney has always seemed a step ahead, and one of the first lessons his father taught him was this: You don’t have to beg for the ball if you go get rebounds.

This senior season has been all about rebounding. In more ways than one.

Before the season, Courtney was forced to walk back a commitment to Louisville after the FBI probe into college basketball corruption cost coach Rick Pitino his job. No longer would his senior season be free of recruiting stress and focused solely on steering the Statesmen to another Class 5 title.

Then came the threat to the season, period. A few minutes into Webster’s preseason jamboree, Courtney went from driving the baseline to running out of the gym screaming what everyone feared: “It’s broken.”

Blossom recalls one doctor suggesting that Webster Groves might be without last year’s Post-Dispatch All-Metro player of the year for as many as three months. Ramey didn’t miss two. The only sign of the injury these days is the tape wrapped around Courtney’s right wrist.

“This year has helped me mature,” he said. “Now, I can’t take the game for granted. I know how it feels like not to play the game I love.”

He’s averaged 19.7 points and 6.7 assists through his first 10 games back. Rebounding? He’s pulling down an average of 7.5. For perspective, that’s one less than teammate and St. Louis University commit Carte’Are Gordon, who stands at 6-foot-9.

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Courtney has broken Webster Groves’ assists record. This week he surpassed 1,500 career points and climbed another notch on the school’s scoring list. This weekend he leads the Statesmen into the O’Fallon Shootout without Gordon, who has been suspended and might not return this season.

No Gordon means a much tougher road. With Courtney, there’s a chance.

“Most people tell you a good point guard is worth 10 or 12 points,” Blossom said. “He’s worth a lot more than that for us. He’s college-ready.”

Speaking of college. Where’s the wonder kid going to go?

Courtney politely dodges such questions.

Dad hits them head-on.

Two of Courtney’s five NCAA-allowed official visits were claimed by Texas and Oklahoma State. A third is likely going to UCLA.

Villanova? Not so fast. A planned official visit to the program that was once in the lead was cancelled after Villanova seemed to be circling a commitment from five-star point guard Jahvon Quinerly, the only uncommitted point guard ranked ahead of Ramey.

Ohio State and Clemson have long been in the race.

“New schools that have really turned up their recruitment are SMU, Illinois, Tennessee, Minnesota, Maryland, South Carolina, Mississippi State,” Terrell said.

That sound you hear is a point-guard desperate Mizzou fan base screaming that the Tigers should be on this list.

“I think they might think they don’t have a shot,” said Terrell of the Tigers, making sure to mention that he considers himself to be friends with Mizzou’s Cuonzo Martin. “It’s not that they don’t like Courtney, or that we had a bad fallout. Maybe they see the schools or think he’s favoring somewhere else. It’s a weird deal.”

With time for things to change. Neither Mizzou nor Louisville is out of the picture, according to Terrell. The plan for now is to wait until after the season to commit, especially when another round of FBI and NCAA findings could cut down more coaches. The family feels it can afford to be picky.

“It matters,” Terrell said. “You want him to go somewhere where he is the primary option, and everybody believes in him.”

Terrell brushes off critics who claim he is overly involved with his son’s recruitment. But the longtime youth basketball coach does admit there are days when he is more consumed with it than his son.

That’s because Courtney is busy trying to make the most of a senior season that flashed before his eyes.

As he eased into his return with a still-tender wrist, Blossom told Ramey something he has never said to a player.

Don’t worry about rebounding.

Courtney couldn’t resist.

He threw himself into the fray in one of his first games back.

“I fell on my wrist,” he said. “Everybody looked at me. I was like, ‘I’m fine. I’m back.’”