Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Recruiting Notes - Wednesday, October 30th, 2019

   The Pitt' men's basketball team scrimmages against Slippery Rock University tonight at 7 p.m. at the Peterson Events Center, and tickets are free for those who may be interested in attending. For Pitt, tonight's matchup represents the team's final live-game action before the regular season begins at home against the Florida State Seminoles on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

   Tickets for next week's season opener are available through the Pitt Athletics site, and are going for as low as $35. Starting the season at home against a great conference opponent should create an exciting atmosphere! Before game time, however, there's plenty of recruiting news to report.

  • Of Jeff Capel's 2021 targets, few are as intriguing as shooting guard Bryce McGowens, the younger brother of current Panther Trey McGowens. McGowens, who is ranked no. 51 in the Rivals150, took a visit to Pitt this weekend:
    • As a prospect for the 2021 class, Bryce McGowens would have the opportunity to play with his older brother for one year if he were to commit to Pitt. That would be pretty cool, eh?
    • The younger McGowens has also recently visited Georgia and Clemson, and is hearing from other top schools including Xavier, Florida State, South Carolina, and Ole Miss. As his junior year continues, I expect that his recruitment will continue to blow up.
  • With Pitt having missed out on 2020 point guard RJ Davis, who committed to North Carolina last week, Capel and staff have turned their attention to another target: Rivals150 point guard Jalen Terry from Flint, Mich.
    • Terry, who is currently ranked as the no. 48 prospect in the Rivals150 for the 2020 class, de-committed from Michigan State University two weeks ago. Terry recently received a visit from Louisville head coach Chris Mack, and took an official visit to LSU this past weekend. 
    • It's not clear how long Pitt has been involved with Terry, or how much interest he might have in the program. LSU was his first official visit, and with four remaining, it will be interesting to see whether Pitt is in consideration for a campus visit.
  • Beyond Terry, Pitt has several other potential point guard targets remaining on their board including three-star prospect Shakeel Moore, who visited Pitt in September. Of note, Moore attends the same high school as another high-profile Pitt target--Josh Hall.
  • Hall, a five-star small forward, is finishing up his official visits and plans to commit in the very near future and sign during the upcoming early signing period. He recently visited NC State and DePaul, and Pitt may be able to land a visit before he commits:
    • While most of the experts are projecting that Hall will land at NC State, a great official visit can always change the calculus with recruits. Given the timeline for Hall's commitment, it would be huge for Capel to get Hall on campus. The opportunity to be Hall's final visit could be a huge advantage for Pitt, and we'll have to keep our eye on whether Pitt can line a visit up with the elite wing prospect.
  • Corey Evans has news on Earl Timberlake's upcoming commitment as well, suggesting that the five-star Timberlake could commit at any time. While Evans suggests that Pitt, Seton Hall, Providence, and Miami are all still in on him, he says that he'd still put his money on Miami to ultimately land Timberlake. With the early signing period looming in the next few weeks, expect Timberlake to commit sooner rather than later.
  • Craig Meyer from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an interesting interview with new Pitt guard Ryan Murphy, and among the interesting bits are his comments on why he chose Pitt. Murphy says that his relationship with the Capels, in addition to their reputation among other friends of his who have been recruited by them, drew him to ultimately commit to the Panthers.
    • Murphy specifically mentions asking his former AAU teammates Derryck Thornton and Chase Jeter about Capel, and highlights the positive things that they had to say about him as a coach and person. The impressive thing about that? Both Thornton and Jeter ultimately transferred away from Duke. Despite their decisions to leave Duke, Thornton (USC, Boston College) and Jeter (Arizona) still felt positively enough about Capel to sway Murphy toward Pitt.
    • Murphy's comments represent the perfect example of how important relationship-building is in college basketball recruiting. Sure, every college coach is a good recruiter, and they are all able to build positive relationships with the kids that they are recruiting. But to be able to maintain the kind of positive impressions widely throughout the game and on the AAU circuit can really be an asset for this coaching staff and for this Pitt program. Expect that to pay dividends in Pittsburgh the longer that Capel is at the helm.
  • Meta note: At the end of these posts, you'll start to see a link or two to some cool, new items on Fanatics. Since the Pitt Lead is new partner of Fanatics, they're supporting the blog and helping to provide some financial support for the work that I do here. I appreciate your readership and support! If you wind up purchasing anything from Fanatics, feel free to tag @PittLead on Twitter using the hashtag #BlueEra to let us know!
    • To that end, if you're looking for some new Pitt gear to celebrate the start of the college basketball season, Fanatics has some great stuff among their newest items, including an awesome Pitt script crewneck sweatshirt and replica basketball uniform shorts. 
    • Fanatics is also offering free U.S. shipping on orders over $34, and up to 65 percent off on NCAA apparel through Wednesday night for those looking for a good deal!
Well that's it for today's recruiting news. Happy hump day, and Hail to Pitt!
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