Chase Johnson commits
- Thread starter TheDeanofPgh
- Start date
Johnson to Dayton, Cockburn to Illinois tomorrow.
Not good.
Not good.
And to do it less than a day after visiting Pitt too.
I know he had visited Dayton twice already, but damn.
It's nice to be recruiting some higher end guys and you gotta get in their top 3-5, but landing them needs to happen as well. And obviously, Capel has only been the coach for 9 months. Johnson aside, HS recruits have been getting recruited by HC's for 1+ years. Huge disadvantage for a new HC.
I know he had visited Dayton twice already, but damn.
It's nice to be recruiting some higher end guys and you gotta get in their top 3-5, but landing them needs to happen as well. And obviously, Capel has only been the coach for 9 months. Johnson aside, HS recruits have been getting recruited by HC's for 1+ years. Huge disadvantage for a new HC.
My take is that Johnson saw yesterday's competition which reinforced that he doesn't have the confidence his skills will translate into significant playing time in a P5 conference.
A coaches first full class is usually when he strikes it big because those kids know that coach will be there for their entire career. That doesn't seem to be the case with Capel. Sounds like Cockburn isn't coming here, so it's Wahab or bust, kids reclassifying and grad transfers come this spring?
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This guy avg. 8 mins a game last year, and 6 mins a game this year for FL. He wasn’t going to move the needle for us.
This is exactly why I don’t get all the “Were fine! All is well!” posts in regards to this class.
Yes, X/McGowens/Toney have been fantastic. Great class. Now what? You can’t live off of one great class. A rebuild of the magnitude that we require needs to have a stream of talent
We’re not getting beat by Kentucky and Duke on the recruiting trail, we’re getting beat by Miami, UConn, GTown, Illinois, etc. That’s not good.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but this is really past the “oh well, we’ll get the next one” stage for me.
No, you aren't. I love the people with the "well, Pitt is a hard sell".....oh yeah? Dayton? Illinois? There are only so many starting positions open in the best conference in the NCAA and Pitt possesses some of them. We already have guards, you would think we should be able to sell some bigs.
The other issue is that Bigs are not easy to find, especially of the caliber that we need. Missing on plug and play guys like Akok and Cockburn hurts, but isn’t unexpected. When we’re missing on guys like Johnson, Walker, and possibly/probably Wahab, we have issues
Have you seen the Fla starters this year? There are a lot of guys that Pitt could get that would move the needle for us right now and Capel doesn't seem to be getting any of them.
Are we gonna land anybody or is Capel waiting till x McGowens and Toney all graduate so he can start recruiting again by 2021
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Have all the confidence you want about Capels ability to recruit. If we don't secure two verbals BEFORE the early signing period, I will move from slightly disappointed to worried.
You don’t respond to morons. They just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. Best to ignore them as responding to them is how they get their jollies
The Pitt fan base is fillled with drama queen nancies. This thread and the NC thread are proof. They get more satisfaction out of running around with their hair on fire at the first sign of trouble than they do seeing the team win
Capel clearly is not as good of a recruiter as rip van Stallings.
Agree. It is frustrating to see the schools we are losing players to. Illinois!?!? That is beyond frustrating.
yeah I just don’t get it. If anyone has a logical and more importantly rational answer I would love to know. It is not that Capel simply can’t recruit.
If I had to make a guess: Capel over estimated his own recruiting ability (understandable after the 3 freshmen). He probably could have closed on several serviceable players early, but felt he could do better. So far he hasn't.
For what it is worth, my doctor is a big donor. He told me in November tHat he was confident Capel would secure at least one good big.
At that time, I believe he was referencing Wahab and Akok.
If Capel cant recruit to Pitt who can?? Lol
It is concerning that Capel hasnt landed a "traditional commit" yet (Johnson decomitted because of an assistant leaving and McGowens and Toney reclassified late). However, the fact that he isnt even recruiting sub-150 guys leads me to believe he thinks he can get some post guys to reclassify. "Play prep another year or come start from Day 1 in the ACC."
Right after his hire, he was able to market himself as leaving the top program in the country and their 1-and-done players for a new job with ample minutes to offer. Now he's Pitt's coach, and his marketability is tied to what results we get. His freshmen are certainly the best we've seen in some time, but they aren't 1-and-dones and the team is still toward the bottom of the conference.
I agree that with the volume of spots he has available, he should've taken a couple moderate guys early just so that he can say he already has something to build from in the spring. That's why giving up so early on Stevenson was sort of baffling to me. He's taken a very arrogant, risky approach to this, all things considered.
What makes Pitt a difficult sell right now is the numbers 0-20 which is their ACC record dating back to 2018 and 85-60 which was the score yesterday. Yes, players want playing time but now while getting their heads beat in. As the season wears on and Pitt is more competitive, which they will be in most games, the sell may get a bit easier.
Please name a few transfers in recent memory that has been good? Please name one. And this guy has medical issues also. Not a loss.
Bringing in kids who can’t elevate your program really serves no purpose . Hopefully there’s a plan , but I’m a little baffled on the Stevenson thing too . The kid played with a chip on his shoulder last yr . Pitt could use a little muscle around the basket .
This is what I suspect happened. He had a plan and identified his targets and is just striking out. My concern is that so much time is being spent on these top players that Pitt will miss guys ranked 100-200 who can stay four years and be excellent contributors.
I said this on the pay board, but when Dixon was doing well here he didn’t waste time with guys he knew he couldn’t land and instead got a lot of good 100-200 ranked guys who matured into great seniors. What he lacked was the occasional stud to put Pitt over the top. I will be curious to see how Capel modifies his approach. I would love to see him hit the 100-200 range while isolating a handful of game changers.
The only players who can elevate the program are in the top-50? XJ was overlooked by literally everyone, and he's the best player we have. There are dozens of guys out there that Capel could've pursued with less competition than the ones he lost out on. If you only have 3 scholarships, sure, only give them to guys you know are going to pan out. But we've got 5+. You really can't sign 5+ freshmen and have them all play meaningful minutes anyway. You hope maybe 1-2 can be immediate impact players and then the rest you hope you can develop and mature over 4 years.
Yup. Pitt needs an infusion of talent across the board. Sure, aim high for a legit big. But there are plenty of recruits who will still raise the collective talent of the team.
Signing 5 freshman is never going to happen , they need the ships for the 20 class unless they’re going to chase off more players . I think Pitt will end up with two grad transfers and I wouldn’t be surprised at a third or a regular transfer and two freshman . I’m not going to be concerned until I see what the class looks like . Can’t see how a 6 ‘8” project will help .
Rather not have roster fillers like the previous coach .
You can gnash your teeth with the anxiety that creates
He was more injury prone than Luther, and averaged less than a point per game when he was playing. There would have been great rejoicing if this recruit committed today!
Speaking of Luther, after some early season success he has struggled mightily the last 6 weeks or so. Maybe to the point that he ends up falling out of the regular rotation.
