I’m saying that I don’t believe we are going to get Denis either way, I think the staff has a good grasp on where they sit in his recruitment, and I think they did a very nice job in closing on Witherspoon instead.
Omari Witherspoon
- Thread starter bummer01
- Start date
Maybe, but he just visited here a week ago and the intel on the visit was positive.
Generally speaking, this has been a very different year for recruiting. There are generally a lot more commits to top schools this time of year. We are going into the 2nd week of September and Duke has 0 commits. And Duke gets whoever they want most of the time. This isnt normal.
The dominos from a lot of the bigger names are going to start falling soon. For example, when Darryn Peterson commits to Kansas which is a when and not an if as he is down to 4( unless there is some major multimillion NIL change he already has with Adidas leading to Kansas), someone else scholarship is going to get pulled and that player will no longer even be visiting Kansas.
There are some big names with very short school lists with the blue bloods that will start to shift everyone elses recruitment when these players commit. Everything will start to shift when the 5 stars start to come off the board.
So a quality 4 star player that has final list of 10 with 8 visits lined up, that list is going to get cut in half rather quickly because a better player took his spot.
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Trying to compete against schools that can recruit 5* HS kids and buy the best portal guys available with 4* HS kids is a losing proposition . There aren’t many Bubs out there .
Witherspoon will announce his commitment on Wednesday per PSN.
New recent Article on 247 on Amari Evans, if Im allowed to link that here Im not sure. Anyway, the highlight part in bold is what's important and what I said earlier in this thread regarding Evans.
"Interestingly, Pittsburgh—Evans' hometown school and a perceived leader in his recruitment—is reportedly close to landing another 6-foot-4 guard, Omari Witherspoon"
Decisions will be made for Witherspoon, Dixon, and Evans soon. Can Capel finish the job with all 3, time will tell. Meleek Thomas and Isaiah Denis still in play. Interestingly enough, Evans is now moving up multiple visits on his calendar. No surprise there.
247sports.com
"Interestingly, Pittsburgh—Evans' hometown school and a perceived leader in his recruitment—is reportedly close to landing another 6-foot-4 guard, Omari Witherspoon"
Decisions will be made for Witherspoon, Dixon, and Evans soon. Can Capel finish the job with all 3, time will tell. Meleek Thomas and Isaiah Denis still in play. Interestingly enough, Evans is now moving up multiple visits on his calendar. No surprise there.
Xavier basketball recruiting: Top 100 wing moves up Xavier visit
Amari Evans moved up his visit to Xavier and is currently on campus.
247sports.com
Witherspoon and Dixon are not an "either or" to Pitt. Pretty certain they are selling Dixon at the 1 and Witherspoon at the 2 ala Bub and Jaland.
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As of now, we are looking at Lowe, Beebah, Delalic and Barnes for our 1/2/3 spots next year. And that likely will change. We will have plenty of room for 3 of our target recruits, and possibly more. In fact, I’d say getting at least 2 is imperative. JC can always turn to the portal for other reinforcements if we don’t get any more than 2 of the top guard recruits.
Yep, I've had no expectation of Jaland being back after next year, John. If you expect Delalic to be gone too, I can only read that to mean that you are very bullish on him and expect him to be in the draft next year.
It’s fun to have a positive vibe around hoops again
That’s why I think the stakes for this season are so high. I really feel like, barring some fluky injuries to Lowe or other key players, there’s no excuse for missing the dance.
A strong season where you spend a bit of time in the top 25 + a tourney win or two and another potential 1st round draft pick and this program could be in the best shape it’s been in since 2010.
Getting back to the thread topic.
Ive been watching more film on Witherspoon as the days pass, and I came across a pretty interesting short interview with Witherspoon from an AAU event that took place about 2 months ago.
In that interview, the question was asked to him, what are you working on the most and what do you want to improve the most going into your final season at St. Johns. What area of your game needs the most improvement?
And his answer was pretty shocking, at least to me it was because its not something I ever hear from a player. He said that stamina is what he needs to fix the most and what is hurting him the most. He said that he has shown the ability to play at a really high level on both ends of the floor but he cannot sustain it throughout the game because his stamina is no where near good enough to where he wants it to be.
Its a good answer and quite interesting answer. And it can possibly explain why his jumper is not more consistent. Ive watched enough video by now to see what he is talking about and I never even thought about a Stamina issue (I have only seen hours of clips, not full games yet). In some clips, he looks really good taking the ball to the basket with a quick first step and keeping his man in front of him on defense. In other clips, he just looked to me a bit slow on both ends of the floor and he was getting beat on defense off the dribble from guys he should be keeping in front of him.
This is interesting information. Because if he works on this hard, he may reach an all new higher level of consistent play his senior season.
Ive been watching more film on Witherspoon as the days pass, and I came across a pretty interesting short interview with Witherspoon from an AAU event that took place about 2 months ago.
In that interview, the question was asked to him, what are you working on the most and what do you want to improve the most going into your final season at St. Johns. What area of your game needs the most improvement?
And his answer was pretty shocking, at least to me it was because its not something I ever hear from a player. He said that stamina is what he needs to fix the most and what is hurting him the most. He said that he has shown the ability to play at a really high level on both ends of the floor but he cannot sustain it throughout the game because his stamina is no where near good enough to where he wants it to be.
Its a good answer and quite interesting answer. And it can possibly explain why his jumper is not more consistent. Ive watched enough video by now to see what he is talking about and I never even thought about a Stamina issue (I have only seen hours of clips, not full games yet). In some clips, he looks really good taking the ball to the basket with a quick first step and keeping his man in front of him on defense. In other clips, he just looked to me a bit slow on both ends of the floor and he was getting beat on defense off the dribble from guys he should be keeping in front of him.
This is interesting information. Because if he works on this hard, he may reach an all new higher level of consistent play his senior season.
It definitely feels like the needle is pointing up….but things can change fast in this environment. If John is right and we need to replace Lowe and Delalic next year, our backcourt becomes really thin. Rosters need constant replenishing these days and one off-year in recruiting can easily kill all the momentum. We will likely be an entirely different team the year after this while possibly relying on big minutes from multiple freshmen. It worked out great with Bub and Jaland last year, but that can’t be counted on to be the norm.
I’m not against adding talented freshman , but to compete at the level we all want them too you need to add ( employ ) the right portal players .
Hmm… Visits UNC and then abruptly cancels Arizona. Hard not to be concerned about this one.
This one will be interesting. I've heard Pitt & Syracuse have recruited Dixon the hardest since day one. Cuse doesn't seem to be a factor now, but UNC involved late is always a concern.
Normally this is correct. This situation could turn out differently because of how close Brown is to his family.
Agree, the smoke indicates at least a chance. I don't think it's a coincidence that Twitter was alight with Capel in to see Dixon today followed by news the visit was cancelled.
We have to hope that there really is a strong enough relationship with Pitt. The only other potential advantage I see is if we guarantee him big minutes as a freshman and UNC doesn't.
First crystal ball prediction for Derek Dixon put in today on rivals.com
Derek Dixon is forecasted to Pitt by Houston Wilson.
btw, for those that do not know, Dixon calls Milan Brown his "uncle"
Derek Dixon is forecasted to Pitt by Houston Wilson.
btw, for those that do not know, Dixon calls Milan Brown his "uncle"
Amari Evans is down to 4 schools per Brandon Jenkins
Pitt, Tennessee, Xavier, TCU
Ole Miss visit was canceled for Xavier, TCU visit upcoming. Sean Miller has been trying hard, he's made multiple stops to visit Evans.
Decision coming soon....
Pitt, Tennessee, Xavier, TCU
Ole Miss visit was canceled for Xavier, TCU visit upcoming. Sean Miller has been trying hard, he's made multiple stops to visit Evans.
Decision coming soon....
Just taking this opportunity to remind everyone that Sean Miller is a profoundly mediocre coach and that will be proven out during this stint at Xavier. Dude won't be worth crap when he can't cheat his way to an extreme talent advantage.
Okay? That's my point, dude. Everyone can pay players now so the playing field is level. When he can't cheat to get the best players, it's going to be clear that he's a below average coach.
I don’t think he’s below average, I’d say above average, not great. Agree we’ll see as the next few years play out.
Unless everyone has the same amount of money it isn’t a level playing field , dude . Think that Pitt can now pay its players it can evenly compete with Duke , Kentucky or Kansas?
Plus how you elect to spend your resources matters , my man .
There’s no denying he underachieved at Arizona, but he overachieved at Xavier , bud .
He overachieved at Xavier when? Get out of here. He’s mediocre at best and he’ll prove that again this year.
He didn’t get the Arizona job because he was mediocre and he’d still be there if things didn’t blow up .
Having three seasons of 25,27 & 30 wins and making the tournament isn’t mediocre.
There needs to be a new metric for evaluating coaches NIL / wins .
lets go spoon..... Capel has a deep team.
lets go .
last year was BS. 22-11 ok?
no tourney ? Pitt got robbed...
pittsburghsportsnow.com
lets go .
last year was BS. 22-11 ok?
no tourney ? Pitt got robbed...
Pitt Could Land Highest-Ranked Recruit of Jeff Capel’s Tenure
Pitt is currently locked in a recruiting battle for a four-star guard in the class of 2025. Derek Dixon, a four star out of Gonzaga Prep in Washington D.C., has developed a strong relationship with Pitt head coach Jeff Capel, associate head coach Milan Brown, and the rest of the staff over more...
pittsburghsportsnow.com
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Sort of. Despite what UNC's staff says, Dixon appears to be a fall back recruit for UNC. They whiffed on Jasper Johnson.
Arcaden Lewis is visiting UNC in early October. Lewis has cut his list to Duke, Kentucky, UConn, and UNC. UNC isn't thought to be the favorite here, but who knows.
Lewis is another DC guy fwiw.
He has had Great players and good teams so I would say at least above average. I am no longer a fan since he and his family has dissed Pitt on several occasions.
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