Let’s get to work….
Karim Coulibaly
Karim Coulibaly just turned 18 years old in December. He’s been a consistent double double machine for highly rated Scotland Prep this year. A nice lefty that can finish around the basket and has some but developing firepower from 3 point range. He was the #1 overall player in defensive rebound percentage at Adidas Gauntlet and was Top 15 in block percentage overall, 2 reasons the Pitt staff likes him. This is a player that also averaged a very well respected 14PPG and 10 boards per game in FIBA last year. Coulibaly is easily a very solid defender that can guard multiple positions. It wasn’t long ago he was one of the top performers in the prestigious National Prep Showcase where more schools tried to get involved, but Coulibaly remained loyal to the schools on him the longest. Pitt has been consistently recruiting him and Coulibaly has kept the same schools on his short list for over 6 months. When Coulibaly does not get himself in foul trouble which he does from time to time, he puts up numbers. As you can see, Coulibaly outperformed Wahab and Tre Mitchell on offense at Adidas. And I like players that are unselfish to help the team win, and he does this. He’s also consistent. He shot over 50% from the floor at Adidas and FIBA. The numbers support it. He is well underrated. And should be visiting Pitt soon. It wasn’t long ago he put up 43 points and 18 rebounds in a game last month. He just put up another 23 and 13 respectively
The Champagnie twins
Recent offers have gone out to the Champagnie twins and make no mistake about it, Pitt just didn’t start recruiting them. Pitt has been watching them, visiting them, and recruiting them fairly hard since last summer. The twins have been pretty red hot in the power CHSAA league and Loughlin is now a very good 15-1 on the year in the power CHSAA and Justin Champagnie has been posting multiple 30+ point performances and earning MVP honors. There are 3 very good reasons Pitt likes these 2 players, and it is the same reasons as the current Pitt freshmen. Its called TTA, the new Pitt DNA. Toughness, Tenacity, and Aggressiveness. It’s the way they play in New York and how Pitt plays under Capel. Boasting athletic ability and strong rebounding ability with a punchers attitude attacking the paint to score, these 2 can play and play with a very rugged toughness and are a package deal. And, there is another reason to like them. The twins are extremely young. Both turned just 17 years old in August going into their senior year in high school. They wont turn 18 until next summer after graduation. There is a chance they will reclassify to 2019 and both are pushing 6’7+. They should be visiting Pitt soon.
Gerald Drumgoole
It should come as no secret or surprise why Pitt is recruiting Drumgoole. He is from New York and he is one of the best shooters in the 2019 recruiting class and proved this in the EYBL as he was over 39% from 3 point range with very legit 3 point firepower. His dribble drive is still a work in progress but when the feet are set, splash, the 3 is going down and Pitt can use this. Drumgoole has pretty decent athletic ability for a 2 guard / wing. He also plays on the #1 overall high school team in the entire country, La Lumiere, and will be going up against heavy Pitt targets Hunter Dickinson and Earl Timberlake in the hoophall classic. Dematha is ranked the #3 team in the country. Drumgoole has a short list and a few nice offers. He offers good size at 6’6 for a guard /wing shooter. He could be Pitt’s future zone buster. He should visit Pitt soon, probably next month.
Qudus Wahab
The player everyone wants an update on. Ive maintained that I believe its been a 2 team race with Pitt for well over 6 weeks and I don’t think that has changed unless some big surprise happens last minute with him. Wahab was of one of the best defensive players in the entire country last summer and that has been the case this year at Flint. The only difference, Wahab is starting to put up 25+ point performances on offense. This is going to end up a major coup for whoever lands him and all should hope he selects Pitt in the end as he has high upside. Not all will be lost if we don’t get him because as I said last post, Hunter Dickinson is the big fish on the board. But a Wahab and Dickinson duo together would be a very, very, VERY, nasty duo combination for other teams to handle in the paint.
Stepinac
Its always a good thing to have connections, and Tim O’toole has them at his alma mater. Pitt is recruiting 2 players from Stepinac with point guard RJ Davis who’s recruiting is about to blow up and AJ Griffin, a 5 star guard. Pitt has been watching these 2 closely and appears to have turned up the heat on Davis who has been one of the top scorers in the entire state of New York. Multiple assistants have been in to watch these players. While Davis is on the smaller side of 6’0, he greatly makes up for it with strong shooting ability from all over the floor and really nice passing ability. He is a Major sleeper that many more schools will be involved with moving forward. With O’toole’s connection to Stepinac, Pitt is in a good place here.
Oak Hill
2 players Pitt has been monitoring and recruiting are Christian Brown and Cameron Thomas and Ive mentioned both before. Kevin Keatts and NC State look to further continue the recruiting damage in getting both of them after Seabron chose State. Brown is visiting Pitt and Pitt is trying to make a hard run at Brown and his teammate Thomas and I wondered how Seabron could further trickle things after he chose State in my last post. Brown was always thought to be staying in the south but Capel has other plans. It very well could be Capel vs Keatts in a battle of 2. Watch this very closely as Pitt is making a strong move on the chess board with both of them.
Now Thomas is a little more interesting. He is very high on State but likes Jeff Capel a lot. We are talking about one of the best scorers in the entire country regardless of class in 2020. There is a very realistic and very good chance he will be visiting Pitt too in the very near future, possibly with Brown. Paired up with X and Trey, Cam Thomas in the fold would provide Pitt with an extremely dangerous and filthy good backcourt in the future with the ability to score, especially with his teammate Brown at Pitt. Thomas can drive and easily fill it up from 3 point range and is a very dangerous scoring machine. Capel is starting to dial up the full court pressure with both players from Oak Hill and both are taking a very strong and very hard look at Pitt. Brown is extremely athletic and Thomas is extremely good. We all know, based off last years recruiting class, Capel wants athletes. Pitt again was in watching both of them and Capel has dialed up the full court press for both of them.
Karim Coulibaly
Karim Coulibaly just turned 18 years old in December. He’s been a consistent double double machine for highly rated Scotland Prep this year. A nice lefty that can finish around the basket and has some but developing firepower from 3 point range. He was the #1 overall player in defensive rebound percentage at Adidas Gauntlet and was Top 15 in block percentage overall, 2 reasons the Pitt staff likes him. This is a player that also averaged a very well respected 14PPG and 10 boards per game in FIBA last year. Coulibaly is easily a very solid defender that can guard multiple positions. It wasn’t long ago he was one of the top performers in the prestigious National Prep Showcase where more schools tried to get involved, but Coulibaly remained loyal to the schools on him the longest. Pitt has been consistently recruiting him and Coulibaly has kept the same schools on his short list for over 6 months. When Coulibaly does not get himself in foul trouble which he does from time to time, he puts up numbers. As you can see, Coulibaly outperformed Wahab and Tre Mitchell on offense at Adidas. And I like players that are unselfish to help the team win, and he does this. He’s also consistent. He shot over 50% from the floor at Adidas and FIBA. The numbers support it. He is well underrated. And should be visiting Pitt soon. It wasn’t long ago he put up 43 points and 18 rebounds in a game last month. He just put up another 23 and 13 respectively
The Champagnie twins
Recent offers have gone out to the Champagnie twins and make no mistake about it, Pitt just didn’t start recruiting them. Pitt has been watching them, visiting them, and recruiting them fairly hard since last summer. The twins have been pretty red hot in the power CHSAA league and Loughlin is now a very good 15-1 on the year in the power CHSAA and Justin Champagnie has been posting multiple 30+ point performances and earning MVP honors. There are 3 very good reasons Pitt likes these 2 players, and it is the same reasons as the current Pitt freshmen. Its called TTA, the new Pitt DNA. Toughness, Tenacity, and Aggressiveness. It’s the way they play in New York and how Pitt plays under Capel. Boasting athletic ability and strong rebounding ability with a punchers attitude attacking the paint to score, these 2 can play and play with a very rugged toughness and are a package deal. And, there is another reason to like them. The twins are extremely young. Both turned just 17 years old in August going into their senior year in high school. They wont turn 18 until next summer after graduation. There is a chance they will reclassify to 2019 and both are pushing 6’7+. They should be visiting Pitt soon.
Gerald Drumgoole
It should come as no secret or surprise why Pitt is recruiting Drumgoole. He is from New York and he is one of the best shooters in the 2019 recruiting class and proved this in the EYBL as he was over 39% from 3 point range with very legit 3 point firepower. His dribble drive is still a work in progress but when the feet are set, splash, the 3 is going down and Pitt can use this. Drumgoole has pretty decent athletic ability for a 2 guard / wing. He also plays on the #1 overall high school team in the entire country, La Lumiere, and will be going up against heavy Pitt targets Hunter Dickinson and Earl Timberlake in the hoophall classic. Dematha is ranked the #3 team in the country. Drumgoole has a short list and a few nice offers. He offers good size at 6’6 for a guard /wing shooter. He could be Pitt’s future zone buster. He should visit Pitt soon, probably next month.
Qudus Wahab
The player everyone wants an update on. Ive maintained that I believe its been a 2 team race with Pitt for well over 6 weeks and I don’t think that has changed unless some big surprise happens last minute with him. Wahab was of one of the best defensive players in the entire country last summer and that has been the case this year at Flint. The only difference, Wahab is starting to put up 25+ point performances on offense. This is going to end up a major coup for whoever lands him and all should hope he selects Pitt in the end as he has high upside. Not all will be lost if we don’t get him because as I said last post, Hunter Dickinson is the big fish on the board. But a Wahab and Dickinson duo together would be a very, very, VERY, nasty duo combination for other teams to handle in the paint.
Stepinac
Its always a good thing to have connections, and Tim O’toole has them at his alma mater. Pitt is recruiting 2 players from Stepinac with point guard RJ Davis who’s recruiting is about to blow up and AJ Griffin, a 5 star guard. Pitt has been watching these 2 closely and appears to have turned up the heat on Davis who has been one of the top scorers in the entire state of New York. Multiple assistants have been in to watch these players. While Davis is on the smaller side of 6’0, he greatly makes up for it with strong shooting ability from all over the floor and really nice passing ability. He is a Major sleeper that many more schools will be involved with moving forward. With O’toole’s connection to Stepinac, Pitt is in a good place here.
Oak Hill
2 players Pitt has been monitoring and recruiting are Christian Brown and Cameron Thomas and Ive mentioned both before. Kevin Keatts and NC State look to further continue the recruiting damage in getting both of them after Seabron chose State. Brown is visiting Pitt and Pitt is trying to make a hard run at Brown and his teammate Thomas and I wondered how Seabron could further trickle things after he chose State in my last post. Brown was always thought to be staying in the south but Capel has other plans. It very well could be Capel vs Keatts in a battle of 2. Watch this very closely as Pitt is making a strong move on the chess board with both of them.
Now Thomas is a little more interesting. He is very high on State but likes Jeff Capel a lot. We are talking about one of the best scorers in the entire country regardless of class in 2020. There is a very realistic and very good chance he will be visiting Pitt too in the very near future, possibly with Brown. Paired up with X and Trey, Cam Thomas in the fold would provide Pitt with an extremely dangerous and filthy good backcourt in the future with the ability to score, especially with his teammate Brown at Pitt. Thomas can drive and easily fill it up from 3 point range and is a very dangerous scoring machine. Capel is starting to dial up the full court pressure with both players from Oak Hill and both are taking a very strong and very hard look at Pitt. Brown is extremely athletic and Thomas is extremely good. We all know, based off last years recruiting class, Capel wants athletes. Pitt again was in watching both of them and Capel has dialed up the full court press for both of them.
