Year 1 Recruiting Review
Stallings Era- 5 Acc wins in 2 years
Capel Era- 4 Acc wins in year 1
247 ACC Cumulative Team Recruiting Rank for 2018- 5th acc, 32nd nationally
Did Pitt live up to its 2018 Top 5 ACC recruiting ranking?
Xavier Johnson was voted the 4th best freshmen in the entire ACC and finished 11th in the ACC in scoring. He will be the 2nd highest returning ACC scorer entering next year in the entire league. Johnson was 5th in the ACC in assist per game and will be the 2nd highest returning player in assists per game. Mcgowens finished 40th in the ACC in ppg and will enter next season in the Top 15 ( Top 20 at worst) in returning ppg for all Acc players. Pitt’s 3 freshmen averaged 33.5 ppg, 12.6 rpg, 7 apg, and 4 steals per game. This is the best trio of freshmen returning in the entire ACC from a productivity standpoint or accolade standpoint for all acc trio of freshmen. Only Duke and UNC had better freshmen last year and almost all of them are NBA bound.
Year 1 2018 Recruiting Grade given the circumstances- A
Year 2
What Pitt has so far…
I talked about Gerald Drumgoole in a former post and how he is a future 2 guard or wing at Pitt as a shooter and facilitator. What continues to improve is his floor game. A 7-1 assist to turnover ratio at Geico Nationals as a wing against a bevy of 4 and 5 star players in the National high school Tournament Championship. Drumgoole is one of the best defensive players in the 2019 recruiting class and one of the most efficient players. He doesn’t turn the ball over in the half court or against press and was a big reason why La Lumiere finished the regular season undefeated and ranked #1 in high school in the regular season. He is a very smart basketball player. There is a reason Kham Davis and Malik Ellison are gone and Ill spell it out. They would barely play next year.
Karim Coulibaly was the first player I mentioned going all the way back to my very first post on this board last year when I called him underrated “then”. A current 4 star player by ESPN at 6’9 235lb as a Forward / Center, he led Scotland Red Prep to a 37-2 final record, a National #1 Ranking, and lost in the Prep School National Title game. Coulibaly was voted unanimously as the Greater Atlantic Conference Prep Player of the Year. When he stays out of foul trouble, he put up the numbers all year long, with a shooting percentage almost 55% for the season. One should wonder how a team like Scotland Red was this dominant and bulldoze over almost every nationally ranked opponent they played regardless of the amount of ranked 4 and 5 star players the other team had, yet have zero Top 150 players ranked on their own team.
Coulibaly was a former Top 60 recruit and a player Capel started recruiting very early last summer. He played like a Top 60 player Nationally all year long which is why he finished at Scotland Red with over 1000 career points in 2 seasons, averaged over a career double double with a 57-4 team record as the Team Captain and leader. He posted season highs of 41 points and 18 rebounds in a single game. And if Scotland Red Prep didn’t blow out almost every team they played, Coulibaly’s rebound and scoring numbers would have finished even better than 16ppg. He also had the best defensive rebound percentage in AAU last year at Adidas. Ill also provide his numbers against Kofi Cockburn, Tre Mitchell, and Qudus Wahab last summer in AAU. That 5 Star ranked below him just committed to Duke.
Justin Champagnie was voted a 5th team high school All American last summer when he averaged 20 points per game in AAU shooting 65% from the floor playing center and power forward and he continued that strong production his senior year and was voted 1st team all CHSAA averaging 20ppg. He is a very good finisher in the paint with dunks, layups, floaters and anything inside 10 feet. This is a player that has the ability to hurt teams being in the middle against a 2-3 zone which severely hurt us this year and why he is an important recruit as an inside zone breaker. A big 6’6+ in height and very physical, he has far advanced dribble skills and passing skills to someone like Ellison or Toney and plays significantly bigger than he is, especially rebounding the basketball.
Justin won’t turn 18 until this summer and is very young for a 2019 recruit. He doesn’t shoot much from the outside but he has the ability to knock down shots with a defender in his face. Like the 3 recruits from 2018, you will notice immediately he plays the game with an edge and NY style physical toughness like Pitt used to play in the early 2000s.
This class is very solid as it stands and will help Pitt a lot next season and in the future. I like each of these players and talked about each of them extensively in the past. More importantly, the skill sets of these players should compliment the 3 freshmen from this past season very well. I am excited for the additions of these 3 and if you are not exited by these additions right now, you will be once they start playing real games just like Xavier Johnson and the freshmen showed last year. With these 6 players and I say this with utmost confidence, Pitt will start to vault up the ACC standings starting next year.
Stallings Era- 5 Acc wins in 2 years
Capel Era- 4 Acc wins in year 1
247 ACC Cumulative Team Recruiting Rank for 2018- 5th acc, 32nd nationally
Did Pitt live up to its 2018 Top 5 ACC recruiting ranking?
Xavier Johnson was voted the 4th best freshmen in the entire ACC and finished 11th in the ACC in scoring. He will be the 2nd highest returning ACC scorer entering next year in the entire league. Johnson was 5th in the ACC in assist per game and will be the 2nd highest returning player in assists per game. Mcgowens finished 40th in the ACC in ppg and will enter next season in the Top 15 ( Top 20 at worst) in returning ppg for all Acc players. Pitt’s 3 freshmen averaged 33.5 ppg, 12.6 rpg, 7 apg, and 4 steals per game. This is the best trio of freshmen returning in the entire ACC from a productivity standpoint or accolade standpoint for all acc trio of freshmen. Only Duke and UNC had better freshmen last year and almost all of them are NBA bound.
Year 1 2018 Recruiting Grade given the circumstances- A
Year 2
What Pitt has so far…
I talked about Gerald Drumgoole in a former post and how he is a future 2 guard or wing at Pitt as a shooter and facilitator. What continues to improve is his floor game. A 7-1 assist to turnover ratio at Geico Nationals as a wing against a bevy of 4 and 5 star players in the National high school Tournament Championship. Drumgoole is one of the best defensive players in the 2019 recruiting class and one of the most efficient players. He doesn’t turn the ball over in the half court or against press and was a big reason why La Lumiere finished the regular season undefeated and ranked #1 in high school in the regular season. He is a very smart basketball player. There is a reason Kham Davis and Malik Ellison are gone and Ill spell it out. They would barely play next year.
Karim Coulibaly was the first player I mentioned going all the way back to my very first post on this board last year when I called him underrated “then”. A current 4 star player by ESPN at 6’9 235lb as a Forward / Center, he led Scotland Red Prep to a 37-2 final record, a National #1 Ranking, and lost in the Prep School National Title game. Coulibaly was voted unanimously as the Greater Atlantic Conference Prep Player of the Year. When he stays out of foul trouble, he put up the numbers all year long, with a shooting percentage almost 55% for the season. One should wonder how a team like Scotland Red was this dominant and bulldoze over almost every nationally ranked opponent they played regardless of the amount of ranked 4 and 5 star players the other team had, yet have zero Top 150 players ranked on their own team.
Coulibaly was a former Top 60 recruit and a player Capel started recruiting very early last summer. He played like a Top 60 player Nationally all year long which is why he finished at Scotland Red with over 1000 career points in 2 seasons, averaged over a career double double with a 57-4 team record as the Team Captain and leader. He posted season highs of 41 points and 18 rebounds in a single game. And if Scotland Red Prep didn’t blow out almost every team they played, Coulibaly’s rebound and scoring numbers would have finished even better than 16ppg. He also had the best defensive rebound percentage in AAU last year at Adidas. Ill also provide his numbers against Kofi Cockburn, Tre Mitchell, and Qudus Wahab last summer in AAU. That 5 Star ranked below him just committed to Duke.
Justin Champagnie was voted a 5th team high school All American last summer when he averaged 20 points per game in AAU shooting 65% from the floor playing center and power forward and he continued that strong production his senior year and was voted 1st team all CHSAA averaging 20ppg. He is a very good finisher in the paint with dunks, layups, floaters and anything inside 10 feet. This is a player that has the ability to hurt teams being in the middle against a 2-3 zone which severely hurt us this year and why he is an important recruit as an inside zone breaker. A big 6’6+ in height and very physical, he has far advanced dribble skills and passing skills to someone like Ellison or Toney and plays significantly bigger than he is, especially rebounding the basketball.
Justin won’t turn 18 until this summer and is very young for a 2019 recruit. He doesn’t shoot much from the outside but he has the ability to knock down shots with a defender in his face. Like the 3 recruits from 2018, you will notice immediately he plays the game with an edge and NY style physical toughness like Pitt used to play in the early 2000s.
This class is very solid as it stands and will help Pitt a lot next season and in the future. I like each of these players and talked about each of them extensively in the past. More importantly, the skill sets of these players should compliment the 3 freshmen from this past season very well. I am excited for the additions of these 3 and if you are not exited by these additions right now, you will be once they start playing real games just like Xavier Johnson and the freshmen showed last year. With these 6 players and I say this with utmost confidence, Pitt will start to vault up the ACC standings starting next year.
