Where "Big East" market Rivals 150 recruits are going

[Sean Miller Fan]

The excuse has been that since we moved to the ACC, none of the East Coast kids want to play for Pitt in the ACC? OK, so lets see where they are going instead:

#9 Rawle Atkins (Queens, NY but plays at Word of God in NC) - uncommitted
#13 Markell Futz (DeMatha) - Washington (in state of Washington that is because you know, there's that U Dub-DeMatha pipeline)
#17 Wenyen Gabriel (Wilbraham, MA) - Kentucky
#21 Mustapha Heron (Waterbury, CT) - Auburn (long history of Auburn getting the cream of the NE crop)
#22 Omari Spellman (Oakdale, CT) - Nova
#24 VJ King (Fairfax, VA) - Louisville
#25 Tyus Battle (says Gladstone, NJ but I think this is Talor Battle's brother meaning he's from Albany) - Syracuse
#26 Sacha Killeya-Jones (Lynchburg, VA) - Kentucky
#40 Matthew Moyer (South Kent, CT) - Syracuse
#42 Shamorie Ponds (Brooklyn) - St. John's
#46 Anthony Cowen (DC) - Maryland
#47 Tony Carr (Philly) - Penn State
#50 Ty Jerome (New Rochelle, NY) - UVa
#64 TJ Gibbs (West Orange, NJ) - ND
#66 DeAndre Hunter (Wynnewood, PA) - UVa
#79 Kevin Huerter (Clifton Park, NY) - Maryland
#80 Lamar Stevens (Philly) - Penn State
#99 Myles Powell (South Kent, CT) - Seton Hall
#100 Bryce Aiken (Elizabeth, NJ) - Harvard
#120 Howard Washington (Buffalo, NY) - Butler
#131 Brison Gresham (Fitchburg, MA) - UMass
#135 Corey Manigualt (Fairfax, VA) - Pitt
#138 Alani Moore (DC) - Temple

I left off a bunch of guys who are at prep schools because I'm not sure where they are originally from.

The thing that jumps out at me is that 5 NY/Philly recruits are going to PSU, Maryland, and Virginia. Maryland and Virginia are great programs but these are the types of players Pitt needs to get. Also, I think you can see how few players commit to hometown schools. College basketball recruiting is national. There's no excuses. Players have to buy what you're selling.

As I looked at the list, I saw a lot of prep schools, more than I thought and I expected a lot. If you're looking for what has changed, I would probably say the shift of these kids to prep schools and the shift from HS recruiting to AAU recruiting has hurt Pitt. These kids are more likely to have handlers and Dixon is not the type to win those types of battles. He's got to figure something out though because as a poster put it yesterday, Kithcart and Manigault are his "last stand." These kids have to be very good very soon or.........

 

[Black Panther]

All you have to do is look at uva's current roster and you'll say those are the type's of players we need to supplement our current players.You don't think Tobey wouldn't be our starting center? He comes off the bench for them.Or at least he did Saturday.Most kids would want to start..Oh well...

 

[NTOP]

The excuse has been that since we moved to the ACC, none of the East Coast kids want to play for Pitt in the ACC? OK, so lets see where they are going instead:

#9 Rawle Atkins (Queens, NY but plays at Word of God in NC) - uncommitted
#13 Markell Futz (DeMatha) - Washington (in state of Washington that is because you know, there's that U Dub-DeMatha pipeline)
#17 Wenyen Gabriel (Wilbraham, MA) - Kentucky
#21 Mustapha Heron (Waterbury, CT) - Auburn (long history of Auburn getting the cream of the NE crop)
#22 Omari Spellman (Oakdale, CT) - Nova
#24 VJ King (Fairfax, VA) - Louisville
#25 Tyus Battle (says Gladstone, NJ but I think this is Talor Battle's brother meaning he's from Albany) - Syracuse
#26 Sacha Killeya-Jones (Lynchburg, VA) - Kentucky
#40 Matthew Moyer (South Kent, CT) - Syracuse
#42 Shamorie Ponds (Brooklyn) - St. John's
#46 Anthony Cowen (DC) - Maryland
#47 Tony Carr (Philly) - Penn State
#50 Ty Jerome (New Rochelle, NY) - UVa
#64 TJ Gibbs (West Orange, NJ) - ND
#66 DeAndre Hunter (Wynnewood, PA) - UVa
#79 Kevin Huerter (Clifton Park, NY) - Maryland
#80 Lamar Stevens (Philly) - Penn State
#99 Myles Powell (South Kent, CT) - Seton Hall
#100 Bryce Aiken (Elizabeth, NJ) - Harvard
#120 Howard Washington (Buffalo, NY) - Butler
#131 Brison Gresham (Fitchburg, MA) - UMass
#135 Corey Manigualt (Fairfax, VA) - Pitt
#138 Alani Moore (DC) - Temple

I left off a bunch of guys who are at prep schools because I'm not sure where they are originally from.

The thing that jumps out at me is that 5 NY/Philly recruits are going to PSU, Maryland, and Virginia. Maryland and Virginia are great programs but these are the types of players Pitt needs to get. Also, I think you can see how few players commit to hometown schools. College basketball recruiting is national. There's no excuses. Players have to buy what you're selling.

As I looked at the list, I saw a lot of prep schools, more than I thought and I expected a lot. If you're looking for what has changed, I would probably say the shift of these kids to prep schools and the shift from HS recruiting to AAU recruiting has hurt Pitt. These kids are more likely to have handlers and Dixon is not the type to win those types of battles. He's got to figure something out though because as a poster put it yesterday, Kithcart and Manigault are his "last stand." These kids have to be very good very soon or.........

Or what?? You have NO idea what the Pitt admin. thinks. Did you get your free ticket to the Gonzaga makeup game in Omaha??

 

[73CAV]

It's probably worth noting that most of the ACC (and Maryland) have long recruited the northeast. It is rare that UVa hasn't had a player from Pennsylvania or New York on the roster. Both Philadelphia and NYC have been producing talent for schools all over the country for as long as I've been following college basketball, which is about half a century. Just a few notables: Wilt Chamberlain, from Philly to Kansas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from NYC to UCLA, Tom Owens, Tom Riker, & John Roche, NYC to South Carolina, Len Elmore, from NYC to Maryland, Tom Sheehey, from New York to UVa, Charlie Scott, from NYC to UNC, Barry Parkhill, Wally Walker, Gus Gerard, and Sean Singletary, from Pennsylvania to UVa, Eugene Banks, from Philly to Duke, Albert King, from Brooklyn to Maryland, Rasheed Wallace, from Philly to UNC to name just a few. Even Fran McCaffery, from Philly, began his career at Wake. Of course, if UVa could just keep the players produced by the Commonwealth, it prbably wouldn't need to look elsewhere and there might be a few national championships in its trophy case. (Consider: Ralph Sampson, Alonzo Mourning, David Robinson, Mark West, Joe Smith, J R Reid, Moses Malone, Ed Davis, George Lynch, Grant Hill, J J Redick, Curtis Staples, Bryant Stith to name a few.) It really doesn't matter from where the players come, a school has to recruit enough of them to make a difference.

 

[levance2]

The excuse has been that since we moved to the ACC, none of the East Coast kids want to play for Pitt in the ACC?

I can't personally recall a single person defending Dixon with that as an excuse. I remember many more people complaining that Dixon was unsuccessful in updating his recruiting tactics/locations as a result of moving to the ACC.

Unbiasedly, there have been many reports over the last few years that basketball quality in NYC has greatly diminished, and Pitt is right to be chasing some different leads. Having said that, I'd much rather have the NYC guys we've gotten historically than most of what we have today. Travon Woodall would be a great addition to this team, despite most people bashing him throughout his career.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Smf it was your false narrative the move to the acc hurt our recruiting in big East foot print locations.

Terrific job undercutting your own stupid comments.

 

[levance2]

Smf it was your false narrative the move to the acc hurt our recruiting in big East foot print locations.

Terrific job undercutting your own stupid comments.

We've even had dumb comments that the ACC TV rights package hurts our "visibility" in the NYC area...

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Smf it was your false narrative the move to the acc hurt our recruiting in big East foot print locations.

Terrific job undercutting your own stupid comments.

Huh? From Day 1 I've always said the Big East is no more so there is no recruiting disadvantage of being in the ACC. We went from the best to the best.

 

[R-M-U-h-o-o-p-s-f-a-n]

We've even had dumb comments that the ACC TV rights package hurts our "visibility" in the NYC area...

Lol..

 

[We_All_We_Got]

If you have a coach/program that appeals to top talent, you can get top talent. Props to 73CAV for the extensive list.

As has probably been said, the Big East had the recruiting advantage of proximity to student's homes and family, playing against kids you grew up with, as well as playing its tournament at the mecca, MSG.

If you're from NYC/Philly/DC, do you really want to play basketball in Iowa? at PSU? Auburn? Mississippi? The NY kids that came to Pitt always showed out at MSG, and it supplied extra motivation to keep pushing for the "post-season". The ACC realizes the importance of making appearance in the northeast and NYC as they are moving the conference championship to DC this year and to the Barclays in Brooklyn in 2017.

They pulled the tourny from the backyard of the blue bloods for that exposure, and if they could get to the Garden they would.

 

[Pittx9]

#13 Markell Futz (DeMatha) - Washington (in state of Washington that is because you know, there's that U Dub-DeMatha pipeline)

Lol wow. How on Earth did UW get that kid to commit there?

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Lol wow. How on Earth did UW get that kid to commit there?

Romar has good eye contact.

 

[noelr]

The excuse has been that since we moved to the ACC, none of the East Coast kids want to play for Pitt in the ACC? OK, so lets see where they are going instead:

#9 Rawle Atkins (Queens, NY but plays at Word of God in NC) - uncommitted
#13 Markell Futz (DeMatha) - Washington (in state of Washington that is because you know, there's that U Dub-DeMatha pipeline)
#17 Wenyen Gabriel (Wilbraham, MA) - Kentucky
#21 Mustapha Heron (Waterbury, CT) - Auburn (long history of Auburn getting the cream of the NE crop)
#22 Omari Spellman (Oakdale, CT) - Nova
#24 VJ King (Fairfax, VA) - Louisville
#25 Tyus Battle (says Gladstone, NJ but I think this is Talor Battle's brother meaning he's from Albany) - Syracuse
#26 Sacha Killeya-Jones (Lynchburg, VA) - Kentucky
#40 Matthew Moyer (South Kent, CT) - Syracuse
#42 Shamorie Ponds (Brooklyn) - St. John's
#46 Anthony Cowen (DC) - Maryland
#47 Tony Carr (Philly) - Penn State
#50 Ty Jerome (New Rochelle, NY) - UVa
#64 TJ Gibbs (West Orange, NJ) - ND
#66 DeAndre Hunter (Wynnewood, PA) - UVa
#79 Kevin Huerter (Clifton Park, NY) - Maryland
#80 Lamar Stevens (Philly) - Penn State
#99 Myles Powell (South Kent, CT) - Seton Hall
#100 Bryce Aiken (Elizabeth, NJ) - Harvard
#120 Howard Washington (Buffalo, NY) - Butler
#131 Brison Gresham (Fitchburg, MA) - UMass
#135 Corey Manigualt (Fairfax, VA) - Pitt
#138 Alani Moore (DC) - Temple

I left off a bunch of guys who are at prep schools because I'm not sure where they are originally from.

The thing that jumps out at me is that 5 NY/Philly recruits are going to PSU, Maryland, and Virginia. Maryland and Virginia are great programs but these are the types of players Pitt needs to get. Also, I think you can see how few players commit to hometown schools. College basketball recruiting is national. There's no excuses. Players have to buy what you're selling.

As I looked at the list, I saw a lot of prep schools, more than I thought and I expected a lot. If you're looking for what has changed, I would probably say the shift of these kids to prep schools and the shift from HS recruiting to AAU recruiting has hurt Pitt. These kids are more likely to have handlers and Dixon is not the type to win those types of battles. He's got to figure something out though because as a poster put it yesterday, Kithcart and Manigault are his "last stand." These kids have to be very good very soon or.........

now if getting whipped by PSU in Philly doesn't make you think we have recruiting problems than nothing will.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Romar has good eye contact.

Yea. He's an outstanding recruiter, one of the best, really, but we dont talk about him in the East. However, he's an awful coach. Got that Rick Barnes thing going on.

Cuonzo Martin got a couple big-time recruits from ATL to go to Cal. Point is, location doesn't mattet in college basketball (in football it does). If the coach is cool and they play an attractive style, you can get guys from anywhere. Bball recruits don't stay at home as much as football recruits. Seems like half of them leave home to prep anyway so why would they need to play college ball close to home?

 

[Ray-Ray]

If you have a coach/program that appeals to top talent, you can get top talent. Props to 73CAV for the extensive list.

As has probably been said, the Big East had the recruiting advantage of proximity to student's homes and family, playing against kids you grew up with, as well as playing its tournament at the mecca, MSG.

If you're from NYC/Philly/DC, do you really want to play basketball in Iowa? at PSU? Auburn? Mississippi? The NY kids that came to Pitt always showed out at MSG, and it supplied extra motivation to keep pushing for the "post-season". The ACC realizes the importance of making appearance in the northeast and NYC as they are moving the conference championship to DC this year and to the Barclays in Brooklyn in 2017.

They pulled the tourny from the backyard of the blue bloods for that exposure, and if they could get to the Garden they would.

It appears they do want to play at PSU. They have 2 of the top 80 players. It is pretty damn pathetic that we are being outrecruited by PSU in basketball.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

It appears they do want to play at PSU. They have 2 of the top 80 players. It is pretty damn pathetic that we are being outrecruited by PSU in basketball.

Good point..
I mean Penn state managed a pair of teammates... Once...
So everything has changed.

Or nothing.

 

[PITT92DOG]

One season. How is PSU doing on the court? Wow there would mass murder if Pitt had a PSU season. Still rumors the top rated guy won't make grades.