Recruiting Notebook
Thursday Pitt/WPIAL Notebook
Let’s see what today brings us in terms of Pitt/ WPIAL news. Who will Pitt offer today? Will anyone accept? Let’s get to work!
**A bit of Pitt basketball news as Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.com reports that one of Pitt’s non-conference games this year will be against Yale. The Bulldogs are coming off a season where they made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1962 and the first time in the school’s history that they made it past the first round (beat Baylor). Yale will not have graduating senior and Ivy League Player of the Year Justin Sears. A big question is will they have talented point guard Makai Mason,’who declared for the NBA Draft. Mason didn’t hire an agent so he has until May 25 to withdraw his name. If Mason returns, Yale will be a good opponent.
UPDATE (11:57 AM)-
**I’m told that Pitt’s Tim Salem is in Steubenville, Ohio today checking out 2017 WR/TE Charles Reeves. The Panthers have recruited Reeves (6-5, 230) hard over the last couple months and are really hoping to land him. It won’t be easy because many teams are starting to get involved including Alabama, who just offered him this week.
**Over the last 72 hours, Pitt coaches have been busy offering many quarterback prospects. I think it’s clear that they want to land a quarterback and in the case of 2017 offers, aren’t going to wait a long time for an answer.
Offers made to 2018 quarterbacks is a different situation. Clearly, Pitt would love to land Pine-Richland’s Phil Jurkovec, as would every program in the country. Only one school is going to land him so it would be foolish to put all of your eggs in one basketball and Pat Narduzzi and company aren’t fools. To that end, Pitt is recruiting other talented quarterbacks and yesterday that extended an offer to a 4-star prospect from New Jersey.
Artur Sitkowski (6-5, 205) is a big-time quarterback from Old Bridge, New Jersey. Pitt joins Michigan, Maryland, South Carolina, Iowa, Rutgers and Boston College as schools that have offered this sophomore. This morning, I briefly spoke with Sitkwoski about the offer from Pitt.
“I was very blessed and thankful to receive the Pitt offer. Coach Canada came to watch me throw and after I called him and he offered me a scholarship over the phone”, said Sitkowski. “Coach Canada said he offered me because he loved the way I conducted the work out and could see I was a leader. He said he saw that I was accurate and I had command of the the football.”
” I have been hearing a lot from Pitt. I visited there about a month ago and my family and I like it a lot.”
“I believe that my strengths as a quarterback are that I’m a leader and I love the game of football. I live, breathe and sleep football. But also I can make all the throws and use my feet to help me get out of bad situations.”
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4024489/artur-sitkowski
UPDATE (12:51 PM)-
**West Virginia is the latest team to offer Beaver a Falls 2018 WR Malik Sheppard. The sophomore wideout (6-0,176) has also been offered by Toledo and Temple.
UPDATE (8:37 PM)-
**McKeesport 2017 DL Curtis Harper picked up an offer tonight from Wake Forest. Earlier in the day, Harper received offers from UConn and Duquesne.
**Steel Valley RB DeWayne Murray gave an update on his recruitment. Murray announced his Top 5 on Twitter (subject to change)- Toledo, Bowling Green, West Virginia, Western Michigan and Cincinnati.
UPDATE (8:52 PM)-
**Bethlehem (PA) 3-star WR Darian Street received an offer tonight from Kent State. Street is considered to be a heavy lean towards Pitt.
UPDATE (9:09 PM)-
**Some Pitt coaches once again spent the day recruiting in Florida and once again the found a player to offer. 3-star WR Dontavius Butler (6-2, 197) from Plantation, Florida got the offer from Pitt. I’m told that Pitt spotted a few wide receivers that they liked and expect more offers tonight.
UPDATE (9:24 PM)-
**Like I previously mentioned, Pitt has offered another 2017 Florida wide receiver, this time Jordan Pouncey. The 3-star player is from Winter Park, Florida and has offers from Alabama, South Carolina, West Virginia, Va Tech, Duke, Louisville. Pouncey (6-3, 183) is going to be taking a tour of numerous colleges in the month of June. Will Pitt be one of the schools he checks out?
