Within the last couple of weeks, Kevin Stallings and his staff have put a real emphasis on recruiting and offering elite juniors.
The latest name that Pitt fans can start following is Westtown High School (Norristown, PA) power forward Jake Forrester. 247 Sports rates Forrester as a 4-star recruit and as one of the Top 100 juniors and the 2nd best junior in Pennsylvania.
Pitt extended the offer to Forrester last night following their win over Syracuse and that’s when Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with this talented junior.
“This interest by Pitt has been extremely recent, they contacted someone I know. They didn’t think I was interested in them but I go their number and called them to tell them that I was interested. Â All of this has happened in the last 2 weeks or so,” said Forrester.
I asked Forrester why Pitt had the impression that he wasn’t interested in them?
“Just because my recruiting process hasn’t taken off. A lot of teams have been showing interest in me and they thought that I was slowing down my process but I told them that wasn’t the case and that I was wide open.”
It should be pointed out that Jake’s father played for Temple and actually was a part of John Chaney’s first recruiting class (1982). This has given some people in the recruiting world that he would be a heavy lean towards the Owls.
Along with the offer from Pitt, Forrester also has offers from Temple, Seton Hall, Providence, Penn State, Indiana and Kansas State.
“This is my first ACC offer so that’s big. I went to school out in Pittsburgh last year at Kiski and I visited Pitt, not the basketball team but I went to go see the campus. It was really nice. I liked the area it’s in, it’s lively all the time, a lot of people, a lot of students go there,” said Forrester.
“I was very excited when I got the call about 30 or 40 minutes ago. My dad and I were on 3 way with the coaches. Coach Stallings is a good guy with good assistants. I can’t wait to get this process started.”
If you talk to any coach or talent evaluator about Forrester they’ll all describe his game with 2 things: high motor and high energy player.
“Yes, that describes exactly what I am, high energy and a hustle guy. I will rebound on both ends and I try to finish above the rim.”
“The coaches believe that I would be a great fit and that I could have an impact my freshman season. They like how I’m from a winning program and they want to bring winners into the program so they already know what it takes to win and we’ll keep on winning in the future,” said Forrester.
Forrester plans on visiting a number of schools in the near future like Indiana, UConn and after talking with his father, he wants to come back to Pittsburgh and check out the Panthers.
