Kevin Stallings and staff recently received a pair of strong commitments from 2017 Union City (TN) Union City HS shooting guard Parker Stewart and 2018 Saint James (MD) Saint James School power forward Bryce Golden. Both Stewart and Golden were highly sought after prospects with a multitude of high-major and mid-major scholarship offers.
Pitt will host a weekend visitor that has a different narrative. The staff will be meeting with 2017 Washington (PA) First Love Christian Academy power forward Samson George (6-foot-7 ½ inches, 220 pounds). To obtain a better perspective on George, Pittsburgh Sports Now spoke with First Love Christian Academy head basketball coach Khayree Wilson.
“Samson is a 2017 prospect. He played for us for the last two years. He was an early graduate and enrolled at Iona in January. He redshirted there then he ran into a situation with this amateurism,” said Coach Wilson. “His amateurism didn’t come back because he was Nigeria. Whenever they were investigating his amateurism, Iona decided to release him from his scholarship. Once we got that news I reached out to a couple coaches, one of which was (Pitt assistant) Sam Ferry because he was recruiting Samson hard at Monmouth. A week later, the NCAA cleared Sam’s amateurism and he received his release from Iona. Once he received all of the clearances, Pitt contacted us.”
Coach Wilson was asked to elaborate more on George’s strengths as a player. He stated, “Sam is a stretch four that’s very aggressive and runs the floor well. He controls the glass very well and he’s a finisher. Sam has a grit and toughness that will remind you of the players Pitt had back in their Big East days.”
“Sam is a great, great kid. He’s a very humble young man from a great family. He’s a hard worker as well. I don’t know how much weight he gained at Iona. He spent some time in their weight room. When he was here, he was built like a brick. He’s strong young man.”
“When Sam was here at our school, he had over 20 D1 offers. He had scholarship offers from Oregon State, USC, Monmouth, VCU, Iona, so he was heavily recruited. He chose Iona because he was very comfortable there. When he did receive his release from Iona, there weren’t many schools that had room left. We decided to reach out to other schools that recruited him hard. The fact that Coach Ferry has recruited him so hard and I’m a Pittsburgh guy that always wants to help out the home team. It seemed like a no brainer to reach out to Pitt. I wanted to see if they had interest and availability.”
Coach Wilson believes that both sides, George and Pitt, wanted to meet to assure they would be a mutual fit. “I know that Sam wants to make sure Pitt will be a good fit for him. If Sam likes everything he sees, I could see a commitment on the visit,” he said.
George flies into Pittsburgh on Friday and will begin his visit Saturday.
Harry Psaros can be found on twitter at @PittGuru
