A day after making a recruiting visit to Kennedy Catholic High School, Jeff Capel traveled to Butler High School this morning.
At 6 AM, Capel was in the gym watching and meeting Butler Class of 2020 star Ethan Morton.
Only a sophomore, Morton is far from making a decision but Capel wanted to start the process of building a relationship and getting to know him.
“Obviously I don’t know him super well yet, but just from talking to him on the phone and meeting him today, he’s a very genuine person which I something I value a lot in this process. With him being a point guard, having played at Duke and with being a head coach at such a young age, he has so much knowledge which is something I value. He’s definitely the type of person and coach that can bring Pitt back to what it was before,” said Morton.
During his initial press conference, Capel spoke of how much he valued and the importance he places in the point guard position. I asked Morton if that came up this morning.
“No, but I’m sure as we get to know each other more and he comes to see me and we really get to talk, I’ll get to know what exactly he expects from his point guard. But I did see that when I watched his press conference and when he said that’s the only position that’s consistent and everyone else is positionless. That’s exciting that I potentially could be in the position to play an important role in a position that he values.”
Today’s visit was mainly about Capel evaluating Morton the player as he’ll have plenty of time to get to know Morton the person.
“I started off with some ball-handling, then some stationary drills, some finishing and then I go through some shooting of twos, threes, pull-ups, that type of stuff,” said Morton.
I wrapped up our talk by asking Morton if the hiring of Capel will get him to consider Pitt more than he might have previously?
”I would say probably a bit differently just because every staff is different and you have to evaluate them differently. I’m still very much wide open and Pitt is still very important to me just because they’re my hometown school and playing in the ACC. It’s very competitive. Now it’s going to be about finding the right coach and right system for me and right now Pitt is as important to me as any other school. Right now, it’s probably a bit early to put a value on the importance of this new staff recruiting me.”
UPDATE (9:34 PM)-
https://twitter.com/ethanmorton_24/status/982413653889765376?s=21
