It was another weekend of recruiting at some of the top AAU Tournaments in the country for Jeff Capel and his staff.
Due to the amount of scholarship available for next season, the Pitt staff is recruiting for both the Classes of 2018 and 2019.
Since the new staff started, Pittsburgh Sports Now has attempted to provide you with a list of the players that Pitt is pursuing. Since we’ve thrown out plenty of names, we wanted to hit the refresh button and rename those players. Plus, we’ll update you with some of the talent they were viewing this weekend.
Patrick Williams: 4-star small forward from Charlotte, North Carolina. Rivals ranks Williams as the 74th best junior in the country. At this point, Williams hasn’t been offered by Pitt but assistants were watching him this weekend in Indianapolis.
Team Rio (AAU): Jeff Capel was on hand to watch this team full of elite 4 and 5 star talent coached by Mike Rice. For the second consecutive weekend, Capel watched Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis, both of whom are 5-star recruits plus 4-star forward Aidan Igiehon and 2019 point guard Jalen Gaffney, who picked up an offer from Pitt over the weekend. Pitt is trying to battle with the top teams in the country for Antoine, Lewis and Igiehon.
Tre Mitchell: Capel was also on hand this morning to watch 4-star forward Tre Mitchell (6-foot-9, 260 pounds) from Woodstock, Connecticut. At this point, Mitchell holds offers from Pitt, UConn, Duquesne, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kansas State, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
Precious Achiuwa: 5-star forward from St. Benedict’s High School in Newark, New Jersey. Achiuwa (6-foot-9, 200 pounds) is rated as one of the Top 10 juniors in the country.
Josh Green: 5-star shooting guard from IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Rivals rates Green as one of the Top 20 juniors in the country.
Cole Anthony: 5-star point guard from Archbishop Molloy High School in New York, New York. Rivals rates Anthony as one of the Top 10 juniors in the country.
ITPS Wildcats (AAU): Assistants Milan Brown and Jason Capel both were on hand this weekend to watch the local AAU team. From day one, Pitt has been recruiting Oscar Tshiebwe and Maceo Austin. It’s very clear that Tshiebwe is a huge priority for the Pitt staff.
Greg Gantt: This 4-star forward from Fayetteville, North Carolina received an offer from Pitt over the weekend. 247 Sports rates Gantt as one of the Top 100 juniors in the country. Aside from Pitt, Gantt has offers from Virginia Tech, Clemson, Florida, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Providence, Rhode Island and Xavier. Gantt tells PSN that one of Pitt coaches were at everyone of his games over the weekend.
Kofi Cockburn: 4-star center from Christ the King High School in Middle Village, New York. Cockburn was one of the first players that Capel visited and offered. He’s rated as one of the Top 50 juniors in the country.
Kira Lewis: 4-star shooting guard from Hazel Green, Alabama. I’m told that Jeff Capel was on hand this weekend to watch Lewis in person. He’s rated as one of the Top 100 juniors in the country.
Omar Payne: 4-star power forward from Kissimmee, Florida. Andrew Slater tweeted this weekend that Payne has been hearing a lot from Pitt as of late. Payne is rated as one of the Top 50 juniors and has offers from Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Texas and Louisville.
Aundre Hyatt: Top 75 talent from Charlottesville, Virginia. He’s currently in the Class of 2019 but Pitt is trying to get him to reclassify into their Class of 2018. Pitt assistant Milan Brown has a deep history with Hyatt’s AAU basketball team.
Emmitt Matthews: 2018 4-star small forward from Tacoma, Washington. The former UConn recruit is also someone that the new Pitt staff has targeted from the start.
