Duquesne Offers West Virginia 3-Star Forward Jalen Bridges

After landing Kennedy Catholic star Maceo Austin, Keith Dambrot is going after another area standout.

Over the weekend, Duquesne extended an offer to 2020 3-star forward Jalen Bridges from Fairmont, West Virginia.

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Bridges (6-7, 170) is rated as one of the Top 40 small forwards in the Class of 2020 and holds offers from Duquesne, Penn State, Marshall, Drake, Drexel, Ohio, Robert Morris, Tulane and hometown West Virginia.

Originally, Bridges was a member of the Class of 2019 but decided to reclassify to 2020.

Pittsburgh Sports Now spoke to Bridges who received the offer while attending Duquesne’s season opener on Saturday with Austin, who he’s teammates with on the AAU powerhouse ITPS Wildcats.

Courtesy of Jalen Bridges

“I didn’t go to the game expecting an offer from them,” said Bridges. “We had an AAU workout in Pittsburgh that day so we made plans with some of my AAU teammates to go to the game to watch Duquesne play because Maceo is committed there. After the game, the coaches asked me to come into the office. They told me that they only had one scholarship for 2019 and that Maceo was the priority. They then said for 2020 they’re wide open and said they wanted me and extended an offer.”

As far as what he knows about Duquesne and what interests him, it all starts with the entire Duquesne coaching staff.

“The fact that Coach Dambrot coached LeBron that’s big,” said Bridges. “Plus, the assistants have big experience in coaching and also playing basketball and for some NBA teams. That shows me that they know what they’re doing and know basketball. They’re not just some guys yelling at you that don’t really know the game. Then there’s the Maceo factor, he’s my bro. I love playing with him and it would be cool to play with him again, He plays the game the right way.”

Speaking of the game, Bridges tells me the strengths of his game are his size, how he can space the floor with his jump shot and that defensively he can guard any position on the floor.

Considering he’s from West Virginia, there’s obviously going to be a push for him to stay home but Bridges likes what he sees from Duquesne and believes they’d be a good fit for his game.

“They really get up and down, put up a lot of shots and pressure a lot on defense, I like that,” said Bridges. “Plus, the atmosphere that I saw from the fans was great considering they’re not a Power Five school and they’re getting a new arena soon so that’ll be crazy.”