Jason and Jeff Capel have spent plenty of time in the gym over the last two years at Brush High School in Cleveland, Ohio watching and recruiting 4-star center John Hugley.
It looks as though they’ll be spending a lot more time there trying to bring another Brush HS star to Pittsburgh.
After seeing enough of him this past season, Capel called Brush HS boy’s basketball coach Chet Mason to inform him that the Panthers were offering his freshman 4-star shooting guard Marlon Barnes.
Courtesy of Chet Mason
Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Mason to ask him about his conversation with Capel and also to find out more about Barnes, just another player from his program that will be D-I basketball.
“After we finished out workouts yesterday, I was on the phone with Coach Capel,” said Mason. “He’s seen Marlon a few times last year when he was in to watch John. Marlon is definitely a high level player. I say that recognizing that he still has a lot to learn but in his class, he’s one of the better ones. He’s a 6’6″, long, true shooting guard. He’s definitely talented and one of the more talented kids that I’ve seen come around.”
“If you see Marlon and watch him and watch him shoot, you’d know right away that he’s a no-brainer to offer for that level. He still has to get better, we’re not saying that. It’s just that in his class, you just don’t see a 6’6″ shooting guard like him that can score at all three levels. No doubt his biggest strength is his ability to shoot. It’s weird, he’s kind of like Kevin Durant with his shot. The crazy thing about all of this is that he just turned 15 years old. He played the whole varsity season as a 14 year old. It was a good experience for him because of all the talent around him last year, he wasn’t required to do much but he still ended up starting as a freshman.”
Pitt becomes the second ACC program to offer Barnes with Miami (FL) becoming the first. The Hurricanes offered him as a 8th grader, before he played a minute of varsity ball. Because of all this, Mason is already preparing his future star for the attention he’ll be receiving over the next three seasons.
“He’s a young kid but he’s very mature,” said Mason. “Once he received that offer from Miami, I told him that he immediately had a target on his back. Even now with this offer, the target is going to get bigger and bigger. When a program like Pitt offers you, ACC level, the target is growing. He didn’t even play his sophomore season and he’s received two ACC offers. I told him that everyone is going to be coming after him trying to prove that they’re better than you. You know have to be able to compete, raise your game and show them that you deserve these offers.
Chet Mason re-tweets a good amount of Pitt stuff and really likes Coach Capel. Nice “in” to have. Relationships matter, that’s for sure.