Jeff Capel and his staff have been in on 2022 forward Dom Barlow for quite a while and have targeted him as a player that they’d like to bring into their Class of 2022.
The question now is will getting in early with this rising prospect end up paying off for the Panthers in the end because it appears Barlow’s recruitment is about to skyrocket.
Barlow’s performance on Friday morning in front of a ton of college head coaches — including Jeff Capel and Tim O’Toole — earned him high marks on Twitter from a few well-known college basketball recruiting analysts.
Barlow is a 6-foot-9, 205 pound forward from St. Benedict Prep in Newark, New Jersey. Barlow is a 3-star recruit per 247 Sports and unranked by Rivals but that obviously will be changing in the near future. At this point, he holds offers from Pitt, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Providence, Siena, Saint Peter’s, Quinnipiac and Fairleigh Dickinson.
Barlow’s lone official visit has been to Pitt, which took place back on June 22 and afterwards, talked to Pittsburgh Sports Now about his impression.
“It was great, I really liked the city,” Barlow told PSN. “My first impression of meeting Coach Capel for the first time in person was that he is a really down to earth guy and is really trying to build a great basketball program at Pitt. I also found that he is a really easy guy to talk with and connect to. Something that really impressed me was just how beautiful the city was as a whole. I’ve been to Pittsburgh before when we went to see a football game there but getting the chance to really get out and see the city, I never expected the city to be that beautiful. Also, the city just seemed to have great people. Everyone was so friendly, everyone was saying hello, it was just so easy to talk with everyone. It was just a really good time.”
Before ending his visit, Barlow told PSN that he had a good conversation with Capel, who let him know that the Pitt program wants him and that it’s a place that he could excel at.
“He showed me a lot of Justin Champagnie, a guy that he believes that I can be very similar to,” said Barlow. “We talked about why I could be great at Pitt and about the versatility I have, my length and my ability to want to defend. He also gave me a lot of advice which I appreciated and think was very important.”
Barlow’s strengths are his athleticism, high motor, his defense and ability to shoot from the outside.
