On Friday night, Quaker Valley senior standout Adou Thiero led the Quakers to a state tournament second-round victory over Belle Vernon, posting yet another impressive stat line in front of several division one coaches.
Thiero dropped 21 points, dished out ten assists, grabbed ten rebounds, and blocked seven shots to help his team pull away late in the game. Pitt associate head coach Milan Brown was in attendance, watching Thiero with a close eye. A Duquesne staffer was also watching Thiero. With his stellar late season play, he is attracting more coaches each day.
Milan Brown watches Adou Thiero, photo by George Michalowski
“I keep in touch with Pitt like every other day,” Thiero told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “‘Hi, how are you, how’s the thumb, when’s your next game,’ conversations like that.”
In addition to Pitt, Duquesne, and the other schools involved, Thiero also started to receive interest from a blue blood program: Kentucky.
“I was definitely very excited,” he said. “Kentucky was my dream school when I was a kid. I went to a Kentucky camp my freshman year and I just like the program and Coach Cal is a very good coach.”
A few days ago, when Thiero was out at practice, Kentucky’s John Calipari reached out to Thiero’s father, Almamy Thiero, who played under Calipari at Memphis. The two spoke, and Thiero said, his father later told him that Calipari was interested in his talents.
“He just told me that they’re interested,” Thiero said. “Just to keep playing the way that I am playing, and more will come.”
After his 31-point performance in the WPIAL class 4A championship, Thiero picked up an offer from Duquesne just one day later. On Friday, he said that he talks with the Dukes’ staff every day, and is building a strong relationship with the coaches there.
On top of those schools, Thiero also holds an offer from UC Santa Barbara, and has been receiving interest from Indiana, Marquette, Cincinnati, West Virginia, and more.
Pitt don’t have a chance and probably going to Kentucky
Kentucky presently has one of the best recruiters and assistant coaches in the country. He has close connections with Pitt. He played for Howland, was an assistant coach at Pitt until Calapri offered him the same position at Memphis and Kentucky. Recruiting for 2022 is not over but this former Pitt alumnus has recruited 3, 5* recruits for 2022 at Kentucky. He is a nationally known recruiter, and has been an assistant coach at several top 10 schools. Pitt will have to pay top dollar but we can hope his allegiance to his school will bring him home. If we… Read more »
Antigua was 23-55 in his one & only chance at being a head coach at South Florida. He’s in such demand that although he has been available for 5 seasons now there have been zero schools willing to hire him. this would make him the definition of a ‘known loser.’