Pitt BB Recruiting
Illinois Guard Andre Curbelo Enters Transfer Portal; Pitt Expected to Pursue
Pitt is in need of a talented veteran point guard and one just became available.
Illinois sophomore Andre Curbelo announced Monday afternoon that he was going to enter the transfer portal.
Much love 🧡💙🤝 pic.twitter.com/mUXRhImkt8
— Andre Curbelo (@papicurbelo11) March 28, 2022
It was a rough 2021-22 season on and off the court for Curbelo, so this news comes as no surprise to many.
During an exhibition game for Illinois, Curbelo suffered a concussion against St. Francis and the effects of that sidelined him for nearly two months. Soon after returning on January 17, Curbelo tested positive for COVID-19.
Not surprisingly, Curbelo’s on-court performance suffered as he averaged 7.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 19 games.
In his final game with Illinois, Curbelo was benched in the second half of their NCAA Tournament loss to Houston by head coach Brad Underwood.
Curbelo is a dynamic playmaker and an exciting player and will be looking for a fresh start with a new program. The native of Puerto Rico was a 2020 4-star recruit and rated as the No. 47 overall prospect according to 247 Sports.
After being named the Big 10 6th Man of the Year last season, Curbelo entered this season with a lot of preseason hype. CBS Sports named him the No. 24 overall player in the country and he was named to a couple All-American Watch Lists.
Curbelo will be a nationally pursued player and one team to watch is Kentucky. Orlando Antigua was an assistant at Illinois last year when Curbelo signed there. Since then, Antigua has rejoined John Calipari’s staff at Kentucky.
Despite this connection, look for Jeff Capel and Pitt to also make a play for Curbelo’s services.
Normally once a player has court presence or any field presence, and returned from an injury he has no issues reestablishing himself on the court or field. Recovery from a concussion may be another matter. No sure if I would prioritize Curbelo over the others Capel is looking at. Would be good to look at game tape both before and after the injury and look at the body language.
This will be the best point guard available by far. He is a guy that can change a program. Although he isn’t a good shooter he is excellent at everything else, especially at getting to the basket and making plays,
This is the kid that capel needs if pitt is going to have a good year next year and capel is able to save his job.
Pitt does not have the cash to compete with the blue bloods nor would they if they could🤑🤑🤑🤑💰💰💰
Unbelievably I’m starting to think this is a correct statement. It makes me want to quit following college sports. I hope things change for the better or else they will have lost at-least one person from following their sports.
I am an Illini fan who placed a lot of hope in Curbelo, but he just wasn’t very good after coming back from the concussion. He made bad decisions and bad passes, and he shot frequently from outside and missed often. He may do better next year, but if I were a coach I would think twice about depending on him. He also seemed to think he was a coach and was often seen on broadcasts telling other players what they should be doing. This happened when he was a player on the bench as well as when he was… Read more »