Pitt is it for Hugley
The Pitt basketball program received its second commitment of the week as four-star big man John Hugley made the call this afternoon. Hugley is a 6’8” and 240-pound center out of Cleveland (OH). He is rated as the 95th best prospect in the country according to the Rivals.com top 150 rankings.
Hugley becomes the second top 100 recruit to commit to play for Jeff Capel since he assumed the role of Pitt’s head coach as he joins sophomore guard Trey McGowens. Hugley has long been a priority target for Capel and his staff as Pitt played host to him five times, including two visits in the month of September.
Hugley had close to 30 scholarship offers. He chose Pitt over the likes of Kansas State, Missouri, Miami and N.C. State. The Cleveland big man had taken a recent visit to N.C. State that reportedly went very well, but he waited off on deciding until he saw Pitt again.
Hugley had a standing plan to visit Pitt for the weekend of September 27th for an official visit, but the week prior he made a surprise trip to Pittsburgh as well and he took in the football team’s game against UCF.
"My visit was pretty good and I got to see the academic part of the school," Hugley told Panther-Lair.com earlier this month following his official visit. "I have pretty much seen everything else, so that was the main difference this time. Just more exposure to the academic and student life on campus.”
Hugley joins Noah Collier and Max Amadasun to help make up the foundation of the 2020 recruiting class. Collier committed a few weeks ago, and he is close with Hugley and that relationship certainly helped with Pitt's recruiting pitch.
"Noah is my boy," Hugley said in an earlier interview. “We have been talking more and more, and I think he is going to help Pitt a lot when he gets there. I could see myself playing with him for sure.”
Pitt picked up a commitment from Amadasun earlier this week. He checks in at 6’10” and with Collier being 6’7” himself, the three early commitments certainly give this program a much-needed restocked front line.
Landing Hugley was both a big and important win for Capel. Pitt prioritized the Ohio native for quite some time and it fought off surges by other programs to land his commitment. Not only that, he is a top-100 talent that should help the program both immediately and long term.
Pitt is still in pursuit of some other top prospects like Earl Timberlake, R.J. Davis, Josh Hall, and Clifford Omoruyi. Landing any of those prospects would be great haul for the Pitt program, but for now the staff is off to a strong start in the class of 2020.