Pitt Basketball Recruiting: Maverick Rowan names top six schools, passes on Pitt

One-time Pitt basketball commit Maverick Rowan recently said he wasn't going to be trimming his list of potential schools. That stance seems to have changed, however, and Rowan took to Twitter to announce his top six possible destinations of Louisville, North Carolina, North Carolina State, St. John's, UCLA, and Wisconsin.

Pitt has often lost kids to heavyweights so seeing North Carolina, Louisville, UCLA, and Wisconsin on the list aren't surprising. But it's tough to see Pitt unable to overtake programs like North Carolina State and St. John's - particularly when Rowan was once high enough on the Panthers to select them as his school of choice.

While I said previously that Rowan was unable to end up on Pitt after he decommitted, this is still a blow somewhat and adds more fuel to the fire that head coach Jamie Dixon is struggling to land big time players.

The inability to land Cheick Diallo while losing players like Rowan and Mustapha Heron can likely be tied to any number of things. But I'm still of the belief that a lot can be solved by Pitt winning. Dixon has landed prized recruits in the past such as Khem Birch, Dante Taylor, DeJuan Blair, and Steven Adams, and the missing link is that Pitt has taken a step back in terms of winning on the court. The program still won 50 games in the two seasons prior to this one, but missing the tournament a couple of times recently, it's clear that they've dropped off the radar a little.

Winning might not cure all that ails Pitt in terms of landing top recruits, but it surely would help.

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