New to the Zoo: Parker Stewart joins the 2017 Pitt class

Pitt was able to land a much needed addition to their 2017 recruiting class yesterday, as they landed shooting guard Parker Stewart. He was a one-time Ole Miss signee, but asked for his release from his letter of intent earlier this month. He is able to join the team soon, and will be eligible to play next season.

Stewart is a 6’5” 185 pound shooting guard from Union City, Tennessee. His father, Anthony, is a division one head coach for Tennessee-Martin. Stewart is graded as a three-star by all four of the major recruiting services. In addition to Pitt, he received late interest from Georgetown and Iowa State. He held an impressive offer sheet initially with the likes of Wisconsin, Florida, and NC State and about a dozen more.

Stewart is known for one thing especially, and that’s outside shooting. He should walk into Pitt and be their top threat from the outside right away. Here is a look at his senior year at Union City.

Given the graduation of Jamel Artis and Cameron Johnson’s transfer, finding a quality outside shooter like this should help offset those losses somewhat. Landing a player like this this late overall is also impressive. It’s rare to add a good high school talent this late in the game, at this point transfers and junior college players seem to be the only additions available.

To help paint a better picture of Pitt’s ever-changing roster, I’ll give everyone a quick rundown. Ryan Luther and Jonathan Milligan are back as the seniors of the team. Joining the senior class is grad-transfer Monty Boykins from Lehigh. Jared Wilson-Frame is coming to Pitt with junior eligibility from junior-college. Malik Ellison is a transfer from St. John’s and will sit this upcoming season, and has two years to play after that. Beyond that, it will be six true freshmen; Parker Stewart, Marcus Carr, Kham Davis, Shamiel Stevenson, Peace Ilegomah, and Terrell Brown.

That leaves two open scholarships Pitt can use before this upcoming season. They can likely add an additional post player to help out the very thin frontcourt. Pitt’s roster is definitely imbalanced as they have six freshman and not many upperclassmen at the moment. Pitt will likely have 4, and as many as five spots to fill in the 2018 recruiting class. They are off to a pretty strong start there with four-star Bryce Golden committing to the program just days ago.

Pitt has not had a very positive offseason with a bevy of transfers, the controversial blocking of Cameron Johnson, and their fair share of recruiting misses. So to add a four-star 2018 player a few days ago, and to beat out Georgetown for a three-star player yesterday, this would rank up there with the better developments the program has had in recent memory.