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Elite frontcourt prospect John Hugley took an official visit to Pitt over the weekend, and on Tuesday, he announced he would be committing on Oct. 18 at 3:30 p.m. ET. In addition, he told Mike Vukovcan of Pittsburgh Sports Now that he had trimmed his list of potential schools from 12 to three, with Kansas State, NC State and Pitt as his finalists.
The 6’8”, 240-pound recruit holds four-star ratings from each of the top three recruiting sites. Rivals and 247Sports both consider him one of the top 100 players in the country, but ESPN places him outside of its ESPN100 ranking for the 2020 class.
Over the course of his recruitment, Hugley reeled in 26 offers and pared that list down to a final 12 on July 22. The schools cut on Tuesday included Cincinnati, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Missouri, Nebraska, Penn State, UConn and West Virginia.
Hugley visited NC State on Aug. 30, and he has taken five visits to Pitt since Sept. 8, 2018, including his official visit over the weekend. Corey Evans of Rivals noted that Hugley's visit history bodes well for Pitt.
”John Hugley is expected to visit Kansas State next weekend, but he could decide to hold off and end his recruitment,” Evans said. “While he has been adamant about taking all of his official visits before deciding, very rarely do we see a specific prospect visit the same program in consecutive weekends like he did with Pitt without committing.”
The Kansas State visit Evans alluded to is scheduled for Oct. 5. However, according to Hugley himself, the trip to Manhattan, Kansas, may not happen. Hugley recently told Matt Steinbrink of Panther-Lair.com, “I don’t know about any more visits, just have to see."
During his junior season at Brush High School in Lyndhurst, Ohio, Hugley averaged 16.1 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game. In addition, he played in Nike EYBL competitions with All Ohio Red earlier this year and averaged 9.2 points and 6.8 rebounds over a span of 13 games.
Hugley would add vital size to a Pitt frontcourt that is still in development under Jeff Capel, and given the team’s recent struggles to land quality bigs, his commitment would be a coup for the program. The talented post player will announce his decision at Brush High School two weeks from Friday.