Pitt makes top six of four-star center Adama Sanogo

Pitt made the top 10 of four-star center Adama Sanogo out of the Patrick School in Hillside, New Jersey last month, and on Tuesday afternoon, the high school star trimmed his list to six and kept Pitt in the running.

The other five finalists are Auburn, Maryland, Nebraska, Seton Hall and UConn. And the four programs that were cut include Illinois, Louisville, Memphis and Oklahoma State.

ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports all consider the 6’9”, 230-pound center a four-star recruit, and the three recruiting websites agree that he is one of the top 100 recruits in the 2021 class as well as a top-15 center. ESPN has him at No. 30 in the class overall and No. 9 at his position. Rivals places him at No. 49 in the class and No. 9 at center. And 247Sports ranks him No. 66 overall and No. 12 at the center position.

Although the NCAA has extended its recruiting dead period from April 15 to May 31 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Sanogo completed a virtual visit with Pitt last Friday. At this point, he has also virtually visited Auburn, Maryland, Nebraska, Seton Hall and UConn.

In February, the Mali native mentioned that Pitt was one of a handful of programs that he felt were prioritizing him in an interview with Evan Daniels of 247Sports. However, around the same time, Nebraska, Seton Hall and UConn emerged as front-runners in his recruitment, as Sanogo attended a Seton Hall game and Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg and UConn coach Danny Hurley were both able to attend Sanogo’s games prior to the shutdown of schools and non-essential businesses in New Jersey. The recruit was setting up plans to visit all three schools around that time as well.

Sanogo is expected to reclassify to the 2020 class, and if he does so and commits to Pitt, it would fill a longstanding void in the team’s frontcourt while also complementing incoming frontcourt recruit John Hugley. And if Pitt can land both Sanogo and in-state four-star forward William Jeffress in the coming weeks, then Jeff Capel will have secured Pitt’s best class since the Jamie Dixon era.