Pitt offers First Love standout Mason Manning

After kicking off the week with a flurry of recruiting activity on Monday, Pitt head coach Jeff Capel and his staff were more subdued on Tuesday. However, they still reached out to a total of six recruits: two in the 2021 class, and four in the 2022 class. And Pitt offered two 2022 prospects, including Mason Manning, a standout point guard at First Love Christian Academy in Washington, Pennsylvania.

The 6’1”, 170-pound point guard originally hails from Jackson, Mississippi, and holds three-star ratings from 247Sports and Rivals. The latter website also ranks him as the No. 122 prospect in the 2022 class, and as a top recruit, Manning has been highly sought after.

Since coaches were given the green light to contact 2022 recruits when the clock struck midnight on Monday, Manning has received offers from Bryant, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Maryland and Seton Hall in addition to Pitt, and he has heard from Auburn, Cincinnati, Creighton, Dayton, Florida State, Marquette, NC State, New Mexico State, Ohio State, St. John’s, Virginia Tech and Wichita State. Manning also holds offers from Baylor, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Penn State, TCU and USF, bringing his current total to 13 offers.

With that said, Manning and the Pitt coaching staff have shown a significant amount of interest in each other so far in Manning’s recruitment, and at this point, Pitt is the only school he has visited. Both of his visits to Pitt came in February of this year.

Last season at First Love, Manning averaged 13 points, five assists, and two steals per game. He was also a 37 percent three-point shooter who made 48 percent of his total attempts from the field and 81 percent of his shots from the foul line. After a promising performance in his sophomore season, Corey Evans of Rivals broke down what Manning brings to the table at the next level.

“Manning is more of a smaller-bodied lead guard that thinks score first before creating for others, but he does it in an efficient manner,” Evans said of the three-star recruit. “He is a confident point-of-attack type of guard that is quick off of the first step and does not lack for toughness around the basket.”

“Defensively, Manning can be placed onto the opponents’ best perimeter weapon,” Evans added. “He has great feet and lateral abilities, along with fine instincts in playing the passing lanes. In all, if he can polish his lead guard abilities and round out his skill set, Manning has the chance to see an even larger number of high majors enter his recruitment.”

In addition to Manning, Pitt also offered Gregg Glenn, a 6’6”, power forward out of Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday. The Southern recruit averaged 15 points and six rebounds per game last season after averaging 14 points and eight rebounds as a freshman. Glenn is considered a four-star recruit by 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN.

The other four recruits Pitt reached out to on Tuesday included New York City prospects Jaquan Sanders and Silas Sunday, both of Our Saviour Lutheran School in the Bronx, and 2021 recruits Alden Applewhite and Bretner Mutombo, the latter of whom previously received an offer from Pitt.