Pitt makes top seven of four-star recruit Casey Simmons

Jeff Capel and the Pitt coaching staff offered a promising recruit a scholarship on June 11, and that decision paid off on Monday night, as Casey Simmons, a shooting guard out of Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, placed the program in his top seven.

The other top six contenders to land Simmons include Boston College, Northwestern, Princeton, Texas and Yale. That list was pared down from a total of 12 reported offers, with Georgetown, Penn State, Rhode Island, Richmond and Xavier all cut from contention.

The 6’5”, 170-pound shooting guard holds a four-star rating from 247Sports, which ranks him as the No. 97 recruit in the 2021 class and the No. 1 prospect out of the state of Massachusetts. Rivals considers Simmons a three-star recruit and ranks him 143rd nationally in the 2021 class.

Last season at Milton Academy, Simmons averaged 22 points, six rebounds and two assists per game. Simmons’ robust scoring average included a 35-point outburst against Thayer Academy on Jan. 8 in which he scored 35 points and made five three-pointers.

“He has the size and athleticism to defend virtually anywhere, along with good feel for the game,” Brian Snow of 247Sports said of Simmons in May. “Now his outside shot is beginning to develop, and even though he wasn’t on the circuit this spring, coaches have decided he is worth an offer.”

At this point, Simmons has yet to set a decision date, and there is no clear front-runner in his recruitment. With that said, Simmons’ top seven suggests academics are a key aspect of his decision. That bodes well for Pitt, which was ranked as the No. 1 public university in the Northeast by the Wall Street Journal in April and landed William Jeffress, another recruit focused on academics, the same month.