Pitt lands in top six of top-100 recruit Brandon Weston

Jeff Capel and the Pitt coaching staff kicked off their week with a coup on the recruiting trail, as Brandon Weston, a blue-chip prospect currently enrolled at Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix, Arizona, placed the program in his top six. The other five schools still in contention to land Weston include Illinois, Michigan, Seton Hall, Wake Forest and Western Illinois.

The 6’5”, 195-pound small forward is a consensus four-star recruit, and each of the three major recruiting outlets ranks him among the top 80 prospects in the 2021 class. ESPN places him at No. 78 in the class, while Rivals has him at No. 75. And the analysts at 247Sports have an even higher opinion of Weston, as they have him at No. 60.

Over the course of his recruitment, Weston has drawn more than a dozen offers, and some of his most notable cuts on Monday included Arizona State, Creighton, Iowa State, Nebraska, St. John’s, St. Louis and UMass.

Weston is a native of Brooklyn, New York, but he began his high school athletic career at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, where he averaged 21 points, eight rebounds and two steals per game as a freshman. He transferred to Morgan Park High School in Chicago and upped his averages to 24 points, 10 rebounds and three steals per game as a junior last season after sitting as a sophomore due to transfer rules.

At Pitt, Weston would get an opportunity to play with fellow Brooklyn natives Justin Champagnie and Femi Odukale in the Panthers backcourt. However, he also has a chance to reunite with former Morgan Park teammate Marcus Watson at Western Illinois and is eyeing some Midwestern powers in Illinois and Michigan. So Pitt may have some hurdles to overcome to land Weston, but Capel and his staff have done well to put Pitt on his radar and advance this far in his recruitment.