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August 23, 2010

One Big for 2011

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting — Chas @ 9:03 pm

Malcolm Gilbert has had Pitt’s eye for some time. Over this summer, Gilbert had put Pitt at the top of his list. The 6-11 center apparently decided to join Pitt’s already solid recruiting class.

“Just a great fit for me both athletically and academically — Jamie Dixon is a great coach with great experience and he’ll make me a much better player plus Pitt’s consistency of success makes it a great fit,” said Gilbert on why he committed to the Panthers.

The 6-foot-11 center was one of the top remaining post players in the class. He and his family felt the fit and timing was right for a commitment.

“My family is really in favor of the choice and even though the decision was mine it feels good that we’re all on the same page,” Gilbert said. “It takes a little bit of stress off my shoulders and allows me to focus on my senior year goals both with academics and athletics.”

Gilbert is also an outstanding student that had legitimate interest in, and from, Ivy League schools.

Guess we don’t have to worry about whether he can meet the academic qualifications.

Scout.com and ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. have him as a verbal to Pitt. Rivals.com does not yet.

He’s considered the #!6 or 17 center prospect in the 2011 class. Both Scout.com and Rivals.com put him as a 3-star recruit, while ESPN.com is a bit higher on him. The ESPN.com profile is a year out of date (Insider subs), but it sure seems to describe a Coach Dixon project center to a “T.”

August, 2009: Gilbert is a post player whose defense is far ahead of his offense at this stage in his career. He has very long arms and good timing which helps him block and change shots. He is not a very good defender on the perimeter at this stage because he does not have incredibly quick feet. Smaller, quicker posts blow by him, but he makes up for it with his length and good timing. When he catches in the post, he uses the spin move to try and score. He also likes to face up and has huge hands that help him catch good and bad passes. He does a good job of passing out of the double team from the post and likes to go over his left shoulder for his turnaround jump shot in the post.

Pitt beat out Wake Forest, Ohio St., Virginia, Clemson and VT for the big man.

The thing about his verbal that will fuel discussion and speculation is that he is Pitt’s 4th verbal for this class. Pitt only has 3 seniors (Gil Brown, Gary McGhee and Brad Wanamaker). That means renewed speculation on who might be transferring after this season or whether one of the 4 incoming recruits may struggle with academic qualifications.





What happened to Steve Adams (2012) going from a commitment to no interest in Pitt?

Comment by winedogs 08.23.10 @ 9:22 pm

About what are you talking?

Comment by Chas 08.23.10 @ 9:48 pm

what do you mean no interest? Adams is committed. There was just a video interview with him posted yesterday where he talks about why he committed to Pitt.

Comment by Jamie H 08.23.10 @ 9:51 pm

here is the interview
link to draftexpress.com

Comment by Jamie H 08.23.10 @ 9:56 pm

As a Baltimore city resident, I feel comfortable speculating that if any of the recruits don’t qualify academically, odds are it’s the kid from east Baltimore, Durand Johnson.

On the other hand, Scout lists this Gilbert kid as being from a school called ‘Academy of the New Church Boys.’ If that doesn’t sound like a diploma mill, nothing does.

Comment by Jeff 08.23.10 @ 10:22 pm

According to Scout.com, Syracuse has a center from the Academy of the New Church Boys, Rakeem Christmas, a 5-star recruit they rank as the #1 Center.

Will this Gilbert kid even get a lot of playing time this year at his own HS? Unless they move Christmas (only a mere 6’9″) to forward, Gilbert is the 2nd best center on his HS team.

Comment by Patrick 08.24.10 @ 12:06 am

It would be nice to get these 2 from KISKI (Sim and Tanveer Bhullar)

Comment by POLE 08.24.10 @ 12:21 am

On Scout he is no longer listed as a commit. When I searched his name, it comes up as no offer from Pitt and no interest on his part? Just wanted some clarification to why the change in his status. I did notice Rivals still has him listed as a verbal. Here is the Scout link –
link to pittsburgh.scout.com

Comment by winedogs 08.24.10 @ 6:42 am

winedogs,

Steve Adams is still listed as a commit on ESPN.com’s recruiting site. I wouldn’t worry about the Scout.com thing. Presumably a glitch on their side. There are no articles on his page indicating he re-opened or Pitt pulled their offer.

Comment by Chas 08.24.10 @ 7:56 am

I don’t know POLE. You must be reading those puff pieces that were in the papers about the Bhullar brothers and not paying attention to the negatives being said about them. I don’t think Pitt has any interest in them at all. According to Chris Dokish they aren’t worth spit. In one of his Q & A’s recently he said “: I have a better chance of getting a scholarship to play at Pitt and I’m 42 and out of shape. I told one Big East assistant that it was reported that WVU offered the kid, and he literally laughed and said, “There’s no way in hell, but I wish they did”……don’t believe the hype. Even if one of these kids did somehow get a major offer, they would never see the floor. And Pitt will definitely not be that team.

Comment by KeithS 08.24.10 @ 10:05 am

winedogs–Was he ever listed as a commit on scout? I don’t think they ever got around to putting him on there.

Comment by pitt1972 08.24.10 @ 12:59 pm

On the various pitt blogs posts I’ve been reading about Gilbert, everyone says he’s listed as a 92 on ESPN.com. Well, not so anymore, as I just checked and today they updated his profile and bumped him up to a 94, the #12 center in the class. Perhaps we’ll be seeing his ranking going up around the other sites as well as he gets evaluated more? Regardless though, nice grab for Pitt..I couldn’t be happier with the continual improvement in development, play, recruiting, etc..I love this team and love this coach.

Comment by Corey 08.24.10 @ 1:25 pm

Love it! They needed a big man in that class. After McGhee leaves, Taylor will be the only center on the roster. Plus in order to have a legit shot at Khem Birch, they need to assure him he won’t have to play center. Between Gilbert and Adams they have credible center prospects in the pipeline.

Pitt is loaded for the next five plus years and will be in contention (or better) in the big east for the foreseeable future.

So, I’m going to throw it out there….isn’t it time to take a chance on 5-star, one and done, type guy? Don’t they need that kind of talent to make a credible run at a final four and a national championship? Look what a difference a guy like Blair made. With the talent in the pipe, one guy who only stays for a year or two certainly won’t jeopardize the program.

Couldn’t you sell this team to a five star guy? “look at the talent we’ll put around you. Look what we’ve done over the last 10 years, imagine what we could do with you”. I’m buying.

The foundation is rock solid, let’s go for it.

Thoughts?

Comment by Boubacar Aw 08.24.10 @ 4:38 pm

Keiths if Coach Dixon can do it with Gray,Troutman, Mcgee ect.. Why not anyone else? At the very least stand him under the basket and put his arms up!

Comment by POLE 08.24.10 @ 6:00 pm

Well, I guess the point is that you can’t do it with just ANYONE else. You need someone that Jamie thinks has some talent to start with. Dokish is saying that Dixon has absolutely no interest in them and that if some Division 1 BB program did offer them a scholarship it would be wasted because they aren’t good enough to see the floor. Root for the hoopies to pick them up.

Comment by KeithS 08.25.10 @ 2:38 am

Deal “Hail to Pitt”

Comment by POLE 08.25.10 @ 9:29 am

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