Pitt basketball suffered an embarrassing loss to West Virginia on Friday night, but earlier in the day, the Panthers signed the last of their three committed prospects. Jaland Lowe, who committed to Pitt with an Instagram live video on Oct. 1, signed with the Panthers to finalize his commitment to Pitt basketball.
Lone Star State ➡️ Steel City @jalandlowe is officially a Panther ‼️ pic.twitter.com/UUYv4R1nz3
— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) November 11, 2022
Lowe is a four-star point guard from Texas who ranks as 247 Sports’ 74th-best prospect, the 13th-best point guard and the sixth-best Texas prospect of the 2023 class. He joined four-star prospect Carlton Carrington, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Baltimore, and three-star forward Marlon Barnes of Cleveland, who both signed on Thursday.
It’s the first time Jeff Capel has landed multiple four-star recruits in a single class since Pitt signed John Hugley IV and William Jeffress in its 2020 class. Lowe and Carrington are also the only four-star recruits by Capel in Pitt’s last three recruiting classes outside of Dior Johnson, who currently is on an indefinite suspension.
Capel’s had to rely upon transfer portal commitments to build classes for the last several years to replenish Pitt’s roster. Nate Santos represented the only high school recruit of the Panthers’ 2021 class as a response to the exodus of players that started with Xavier Johnson’s and Au’Diese Toney’s decisions to transfer from the program while Justin Champagnie left for the NBA.
But with Lowe, Carrington and Barnes, Capel has a chance to set a new tone with young recruits who can build with the program. That’s been a challenge to have players whose growth carries over year-to-year the way he’s sustained with Hugley, who enters his third season with the Panthers. If Capel can re-establish a group of young players who grow in his program, it could be the tone the program needs to become a competitive ACC team in future years.
First Published: November 12, 2022, 9:05 p.m.
