Guard Judah Mintz a great start to Pittsburgh Basketball’s 2022 recruiting class

Since the end of restrictions for official visits starting June 1st, few programs have been as aggressive in terms of bringing players in as Pittsburgh Basketball. They hosted over a dozen class of 2022 prospects, including one in Judah Mintz that just gave the program their first commitment in the 2022 class.

Mintz is a top-100 prospect, a 6’4 shooting guard out of Gonzaga High School in Washington D.C. Capable of handling the ball in the backcourt, the four-star prospect is a versatile and legit power conference player that is a strong defender as well. Mintz can score at a high level from the mid-range with growing spacing ability, while also not afraid to drive down inside.

Mintz was one of the first players Pittsburgh brought in at the start of June and he picked them over the likes of Penn State and Georgetown, the local option who also was viewed as a strong contender.

https://twitter.com/Jmintz10/status/1405964262602838018

Landing a top-100 prospect is a big move for the coaching staff, who didn’t spend much time with the 2021 recruiting class at all. They landed three-star wing Nate Santos late in the process and missed out on five-star center prospect Efton Reid, who picked LSU after a dramatic sweepstakes over a month ago.

Due to the lack of official visits and live opportunities to watch recruits play in person, coaches and teams weren’t able to operate how they would normally. So rather than risk misevaluating players from afar, Pittsburgh may have opted to focus early on the 2022 class. And after losing so much talent this offseason and struggling to get out of the bottom of the ACC, there’s plenty of pressure on Head Coach Jeff Capel and company to get some wins, even if it’s coming off the court.

Things are shaping up for what could be a top-25 future class. With just Santos coming in, the 2021 class has just one player. And there’s a chance that incoming transfers Daniel Oladapo, Jamarius Burton, and Mouhamadou Gueye will only be around for one year. Add 5th year senior Nike Sibande and that could leave at least five open spots for scholarship players. And that’s before any departing transfers.

What should help the Panthers is the transfer portal and how some teams will heavily rely on it. For teams such as Pittsburgh that can’t really recruit with the top-40 teams in the country, their early persistence with class of 2022 prospects could pay off… just as it already has with Mintz.

Some other recruits to keep an eye on that have already visited the program this month include wing Noah Batchelor, guards Bryce Lindsay and Chance Westry, and big men Shawn Phillips Jr. and  Christ Essandoko. If the Panthers can land a couple of these guys, they’ll be in great shape to have a strong 2022 recruiting class, jumpstarted by Judah Mintz.