Pittsburgh Basketball: Can Panthers land Niagara guard Noah Thomasson?

Which teams have the best shot to land Noah Thomasson?

When the Niagara guard announced his top five options, I did an article earlier looking at how he’d fit with them. And not too much has changed, although there may be clarity as to who is involved. First, San Francisco was an early connection for Thomasson and they’ve had backcourt success. Plus, he along with returning guard Marcus Williams would be a good duo in the WCC.

However, there’s been nothing connecting the Dons and Thomasson for a while and it’s hard to see a player be involved with so many power conference programs and come back to them. So their odds are less than 5% at this point. Another team likely not in it is St. John’s, who after last week’s visit, may be moving forward without him. They already have Iona transfer Daniss Jenkins and UConn guard Nahiem Alleyne and are also after former UMass guard RJ Luis at the moment.

If that’s true, that would leave Pittsburgh Basketball with two other threats. One is program rival Penn State, who has a new coach (Mike Rhoades) and a completely new roster. He brought with him Ace Baldwin, who won A-10 Player of the Year this past season. Thomasson could start alongside him but Coach Rhodes typically plays a slower pace and its roster that isn’t good to make the NCAA Tournament at this point.

Georgia may not have an NCAAT roster either but they’re building one. So far this offseason, the team has landed frontcourt bigs, Russel Tchewa and Jalen Deloach, along with former Illinois wing, RJ Melendez. They also have a pair of four-star freshmen guards (Silas Demary and Blue Cain) along with three returning rotational players.

One of them is Justin Hill (8.6 ppg and 2.9 apg), a former high school teammate and friend of Thomasson. The backcourt has gotten a bit crowded but there’s still some room for Thomasson with the SEC program and if these new pieces work out, could be a sneaky team to watch next season.