William Jeffress finally made his decision, and yes, Pitt fans, you can break out the blue and gold confetti. As of 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, Jeffress is officially committed to Pitt.
Jeffress, a consensus four-star forward and top-100 recruit from McDowell High School in Erie, Pa., reclassified for 2020 earlier this year, and the college basketball world has anxiously awaited his decision since then. Jeffress had been linked heavily to Pitt throughout the process, making visits and receiving an offer almost immediately.
Now, it's official, as Jeffress made the announcement via Instagram.
With the addition of Jeffress, Pitt now boasts the 13th-ranked 2020 recruiting class in the nation, per 247Sports.com. The class also ranks fourth in the ACC.
"My heart now beats for the city of champions. Hail to Pitt," Jeffress said during the announcement, unzipping his coat to show a Pitt shirt underneath. The video also shows him wearing a No. 23 Panthers uniform.
Jeff Capel was loving it, too:
#H2P pic.twitter.com/Ipodf2sau6
— Jeff Capel (@jeffcapel) April 28, 2020
"Will is a versatile and skilled player with a big upside at only 16 years old," Capel said in a statement. "He comes from a terrific family and will be a great representative of the University of Pittsburgh in all areas. We are excited to add him to our program and believe he will fit in nicely with our core group of players as well as the rest of our incoming class."
Jeffress, who turns 17 June 3, is listed at 6-foot-7, 195 pounds, and plays a polished, all-around game. He was heavily recruited and offers were abundant, and Pitt was no guarantee. Eventually, he chose Pitt over Villanova, Virginia, Stanford, Penn State, Notre Dame, Baylor and Memphis, among others.
This gives Capel and company their second top-100 recruit in the class of 2020, as Jeffress, No. 75 overall and No. 13 at his position via Rivals, joins John Hugley, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound power forward/center who averaged 24 points, 13.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game at Ohio’s Brush High School and earning first-team All-Ohio honors from Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association during his senior season. Pitt's 2020 class also includes three three-star players — 6-foot-10 center Max Amadasun, 6-foot-8 forward Noah Collier and 6-foot-5 guard Femi Odukale.
Like Hugley, Jeffress filled the stat sheets in high school, averaging over 21 points per game as a freshman, 24.0 as a sophomore and 24.3 in his third and final season, per MaxPreps.com. Last season, Jeffress added 9.7 rebounds per game, 2.3 assists per game, 1.3 steals per game and 1.4 blocks per game to those totals, sending his stock rocketing.
Jeffress smashed McDowell High School's scoring record of 1,426 points set by Sean Smiley in 2005, registering 1,673 points during his three-year high school career. Not satisfied with that, Jeffress also broke the school's rebounding record, hauling in 578 boards. He also boasts experience with the U.S. national team, taking home a gold medal at the FIBA Under-16 Americas Championships as a sophomore.
All that scoring, specifically, is needed for the Panthers, who ranked 13th out of 15 teams in the ACC at 65.2 points per game in 2019-20 while shooting a second-to-worst 40.4 percent from the field, narrowly edging Boston College's 40.2-percent clip.
Jeffress may enter his collegiate career with a little extra fire, too. His McDowell High School team ended the season on an eight-game winning streak and was making a run through the PIAA 6A Boys' Championship bracket before the season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Jeffress and McDowell were set to face Butler in the quarterfinals prior to the cancellation.
“I was devastated,” Jeffress told GoErie.com in early April. “I was still holding out hope for the team and I to finish what we set out to do at the beginning of the year, and for some of us, our whole lives. That is winning a state championship.”
Now, he'll get the chance to work toward a different Final Four, this time with the Pitt Panthers.
