New Zealand Center Steven Adams Commits to Pitt

We all expected the 2012 recruiting class to be an interesting one for the Panthers but I don’t believe that anyone expected anything close to the late announcement from yesterday when Pitt announced that they had already secured their first commitment in the form of New Zealand U17 center Steven Adams.

Apparently the newest Panther is a bit of a shot blocker. (Lucas Wroe/Kangaroo)

The 16 year old Adams is a 6’11″ center who attends Scots College Prep in Wellington and plays his club basketball for the Wellington U19 side where he is coached by New Zealand national team youth coach Kenny McFadden.  Three weeks ago Adams led Team Wellington to the New Zealand U19 championship by scoring 33 points and grabbing 23 rebounds in the title game against North Harbour, an eye-catching performance that naturally led to tournament MVP honors and probably upped the Panthers’ interest in him in a big way.  The year before, as a 15 year old, Adams was also the MVP of the New Zealand U17 championship as he led the Team Wellington U17s to that title as well with a 19 point performance.  In addition to his club honors, Adams also started for the New Zealand U17 national team in the 2009 FIBA Oceania U17 championships as a 15 year old where he posted a line of 2.7 ppg, 8 rpg, and 2 bpg while matching up against the older and highly regarded Daniel Carlin of Australia.

Still, there is a question of why the staff would take such an early commitment from a complete unknown when the Panthers are in the running for so many coveted players in the 2012 class including Khem Birch, Omar Calhoun and DaJuan Coleman.  The first and most obvious reason is simply that Adams can play.  Clearly when the staff was recruiting Rob Loe last season Steven Adams was another player who caught their eye as one to watch if only because of his height and his advanced level-to-age ratio.  When he absolutely blew up this year as a 16 year old, recruiting him really became a no-brainer, especially if someone was able to catch his 33 point/22 rebound title game performance.  If New Zealand names him to their U-20 team for the upcoming FIBA Oceania Championships in the fall, an event that is more likely than it is not given Adams’ recent play, then this commitment has be immediately viewed as a complete and total steal…7 foot tall U20 national team players from big basketball playing nations do not grow on trees.

Furthermore, as Doke pointed out a few hours ago, all of the big names that Pitt is in for in 2012 can now be recruited as power forwards which is a huge advantage for players such as Khem Birch and DaJuan Coleman as that is likely where they will project at the NBA level.  Don’t forget, one of the reasons that Kevin Jones chose WVU over Pitt was the promise of more time on the perimeter and that one of the reasons that we seemed to land Jaylen Bond was because Jamie promised him some time at the 3…being able to offer positional versatility is a big selling point to prospective recruits.