J.J. RICHARDSON HIGH ON PITT VISIT

September 10, 2008

by Chris Dokish

The Pittsburgh basketball program is looking to add one, if not two, big men to their 2009 class and one of their main targets is combo forward J.J. Richardson of Hightower HS in Missouri City, TX. The 6'7" 235 pound Richardson visited the Pitt campus this past weekend and came away very impressed.

"I loved it," says Richardson. "The players were all very nice and they brought me in to everything they were doing. They're definitely number one right now. I almost committed, and I really thought about it, but I wanted to have someplace to compare it to first."

That someplace will be Oklahoma State, where the strong and athletic sleeper will visit this weekend.

In other Pitt news, 6'8" power forward James Padgett, of Abraham Lincoln HS in Brooklyn, was expected to visit at the same time as Richardson, but schoolwork prevented him from making the trip. He is expected to visit on the weekend of September 19th, along with 6'9" power forward Dante Taylor and 6'4" wing Lamar Patterson, both of whom have verbally committed, as well as other '09 prospects (possibly Durand Scott and Talib Zanna, to name two) and '10 prospects yet to be finalized. While the College Football Odds will be stacked against the Pitt football team as they host Iowa at noon, the Panther fans will have something to cheer about as the basketball team will also be getting their Big East Tournament Championship rings that weekend.

DeAndre Kane, the 6'3" shooting guard from Schenley HS in Pittsburgh that Pitt has been involved with for more than a year, was scheduled to attend the New Hampton School, a prep school in New Hampshire, after failing to become eligible to play this season. But tuition issues have instead forced him to go to Patterson School in Lenoir, NC. Like New Hampton, the Pitt staff helped him get into the school.