Pitt coach Jeff Capel landed the school’s most decorated basketball prospect in eight years when sophomore guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, a native of Penn Hills, verbally committed on his Instagram post.

Pitt hasn’t successfully recruited a top-20 prospect since Jamie Dixon signed future NBA star Steven Adams in 2012.

Hood-Schifino, 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, is rated the 17th-best prospect in the Class of 2022 by Rivals.com and No. 25 by 247Sports. He is the fifth-ranked combination guard and a five-star prospect in 247Sports’ national rankings. Rivals ranks him as a four-star.

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A post shared by Jalen Hood-Schifino (@jfino_0) on Dec 29, 2019 at 8:53pm PST

With three seasons of high school basketball ahead of him, Hood-Schifino won’t join Pitt’s team until the 2022-23 season.

Yet he was heavily recruited by several schools, including Clemson, Florida, Ole Miss, Boston College, USF, Wake Forest and Wichita State.

Schifino, who plays at Combine Academy in Charlotte, N.C., is a native of Penn Hills and the nephew of former Penn Hills and West Virginia basketball player Drew Schifino and former Tennessee Titans wide receiver Jake Schifino, His cousin, DeAndre Schifino, played football briefly at Pitt.

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