Pitino Visits Top National Recruit Matthew Hurt (Rochester, MN); Offers 2019 De LaSalle Point Guard

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John Marshall’s Matthew Hurt (1) is defended closely during a Section 1AAAA semifinal game against Owatonna on Saturday, March 10, 2018, at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. Andrew Link / [email protected]

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Despite still having not one, not two, but three open scholarships for next year, we’re gathered here today because of a special 2019 Minnesota basketball recruit:

As indicated by Matthew Hurt’s handful of stars (he’s a 5-Star prospect if you didn’t follow that), Richard Pitino’s meeting with the Rochester native Wednesday morning (earlier today) isn’t a typical recruiting visit. Currently, ESPN’s Recruiting Database has the John Marshall High School basketball player ranked as the 5th best prospect in the 2019 class.

To help put the 6’9” PF’s hoops prowess into perspective, his 95 overall grade is sandwiched between those of Tyus (97) and Tre (93) Jones. During the 2017-18 campaign, Hurt posted a video game esque per game average of 34.1 points, 14.3 rebounds, and 4.3 blocks.

via GIPHY

Oh, and by the way, 247Sports appreciates Matthew Hurt’s dominance a bit more than ESPN. They rank him as a .9986, which would put him ahead of BOTH Jones’ Brothers (barely).

When “keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t good enough:

In addition to his hometown roots, Matthew Hurt’s older brother, Michael, just finished his sophomore season (3.2 PPG, 2,5 RPG) with coach Pitino’s squad. While the family ties are encouraging, I wouldn’t get too excited:

The above-referenced article starts off by touching on seven different college hoop programs:

• Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, UCLA, and Memphis.

In an interview from last Thursday, Hurt referred to those top-tier programs as the “main seven [schools] right now.” While that doesn’t seem to bode well for Minnesota, to be fair, in the same conversation, he stated that the Gophers are “up there too.”

To me, the fact the Maroon and Gold weren’t mentioned in that initial batch of schools is extremely telling. Hopefully, I’m looking too far into Hurt’s comments.

As of now, 247Sports lists Kansas as the front-runner to acquire the talented athlete’s services.However, coach Cal seems to be in a nice spot:

If Minnesota can somehow land Hurt, it would be a complete game changer. If they can’t, 2019’s class offers other talented Land of 10K Lakes options:

For further details on the De La Salle PG, click here: Tyrell Terry

Johnny Minnesota (@TheJohnnyMN)
MinnesotaSportsFan.com

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