2010 top guard prospect could commit soon

by Chris Dokish

Other than star center DeJuan Blair, the Pittsburgh basketball team has not had the best of luck when it comes to landing the handful of top local prospects that they have pursued. But that may change next month when versatile 6’5” 185 pound Tom Droney is expected to make his decision.

Droney, from Sewickley Academy, just twelve miles northwest of Pittsburgh, has not even begun his junior season yet, but he already knows he has had enough of the recruiting process.

“I plan on committing in September,” says the highly mature Droney. “I want to make sure that there is a spot open for me at the school I want to go to. I talked to (Pitt assistant coach) Tom Herrion and he said they were recruiting a lot of guards in my class and that it was best not to wait. I love Pitt. I’m not saying I’m going to go there, but if that’s my choice then I have to do it now. My high school coach and AAU coach agree with me.”

Droney’s newfound fame also plays a part in the early decision. “I just want to get it over with, to be honest,” says Droney. “I get so many calls from coaches, and so much mail, and I’m already kind of sick of it. And it’s only going to get worse.”

Official offers can not even be extended yet, but schools can verbally offer players, which basically tells them they will offer them officially in September when they can. Droney already has seven of those verbal offers. Besides Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Duquesne, Penn State, St. Joe’s, Virginia, and Davidson have thrown their hats in the ring. With Droney expected to be a possible Top 50 prospect in the 2010 class, that offer list would go a lot higher if he doesn’t, as is expected, pull the plug on the entire thing. One major player in his early recruitment, Duke, is now out of the picture after landing a similar player in Andre Dawkins, a top 20 player from Virginia,

While Pittsburgh appears to be the favorite, Droney says Wake Forest is the other school in his top two.

“I’ll go down to Wake Forest at the end of August to check it out,” says Droney. “While I’m in North Carolina, I’ll probably check out Davidson, too, because it doesn’t hurt anything to look. Then I want to go on an unofficial visit to Pitt. I took a tour when I was there for a team camp, but I really want to see it again.”

Both Pittsburgh and Wake Forest love Droney’s versatility and see him playing point guard, shooting guard, and small forward equally well. At 6’5”, Droney has great length and may get even longer as he gets older, but he also has a great handle, is a superb passer, and is a very good athlete. The two things he must work on are his strength and three point shooting, but Droney is a gym rat that should overcome both.

While you won’t see Droney yet on many top 50 lists that will change when more people see him. He has played in obscurity somewhat this summer, playing offsite in Las Vegas and playing in the 16 and under league in West Virginia. But one out of state college coach who saw Droney play in West Virginia had no doubts about Droney’s talent, saying, ”He’s definitely top 50 and could be higher when he becomes a more consistent three point shooter”.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Chris Dokish, Pittsburgh Recruiting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.