Sophomores shining

The sophomore class of WPIAL basketball players is shaping up to be pretty good, at least in terms of individual talent. Highlands sophomore Johnny Crise received a scholarship offer from Robert Morris earlier this week. Crise, a 6-6 forward, is the fifth WPIAL sophomore to have a Division I offer. That doesn’t happen very often in the WPIAL.

The head of the sophomore class is obviously Ethan Morton, Butler’s standout 6-6 point guard. He is ranked the No. 50 sophomore in the country by Rivals.com and has offers from Pitt, Duquesne, Ohio State, West Virginia, Virginia, Wisconsin and Stanford, among others. In the past two weeks, Kentucky coach John Calipari, new Pitt coach Jeff Capel and assistants from Villanova and Michigan have been to Butler to watch Morton in earlymorning workouts.

Isiah Warfield, a 6-4 guard at Sewickley Academy, and Donovan Johnson, a 6-6 guard at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, are two other sophomores with Division I offers. Those two are playing on the same AAU team (ITPS Wildcats) and more offers could be on the way. ITPS is a new Pittsburgh-based AAU club with teams that will play in the gold division of the adidas Gauntlet, a series of top-level tournaments over the next few months. Pittsburgh has never had a team in the gold division of the Gauntlet, which is scouted by loads of Division I college coaches.

Also among the WPIAL sophomore class is Sewickley Academy guard Jett Roesing, who has an offer from Central Connecticut State.