Men’s Basketball: Pitt officially announces three signings

Pitt men’s basketball head coach Jamie Dixon announced that three student-athletes have signed National Letters of Intent to play their collegiate basketball as Panthers. Dixon announced the signings of Shaquille Doorson, Sheldon Jeter and Ryan Luther as members of the 2014 recruiting class Thursday.

Doorson, a native of the Netherlands, is a 6-foot-11-inch center from Canarias Basketball Academy in Spain. Doorson is ranked as No. 20 center in the recruiting class of 2014 and is a four-star recruit.

“It’s a small world,” Dixon said. “We’ll see how he develops, but he’s a hard worker. He’s a very good student, and all those things come into play.”

Jeter, a 6-foot-7-inch forward, will come to Pitt after playing his freshman season at Vanderbilt, where he averaged 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in 33 games. Since his departure from Vanderbilt, Jeter has spent his time playing at Polk State Junior College in Winter Haven, Fla.

Jeter is a local product as a native of Beaver Falls, Pa., where he earned 2012 Player of the Year honors from the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beaver County Times. In that season, Jeter led Beaver Falls High School to a 28-3 record and a Class AA runner-up finish.

Luther, who attended Hampton High School in Hampton Township, Pa., is another WPIAL product. A 6-foot-9-inch forward, Luther entered his 2013-2014 senior season as Hamption’s all-time leading scorer with 1,390 points.

“Both [Jeter and Luther] are interesting. They were young for their class when they came out,” Dixon said. “Every time I’d see them they’d be longer and taller … You just see them getting better and better.”