Nov. 22, 2017
Vanderbilt men’s basketball head coach Bryce Drew has announced the signing of 6’9 forward Simisola Shittu to a National Letter of Intent and will be eligible to compete for the Commodores beginning in the 2018-19 season. Shittu, a five-star recruit and a consensus top 10 player, joins guard Darius Garland and wing Aaron Nesmith in the Commodores’ class of 2018.
“Simisola is a special young man who is ranked a top seven player in his class,” said Drew. “His announcement video speaks volumes of his character as it was a thank you to all the people who helped him get to this point. He possesses the athleticism and skill set of a guard while having the size and strength of a power forward. There are only a handful of players at any level that have the versatility and all-around game that he does. He is very unique in many ways and we cannot wait for him to put on a Vanderbilt jersey.”
Shittu, who attends the Vermont Academy but hails from Burlington, Ontario, Canada, is a power forward cut out of the Kevin Garnett cloth – a smooth big man with guard skills on the perimeter and an ability to be explosive around the basket. This summer, he was named the MVP of the NBPA Top 100 camp with 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, leading the camp in both categories, and he has averaged 20.1 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game in 16 games in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League this year.
“I just felt like it was home already,” Shittu told Evan Daniels of Scout.com. “The players and everyone was so welcoming, the whole city. The coaches vision for me was just great. When I first went to practice and the coaches were talking to me and showing me where I was going to be in their offense next year and just their vision for me on and off the court and how I’m going to grow as a person as well. It wasn’t just about basketball.”
