Reminders of high school were all around Miles Wilson during his visits to Mount St. Mary's. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound shooting is still months away from finishing his junior year at Mount Saint Joseph, but on Saturday he decided to embrace that familiarity and commit to the Mountaineers.
"It feels good," Wilson said Monday. "It's similar to where I go now [in terms of] the classrooms and class size, the academics [and] the basketball. The basketball system just fits me."
Wilson is the second Mount Saint Joseph player to recently commit to the Mountaineers, joining former Gael Bryce Thurston, who's spending his senior year at Montverde (Fla.) Academy. Like Thurston, Wilson spent plenty of time on MSJ's JV team before joining the varsity squad as a junior. Wilson said he averaged around 10 points for the Gaels this year before breaking a bone in his arm late in the season.
"He's got great size for his position. He's got great athleticism for the position," said Mount Saint Joseph coach Pat Clatchey. "He's a very good shooter. He's got to focus on improving in some other areas, which I think he'll do. But you look at him, man, he's 6-4, he can jump out of the gym, can shoot it [and] get to the basket."
Wilson, who was also recruited by Towson and Richmond, said Mount St. Mary's began recruiting him last summer thanks to his play with Team Future on the AAU circuit. Wilson said coach Jamion Christian envisions him as a versatile, volume scorer that will fit in well to Mount's up-tempo system.
"I really respect Coach Christian and the coaching staff," Wilson said. "They were nice to me, showed me love. It just felt like home. The right place to be."
Though there's plenty of time between now and high school graduation, Wilson said he was comfortable making an early commitment because of his comfort with the coaching staff and the positives involved with playing close to home.
"I'm just going to go in, work as hard as I can and see what happens," Wilson said. "It's going to be a new experience. I still have the summer and my senior year to prepare for that level of basketball. Hopefully it'll be good."
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