UM men’s, women’s basketball teams load up for 2024 with top-10 recruiting classes
The Miami Hurricanes’ historic runs in the NCAA basketball tournaments last spring paid dividends on Wednesday as the men’s and women’s teams signed top-10 recruiting classes.
The men’s team, coming off its first Final Four, signed the nation’s sixth-ranked class, including the school’s highest-rated recruit in the modern era — consensus five-star shooting guard Jalil Bethea. He is rated the No. 7 overall prospect in the 2024 class per 247Sports. The Philadelphia native chose UM over University of Kansas and Villanova, among others.
“Jalil is a very exciting three-level scorer,” said UM coach Jim Larranaga. “He is a sharpshooter with deep range who can shoot off the bounce and shoot off the catch. He is very passionate about the game and is the ultimate competitor. He is an explosive athlete who can play in transition and above the rim.”
Bethea has strong ties to UM through assistant coach D.J. Irving, a Philadelphia native who worked with Bethea’s AAU program Team Final, whose alumni include former UM standouts Ja’Quan Newton, Davon Reed and Lonnie Walker IV. Bethea averaged 18.9 points for Team Final.
UM also signed four-star guard Austin Swartz from Concord, North Carolina, and four-star forward Isaiah Johnson-Arigu of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“Isaiah is a very versatile player, has a high basketball IQ, in combination with being a great athlete,” Larranaga said. He chose UM over Iowa, Arizona State, Nebraska and Butler, among others.
Swartz led the Cannon School to the CISAA conference championship in 2022-23 with 23 points and seven assists per game.
“Austin is a talented scorer, terrific shooter, possesses a high basketball IQ and has a tremendous work ethic,” Larranaga said. “He had an outstanding summer on the EYBL circuit with Boo Williams finishing top three in scoring.”
UM women’s coach Katie Meier landed the nation’s ninth-ranked class per ESPNW with guards Ahnay Adams, Leah Harmon and Simone Pelish.
Adams, a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is the No. 10 point guard in the class of 2024, according to ProspectsNation.com.
She earned back-to-back Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and averaged 21.4 points, 6.7 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 steals as a junior.
“When you watch Ahnay play, you quickly decide she is your favorite player on the court,” Meier said. “She is a leader, a fierce competitor and a great teammate. Every coach who has been fortunate to coach her claims they are incredibly blessed by her presence. She has a motor with a tremendous amount of fuel in the tank and she spent the last summer showing everybody why we were so crazy about her.”
Harmon, a 5-6 point guard from Washington, D.C., is rated a five-star guard by ESPN, while ProspectsNation.com ranks her as the No. 9 point guard in the class.
Harmon led Sidwell Friends to back-to-back DCSSA State Championships, including the first in school history in 2022. She was the leading scorer, helping the program to a No. 1 ranking in the nation and a perfect 30-0 season. In 2022-23, Harmon averaged 14.4 points, 4.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.
“Leah Harmon is a quintessential point guard who can beat you in all phases of the game,” Meier said. “She’s played on the top teams in the country, on the big stage.”
Pelish, 6-foot guard from Poughkeepsie, New York, is a three-time Upstate Player of the Year.
A four-star recruit according to espnW HoopGurlz, Pelish averaged 25.5 points, eight rebounds and shot 40 percent from 3-point range in 2022-23, leading Our Lady of Lourdes to the Section 9 Class AA final.
“Simone is a tremendous shooter with a high basketball IQ,” Meier said. “She is also not afraid to mix it up and be physical on the defensive end. She is one of those quiet killers on the court who has a great game, but you only realize that after you’ve seen her fill up a stat sheet.”
The UM women open the season at home Thursday at 11 a.m. against Jacksonville University. The men, who won their opener 101-60 over NJIT on Monday, play UCF at home Friday night and will raise the Final Four banner.
