Jalil Bethea's winding path from Miami to Alabama now leads to Pitt

Jalil Bethea, the former Miami guard and Alabama transfer, announced his commitment to Pitt on Sunday, giving Jeff Capel's program a former McDonald's All-American with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Bethea arrived in Coral Gables as a five-star scorer, spent one season with the Hurricanes, transferred to Alabama for his sophomore year and has now picked Pitt as his third school in three seasons.

Jalil Bethea commits to Pitt

Bethea played 26 games for Alabama in 2025-26 and averaged 3.9 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 7.9 minutes per game. He scored in double figures three times, including a career-high 21 points against UTSA on Dec. 7, but he never carved out a major role in Nate Oats' rotation. He shot 37.5% from the field and 31.4% from 3-point range.

Bethea's one season at Miami was still the most productive of his college career to this point. As a freshman in 2024-25, he played in all 31 games, made 16 starts and averaged 7.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.9 minutes per game. He led all Hurricanes freshmen in scoring, posted nine double-digit scoring games and hit a career-high 21 points against Syracuse.

Bethea was as a consensus five-star, top-10 national recruit in the 2024 class. He was the 2024 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year, a McDonald's All-American and the McDonald's Slam Dunk Contest winner.

There were rumblings that Bethea could be a good fit to return to Miami. Since his departure last offseason, the Canes have had their entire program turned around. The new positive direction is being led by HC Jai Lucas.

In the offseason that Lucas took over, Miami completely scrapped the team from the year prior and went into last year with a completely new lineup. While Miami is not losing all of its production from last season this time around, Lucas still has his work cut out for him.