Recruiting Update: Nathan Bittle (2021 Crater HS)
To say that Nathan Bittle has been busy this past month would be a major understatement. The lanky 6-foot-11, 185-pound rising junior hit a couple of elite camps and when he’s at home, he’s been running with his Crater teammates…
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Continue ReadingTo say that Nathan Bittle has been busy this past month would be a major understatement. The lanky 6-foot-11, 185-pound rising junior hit a couple of elite camps and when he’s at home, he’s been running with his Crater teammates most recently at Oregon Team Camp. There hasn’t been a ton of down time for Bittle but he’s been enjoying everything while his national exposure and college recruitment continues to be on the rise.
“It’s been busy, we went to the Section 7 (event in Arizona) and Oregon State Team Camp and it’s been having fun with my teammates and doing a lot of team bonding,” Bittle said. “We have team bonding nights where we have everyone stay overnight in the gym and we have days where we go to the lake and hang out, go tubing. These are my guys.”
The month of June started off with USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team training camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While Bittle didn’t make the team – he ended being the last cut – he went up against some of the top players his age in the country and he felt it was time well spent.
“That was a great experience just being able to try out to represent our country,” Bittle said. “And since I’ve been kind of a part of that stuff, they’ve told me I’m a part of the team so it’s been a great experience.”
From there, Bittle went to NBPA Top 100 Camp which took place at the University of Virginia where the battles against the nation’s elite continued. “That was a great camp,” Bittle said. “I think I had three or four other five-stars on my team, and it was going out and competing against other five-stars and other great athletes. So that was a great experience.”
As he has gone up against big-time competition, Bittle has worked on his game. In the past, he seemed to drift a lot on the perimeter and shoot threes. While still he did that at times at Oregon Team Camp, it did look like he made more of a concerted effort to utilize his size advantage down low – and there were great results. “I think from last year to this year I’ve gotten a lot more inside points, finishing around the rim, dunks, stuff like that,” Bittle said. “And I can still shoot.”
College programs continue to monitor Bittle’s development. All of the West Coast schools that have offered him scholarships already have been spotted on the sidelines of his games and largely thanks to his play at the NBPA camp, he’s picked up some new interest and offers from schools east of the Mississippi, including Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, and Wake Forest.
“Since college coaches can start calling me now it’s been a great experience,” Bittle said. “With them being able to call me and not having to go through other coaches to get to me to call them, it’s been good.”
Bittle continues to keep things wide open with his recruitment. While there doesn’t appear to be any kind of leader list at this time, Oregon is one of the schools that has been recruiting him hard. Head coach Dana Altman was on the sidelines of every one of Crater’s games the first two days at team camp, and often other members of the coaching staff would be watching as well. Bittle certainly enjoyed the opportunity to play at Matthew Knight Arena.
“When I was a lot younger I came here and played a camp, and I’ve been up here on unofficials,” Bittle said. “It’s pretty nice, I like this place.”
Crater ended up finishing 6-1 at Oregon Team Camp to wrap up their summer schedule. Now Bittle goes back to West Coast Elite and his focus goes back to the AAU circuit. “My goals are to go the UA Finals and just compete and win,” Bittle said. “Hopefully we can take home the UA Finals championship.”
Bittle currently ranks as the #1 ranked player in the PrepHoops Oregon Class of 2021 rankings.