As Ohio State, others show interest, Princeton transfer Matt Allocco weighing his options
The last time Matt Allocco was recruited, there wasn’t a lot to write about. An unranked prospect in the 2020 class, Allocco had helped Hilliard Bradley compile a 98-6 record and earned first-team all-state honors as a senior but was hardly a blip on the recruiting radar. There was interest from a handful of Mid-American Conference schools, particularly Miami (Ohio), but a visit to Princeton quickly sealed the deal for Allocco.
Safe to say, his second foray into the recruiting universe has been a bit more hectic. After four years with the Tigers, Allocco had exhausted his Ivy League eligibility and entered the transfer portal in search of a home for one final season of college basketball. This time, he’s had no shortage of potential suitors.
“Everybody’s looking for a highly skilled, really reliable guy who’s just about winning and going to play the right way and you know what you’re going to get in terms of a maximum effort, team-first guy,” his father, Gregg Allocco, said. “Fortunately, we’re grateful that he’s getting a lot of interest and a lot of people are recognizing that and saying this is a guy, even though it’s one year, boy we can take a jump with this guy. He’s got some great options.”
It’s been an atypical journey to get to this point. Allocco signed with Princeton and watched as the Ivy League canceled the 2020-21 season played amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In what amounted to his redshirt freshman season, he averaged 4.1 points per game before moving into a prominent role on a team that earned a No. 15 seed and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
In 2023-24, the 6-4, 197-pound guard averaged 12.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists. He became the ninth player in NCAA history to shoot at least 50% from the field, 40% from three and 90% from the free throw line while averaging at least 10 points per game and playing at least 30 minutes per game. He shot 50.8% from the floor (126 for 248), 90.9% from the free-throw line (70 for 77) and 42.7% from 3 (47 for 110) as Princeton won the Ivy League for a third straight year.
It’s the kind of career Brett Norris, Bradley’s coach, said he envisioned for Allocco while seeing him work through some shooting struggles amid a growth spurt during his prep career. While at Bradley, Allocco worked so much on his shot that Norris said he did something he never does.
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He told him to get out of the gym and take a break.
“If you look at his numbers, shooting the ball 50-40-90, to think back on the number of college coaches I spoke with that wouldn’t recruit him because of his shooting, those of us that knew Matt knew he was going to put in the time to get through that shooting glitch he had there,” Norris said. “My soapbox comment: for all the searching we do for length and those measurables, reach and all that, all the things that you can’t measure that are probably lacking in the game now, once Matt got to Princeton they immediately fell in love with him and knew that they got a player that was going to help them win.”
This time, Gregg Allocco said, high-major schools are taking note. That includes Ohio State, which hosted him for a visit last week and has offered him a scholarship.
“I think they’re on the, call it a very short list of who Matt is really honing in on,” Gregg Allocco said. “Ohio State is certainly right there on that short list for sure. It’s Ohio State, Notre Dame, Villanova and Butler, I think, are the ones that he’s really zeroing in on.”
Within the next week, Matt Allocco plans to trim his list down to no more than three schools, his father said. From there, he will finalize official visits so he can interact with players on the teams and get a better, in-person feel for the programs recruiting him and see how they would plan to utilize him.
“I am pretty confident that Ohio State is going to be definitely one of the official visits, for sure,” Gregg Allocco said.
While at Princeton, Allocco played four of his 85 career games against top-50 teams as ranked by KenPom.com, none of which were in 2023-24. Norris said that Allocco’s skill set will translate regardless of the level he plays at next season.
“It translates if they want to win,” the coach said. “He’s the kind of guy you can put the ball in his hands, he can play off the ball, he can guard even in the Big Ten or the ACC or leagues like that, he easily guards 1-3 or 1-4 if you need to. That defensive versatility can’t be overstated. You have to guard him because of how well he’s shot it. He’s the kind of guy that walks in a place and everyone gets better.”
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When it comes time for his son to make a decision, Gregg Allocco said there are a few factors that will be most important. He wants to play, and he wants to play for a winning program.
“At this point, I just think he doesn’t have an interest in just being necessarily a piece or a complementary guy, so to speak,” he said. “He has ultra confidence and belief in who he is and what he can bring to a team. He wants to lead. He wants to compete, and really get an opportunity to be a key guy that’s going to contribute to a team that really has an opportunity to win.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State, others showing high interest in Princeton's Matt Allocco
