City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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As Matt Gilhool walked the sidelines of the LSU football game against Nicholls State this past weekend in Baton Rouge, a few Tigers’ students called out to the 6-foot-10 forward, urging him to commit to their school.

Little did they know, their pleas were unnecessary. 

“They were all telling me to commit without knowing that I actually did,” he said with a laugh.

Earlier that day, at a tailgate outside Tiger Stadium with the whole LSU basketball program, Gilhool had told coach Matt McMahon and the rest of the staff that he was headed their way the next year, becoming the first member of the program’s incoming 2025 class.

Gilhool made his decision public on Tuesday night, two days after returning from the Pelican State with his family, his new colors of purple and gold not far off from his current blue and yellow. 

“It’s a dream come true,” he told CoBL in a Sunday night phone call. “Just the amount of joy I have, same with my parents and my family, it’s definitely great, and some relief as well. I loved the way it was down there. I’m pumped.”

A senior at Penn Charter who’s originally from Elizabethtown (Pa.), Gilhool has been on Division I radars since his underclassman years at Elizabethtown High, where he started before a stop at Westtown and then the last two years at Penn Charter.

He’s played for PC head coach Brandon Williams since 2021, two years before Williams got the Penn Charter job. The two got to know each other as Gilhool played for Williams in the Philly Pride program on the Under Armour circuit, first on the 15U level in 2021 and then the 16U and 17U levels the two years following. 

Williams said it was during the 2022 season, on the 16U circuit, that he really saw Gilhool take a significant step from being just a promising young post into a more versatile threat on the court, the ‘prospect’ becoming a ‘player’ at the right time. 

“He started to really do a lot of other things with the basketball,” Williams said. “When we first had him, 15U summer of 2021, he was the big guy —  just roll to the rim, catch and finish at the rim. That July, in Chicago, you really saw it begin to come together.”

With Williams not coaching grassroots hoops this summer, Gilhool played with Team Final on the Nike circuit in 2024. 

He had a strong junior year at Penn Charter, averaging 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocks per game on 57% from the floor. The Quakers won the Inter-Ac outright with a 7-3 record in perhaps the most competitive year in the six-team league’s history. 

Between an offer from Penn State in June 2022 and one from VCU on July 1, 2024, Gilhool pulled in more than 25 Division I scholarships, mostly from the high-major level. He cut his list to seven in early July: LSU along with Iowa, Georgia Tech, Utah, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi State. 

He’d seen Syracuse on an official visit last October, took one to Georgia Tech in August and then visited LSU, coming into the last visit with an idea that he might be leaving a committed player. 

“Just the amount of love I was getting from the coaches,” he said. “All their staff was calling me, it wasn’t like it was just the one, it was their head coach all the way to every assistant, it was definitely a lot of love there.

“I told myself that I don’t want to tell myself that I’m coming here, but that was the vibe I got talking to my family. I just thought this was the place, that LSU was the place for me.”

The decision to commit came early in the visit; the tailgate commitment itself was impromptu.

“I was going to tell them on Sunday,” Gilhool said, “but at the tailgate, everyone was there, it was great vibes, and it just felt right — having my whole family there, all the whole coaching staff, everybody having a good time. That was definitely cool.”

LSU’s got a storied basketball history, from the Pete Maravich years in the 1960s to its heights under Dale Brown in the 1980s and 1990s, when a young Shaquille O’Neal starred for the Tigers. 

The program made its last Sweet 16 in 2019 under Will Wade, who was fired in 2022 after investigations for recruiting violations; McMahon, who won nearly 70% his of games and made three NCAA Tournament appearances during a seven-year run at Murray State, has gone 31-35 in his first two years at LSU, including a 17-16 (9-9) mark last year. 

While Gilhool has mostly played at the ‘5’ in high school due to his size and shot-blocking, the left-hander projects as a ‘4’ at the high-major level thanks to his ability to stretch the floor with his shooting and put the ball on the floor with increasing confidence. 

He’ll go from being by far the tallest player on most of the teams he’s been on to just another big: LSU has four players on its roster 6-10 or taller this season, and only one of them is in his final year of eligibility. 

Gilhool might not be the most physically imposing post player, hoping to get 215 pounds on his frame by the time he gets to college. He’s counting on his versatility — and the fact that he won’t usually have to handle any 250-pounders defensively — making up for it.

“The SEC is a lot of bully ball, big strong bigs, but it’s important to have a guy who’s more skilled, can play in actions,” Gilhool said. “That’s something they were stressing about with dribble handles and playing through ball screens, picking and popping, picking and rolling, trying to keep the offense spaced.”

Before he gets to LSU, Gilhool’s looking forward to his senior year at Penn Charter, where he’ll team up once again with fellow Division I recruits Kai Shinholster (Minnesota) and Jake West (undecided). He’ll also get to team up for the first time with his younger brother, Daniel Gilhool, another 6-10 post who spent the last two years at Elizabethtown and will repeat his sophomore year at Penn Charter. 

“I think he’s going to enjoy it, he’s going to thrive here and I think he’ll like it,” Matt Gilhool said. “With the amount you’ve got to work you’ve put in, it’s definitely going to be eye-opening for him.”