To very little fanfare, today is the first day of the early signing period for college basketball. It’s expected five players will sign and send their National Letter-of-Intent to WVU today: Ohio center Pat Forsythe, Texas forward Keaton Miles, Michigan forward Tommie McCune, Philadelphia forward Aaron Brown and New York guard Jabarie Hinds.

WVU can’t officially announce the signings until it receives the LOI, so it’s likely the news will come out tomorrow.

The Mountaineers addressed three needs with the five players — and would have done exceptionally well had Ryan Boatright stayed with WVU and not opted out for UConn. Boatright, like Hinds, is a point guard and WVU loses Joe Mazzulla after this season and Truck Bryant after next. The jury is very much out on Noah Cottrill and he’s the only other PG on scholarship.

John Flowers and Cam Thoroughman are seniors, as well, and, at best, Kevin Jones is in the frontcourt for as long as Bryant is in the backcourt. Threes and fours were a necessity and it would seem WVU did pretty well with this haul, particularly with Brown early on and Miles late in the process.

Center, though, is where teams often make or break recruiting classes because it’s such a hit-or-miss position. The best ones are the most coveted and the competition is fierce for their services. Sometimes you need to gamble a little and project ahead a few years for when a player is stronger and more skilled and, thus, more able to play in the post.

WVU looked into its crystal ball and found Pat Forsythe to be a pretty intriguing prospect.

National Signing Day caps a precipitous jump for Forsythe, who never played organized basketball before the eighth grade and didn’t travel outside the area for AAU play before this past summer.

“To be honest,” Forsythe said, “I didn’t know I’d be this good.”

He’s worked tirelessly to add to this frame and his game in the past year. That steadily gathered attention from Division I schools, first in the Mid-American Conference and then eventually from schools in the major conferences.

Forsythe got going in the summer with big showings at AAU events in Las Vegas and then New York and programs like Ohio State, Georgetown, WVU and accepted invitations to visit Brunswick and get a look at Forsythe.

Brunswick Coach Joe Mackey told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer he’s “never seen a player improve as drastically as Pat in such a short period of time.”

Forsythe didn’t disagree.

“Just this past year, I started to think I’d be able to play at a high level,” he said. “Last year I thought I’d be maybe a low Division I player, maybe Division II. Once I started to put in work, I saw a big difference. Adding strength to my game has made me much better. Last year to this year, I’ve seen a big improvement. The next offseason will be even bigger.”