The little brother of Ashton Gibbs, Sterling, committed to Maryland last night. I can’t say I’m particularly disappointed over this.

A year ago I would have, but both sides have not seemed overly interested in the other. Especially since Pitt has a PG in the 2010 class and a verbal from John Johnson — another PG in 2011.

Sterling has seemed interested in finding his own place, not simply being Ashton’s little brother.

Interestingly, like Ashton, he seems to have fallen in recruiting rankings after his junior year.

Gibbs is rated as a three-star recruit and the No. 22 point guard in his class by Scout.com. Rivals.com also lists Gibbs as a three-star recruit and the No. 135 overall prospect in the Class of 2011.

This after Sterling being considered a top PG prospect as early as his freshman and even in his sophomore year. His stock seems oddly down. Of course, just look at who was after him: Pitt, Indiana, Wake Forest and others. That suggests a little better than a 3-star kid. Not to mention he was a top player on the USA U-16 team last summer.

He did have Ashton’s support.

Despite Ashton’s ties to the Panthers, Sterling said that his older brother helped him out throughout the entire recruitment.

“He was on the phone with coach [Chuck] Driesell and coach Williams trying to set everything up,” Gibbs said. “He felt like it was the right decision.”

If he had gone to Indiana, then I might have been annoyed. Maryland, though, doesn’t bother me so much.

Meanwhile a little more on Jaylen Bond. He’s nursing a groin injury that is limiting his AAU playing time. While he plays power forward on his HS team — because he’s the biggest player on the squad — he plays more small forward when it comes time for AAU ball.

Bond is projected to play more of a swingman role at Pitt and not power forward, a role he plays for Plymouth Whitemarsh. It will be an interesting transition for Bond, who plays exceptional defense, but will be working on extending the range of his jump shot and ballhandling over this summer.

It’s almost going to be a different world for Bond, who does play small forward for his AAU teams.

“I am used to playing away from the basket, and it’s something I obviously feel I can do, and it’s something Pitt’s coaching staff feels I can do, too,” Bond said. “I’ll be lifting on the off-season, I want to try to play at around 230, 235 next year.”

Coach Dixon was directly involved in his recruitment and it impacted on Bond.

“I knew I wanted to go there the week before, but I wanted to talk it over with my family a lot and think about it a lot,” he said.

“When I went up there, there was no other reason to wait. I knew where I wanted to go.”

Bond had made an unofficial trip to the campus last weekend, also swinging by to check out West Virginia.

“We liked the coaching staff, the surroundings,” he said of Pitt. “They made it clear I was their No. 1 choice for that position.”

…

Dixon had to like what he saw of Bond when he was in attendance for the Colonials’ 71-47 state semifinal victory over North Allegheny on March 24. As the runner-up in the District One Class AAAA tournament, PW (30-2) was in the western half of the bracket, the semifinal game taking place at Chambersburg High. Dixon, whose Pitt team had just been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Xavier, witnessed Bond’s 26-point, 15-rebound performance against the Tigers.

“He said he saw me a couple times,” Bond said of Dixon, “but I remember him being at that game.”

Sort of the silver lining of not making the Sweet 16. I guess.