Pitt Alumni Bring Old School Attitude to TBT
PITTSBURGH -- The empty Petersen Events Center was filled with memories. Its 12,000 seats were barren but the court was bustling with Pitt Panthers from yesteryear. And even when it was clear that their bodies had aged, the signatures of their greatness were as apparent as ever.
Levance Fields was still barking orders to get the offense in its most efficient positioning, Greg Elliot's corner office was still open and Sam Young's pump fake still managed to get defenders leaping out of their shoes. The Basketball Tournament - a single-elimination, 64-team bracket with $1 million awaiting the winner - is less than than a week away and the Panthers are getting ready under a different name - The Zoo Crew.
The identity will remain the same - tough above all else, according to recently-graduated guard Nelly Cummings - and so will some of the plays, head coach DeJuan Blair said - "Get Sam the ball." But the stakes are different. With a massive sum of money on the line, these former college stars will be digging deep.
"It’s not too much different from a regular game," Cummings said. "You just know there’s a million dollars at the end of it so if there’s a loose ball, you better dive for it."
There is an extra incentive for Blair himself to move beyond the first round of the TBT. If they win and the other side of their bracket shakes out the right way, the Zoo Crew will face Best Virginia, a collection of West Virginia alumni, in a pseudo-Backyard Brawl.
"I might have to suit up for that one," Blair said.
Still, neither he nor the rest of the Zoo Crew are taking their first-round matchup against Herd That - a group of mostly Marshall alumni - lightly. Their opponents are headlined by J.P. Tokoto (former All-ACC Defensive selection and second-round NBA Draft pick), Taevion Kinsey (Division I's No. 10 leading scorer last season), Jacorey Williams (2017 Conference USA Player of the Year) and many others stars from recent Marshall history and the rest of CUSA.
The Zoo Crew will need to lean on an identity that Blair, Fields, Young, Gary McGhee and others embodied during their time at Pitt - a tough, defense-first approach that aligned with the personality of the Big East Conference they played in.
Nine of the 12 players on Herd That's roster averaged double-figure scoring during at least one season in college, six cracked 15 or more points per night and four scored 20 or more per game in a single season. The roster is full of guys who can put the ball in the hoop, putting defensive tenacity at a premium in the opening round.
During practices, that intensity looks game-ready.
"I don't hear you talking no more, Greg!" Fields yelled across the floor after his teammate, Young, nailed a scrimmage-winning shot against Elliott's
"It’s just good competitive spirit," Elliott said. "Being out there with a guy like him, we’re just out there talking. I felt like we were scoring. I felt like they weren’t scoring, so I let them know about it and then he started to score some, so he let me know about it. That’s all it was, being competitive."
The Zoo Crew - at least on paper - does have one advantage over Herd That and its familiarity. Young, McGhee, Fields and Gilbert Brown all overlapped at Pitt. Nike Sibande, Greg Elliot and Cummings did too. Talib Zanna, Jamel Artis and Ryan Luther all played together as well.
What's more, eight members of the 11-man roster played under Jamie Dixon, which made it easy for Blair to devise plays that fit what they ran in school. Blair even believes there's enough in common between how Dixon and current head coach Jeff Capel run their teams that the younger guys - Cummings, Sibande and Elliott - will fit in seamlessly.
"The guys who played last year … they can fit right in," Blair said. "It’s something that Capel didn’t go away from. It’s still in the foundation of Pitt basketball. Lots of screening and rolling. Levance is calling the shots, doing what he does, and Nelly. So it’s easy for everybody to gel in and find their shot, find their player, find their open players."
Blair is counting on his team to play like the Pitt teams of old, with toughness as the foundation and chemistry powering them on offense.
He's played in and won this tournament before, leaving few better to lead this team of former Panthers into it. Blair believes TBT brings out those good, unselfish qualities in players as they fight for the massive sum on money awaiting the winner.
"I’ve played in it. I’ve won it," Blair said. "There’s just something about bringing a lot of people together. You’ve got to put aside your egos. All that one-on-one doesn’t matter when it comes to putting your name up on that board so I feel like if we all become one and just play basketball, we’ve got a really good chance."
The Zoo Crew begins their TBT run on Tuesday night against Herd That in Wheeling, West Virginia. ESPN+ will carry the broadcast.
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