Pitt Maintaining Focus Despite New National Attention

The Pitt Panthers have garnered some unfamiliar attention, but it hasn't affected their focus.

PITTSBURGH -- This has been a resurgent season for the Pitt Panthers. They've overcome a 1-3 start to shoot up the ACC standings and earn a spot in the early NCAA Tournament conversation. Beyond the tangible markers of this programs progression from cellar dweller to contender, there is a more positive energy around the team reflected in the crowds that fill the Petersen Events Center to watch them and national television crews that cover the games. 

Nelly Cummings, a graduate transfer from Colgate, is one of the many new faces who has keyed this recent revival. He claims not to notice the attention the team has received, choosing instead to hold on tight to that chip on their collective shoulder which has driven them to these heights. 

“Honestly, man, I’m just too locked in," Cummings said. "Whatever people thought about us before, we want people to continue to think that. We’re just so locked in and focused on getting better every single day.”

The team as a whole embraces that mentality as well, according to Cummings. Unlike the fans and reporters who follow them, the Panthers are not tuned into Bracketologists and their favorable predictions about Pitt's postseason fate.  

Cummings said he knew this team would be at this point. As soon as he stepped on campus as a transfer candidate, he could tell this program had better days on the horizon. There was never a doubt that Pitt could get back to the state of its glory days, when tournament berths were a birthright. 

Cummings is a western Pennsylvania native and he saw those days up close as a kid, so the idea of Pitt basketball on a national stage isn't a foreign concept. He has no problem seeing that vision in the near future and wants to be part of the group that brings this program back to prominence. 

"I always believed fully that we could turn this program around," Cummings said. "I remember the good days here so remembering what it could be and what it used to be, I knew we could bring that back.”

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