Pitt Has Two ACC Freshman of the Year Candidates

The Pitt Panthers star a pair of the ACC's most productive freshmen this season.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers' freshmen backcourt duo is gaining recognition as two of the ACC's most prolific rookies this season. 

Eric Bossi of 247Sports listed Pitt's Bub Carrington and Jaland Lowe among his "Contenders and Names to Know" in the ACC Freshman of the Year race behind his current frontrunner in Duke guard Jared McCain. Bossi's other honorable mentions include Georgia Tech's Naithan George and Baye Ndongo as well as Notre Dame's Markus Burton. 

Bossi credited the Panthers' duo as being at the forefront of the team's recent turnaround while lighting up the stat sheet and continuing to develop. 

"Less than a month ago, Pittsburgh looked dead in the water," Bossi said. "A home loss to Syracuse had dropped them to 1-5 in the ACC and 1-7 overall. Since then, the Panthers have won five of their last six, including at Duke and at N.C. State. Much of it has to do with freshman guard Carlton Carrington. A do-it-all type at 6-foot-5, he’s a stat stuffer across the board. He’s got another impressive freshman playing alongside him in the backcourt --- Jaland Lowe is coming on strong and dropped 20 points on N.C. State last night in a big road win to move the Panthers to 6-6 in conference play."

While neither Carrington nor Lowe are favored to win the award by 247Sports, both are contenders to represent Pitt on the ACC's All-Freshman team for the first time since Xavier Johnson accomplished that feat during the 2018-19 season. 

Carrington trails only Burton in scoring among conference freshmen with 13.6 points per game on 39.7% shooting from the field. He has finished with double digit point totals in four of his last five games and is also averaging 4.2 assists a contest, which ranks sixth in the league and second among freshmen behind George. 

Lowe has been more of a late riser, averaging 14.7 points on 43.4% shooting from the field over his last seven games as compared to 8.2 points on 38.5% shooting on the season as a whole. He ranks only behind Carrington among the Panthers' assist leaders with 2.7 per game, and he's become one of the team's most important pieces alongside Carrington during their current hot streak. 

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