What Made This Pitt Team Special

The beauty of this season for the Pitt Panthers came in the little things.

PITTSBURGH -- Peruse the "Team History" tab on the Pitt Panthers' College Basketball Reference and you will certainly find better teams than the 2022-23 squad. You will find better talent, more regular season success against tougher competition and postseason victories at a higher degree and frequency. 

But those teams that knocked on the door of Final Fours, sent players to the NBA and dominated in the Big East at the peak of its strength were not more meaningful than the group that slugged it out during a down year in the ACC and had to battle until the very bitter end of their season for the program's first NCAA Tournament bid in seven years. This year's Pitt team was one of the most compelling in recent history because of where they came from, how far they got and how they did it. It was a breath of fresh air for a program, fanbase and community in desperate need of one.

The beauty of this Pitt team existed in the short-term gratification, manifested most clearly in the euphoria of individual moments that, at certain points in the years prior, didn't seem possible. The Panthers didn't need to win championships to rally their notoriously basketball-ambivalent city around them. All the Panthers needed to do was compete, entertain and give their fans a reason to believe that this was, indeed, different than all the years before. They did all that and more, lifting the program out of the depths of six brutally disappointing years with color and collectiveness that stood in striking contrast to what had preceded them.

When Pitt dominated Northwestern - an eventual top-25 and NCAA Tournament team - on the road behind 22 assists on 26 made field goals, the belief was sparked. At the end of a mid-winter streak that included 10 wins in 11 games, the Panthers defeated back-to-back ranked opponents North Carolina and Virginia to earn the raucous atmosphere that awaited them at the Petersen Events Center the next time they played. In late January, they demonstrated a trademark ability to battle with their backs against the wall by rallying from down eight in the final 2:22 to beat then-No. 20 Miami by three. 

The culmination of their regular season came in their second win over Syracuse when they decimated the Orange in front of a sold-out crowd that berated Jim Boeheim for the length of the afternoon. The Petersen Events Center has rarely been more alive than when manager-turned-walk-on-turned-scholarship player, Aidan Fisch scored the final two points with time winding down. In a fitting final act in front of the home fans, someone who embodied as much as anyone the selflessness and patience that the program preached scored the final points. 

That gave way to the NCAA Tournament - the ultimate goal that signaled a real return to where Pitt wanted to be. In front of a UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio that sounded like a home game, the Panthers escaped with their first NCAA Tournament win in nearly a decade and the emotion spilled onto the court as the players celebrated. Fisch, Nike Sibande and Nelly Cummings climbed into the stands to celebrate with fans and the locker room sounded like a party. 

Forget how it ended and remember how it happened. Pitt built a winner in an unassuming fashion, with talent pulled from the fringes of college basketball.

Jamarius Burton got to be the star of a winning team at the third stop of his college career. Sibande and Greg Elliot proved they belonged as major contributors at the Power 5 level. Cummings, also making the leap to the Power 5, helped restore the program he had grew up watching and seen fall so far. Blake Hinson was accepted by a team and revived a career that had been dormant for years. The whole team played with energy, joy and confidence that resonated into the stands and through televisions. 

Burton put it profanely, but succinctly - they knew what the state of the program was and took pride in uplifting it their own way. 

"When you come to a program and it’s at the bottom of it’s league, it’s only won 11 games, the coach is being s****** on," Burton said following the Xavier loss. "And when you walk out of it, he’s the coach of the year, you got all-conference players, you got young guys that’s committed to winning - it just means a lot and speaks to the collective unit we’ve had all season long.”

Pitt fans had begged for a return to the glory days, when their Panthers were contending for conference and national titles with some regularity. This season proved their needs were much simpler. Making Pitt basketball compelling again didn't take national rankings, high seeds or NBA draft picks. So many times, the Panthers lived their mantra of "living in the moment", letting the thrill of achieving something trump what may or may not lie ahead. 

It was just plain fun to be around this group. They were good basketball players, personable and grateful for the opportunity to put their own stamp on something. The magnitude of their success, which might look modest in the grand scheme of things, couldn't be fully appreciated from anyone on the outside. This was for Pitt and Pitt only - a victory made sweeter by suffering. 

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