Okay in case you have forgotten, you have 1 more week to vote on the Centennial Team for Pitt. The 15 greatest players in Pitt history.
I have my choices narrowed. I had 3 no-brainers. The 3 best in Pitt’s history and have their jersey’s retired. Kind of obligatory that they make the list. A brief scan of the Pitt record book makes it even easier.
1. Charles Smith
2. Billy Knight
3. Don Hennon
Then I have (to me at least) 7 sure things. In no particular order:
4. Brandin Knight
5. Clyde Vaughan
6. Demetreus Gore
7. Sam Clancy
8. Sean Miller
9. Carl Krauser
10. Charles Hyatt
Hyatt won’t show up in any of the record books since he played in the late 20s. Only 880 total points for a 13.1 pts/game average. He was however the star on the teams that won national championships in 1927-28 and 1929-30 — he also led the nation in scoring in those years. A 3-time All-American and National Player of the Year in 1929-30. Elected to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.
That leaves 5 spots left. Here were my remaining possibilities, along with a couple I eliminated:
Jason Matthews — 5th all-time scorer, 15.0pts/gm career avg.; best career 3-pt shooter 3FGM and 3FG%; 4th FTM, 5th FTA, 2nd FT%
Ricardo Greer
Vonteego Cummings
Julius Page — Most minutes played in career; 12th (soon to be 13th) leading scorer; 3d in 3FGM;
Jaron Brown
Chevon Troutman — .625 FG%, 1274 points, 711 rebounds.
Jerome Lane — “Send it in Jerome!” breaking the backboard created signature moment for Pitt basketball in the ’80s. 1217 points, 970 rebounds — 13.1 pts, 10.3 rebounds for 3 year career; Named 2nd and 3rd team All-American in career
Brian Shorter — 9th all-time in points; 17.8 pts/gm career avg. (5th best); Best FG% of any Pitt player with 1000+ FGA (.538); Very consistent shooter with 88% of his games being in double figures; 33 games 10+ rebounds; 2nd in career FTA and FTM; 31 double-doubles
Larry Harris — 3d all-time in scoring; all time leader in FGM; 50 20+ points in a game; 17.9 pts/gm career average
Bobby Martin
Jerry McCullough
Darrelle Porter — 1007 pts, 617 rebounds, 1.95 A-TO Ratio
With deep regret I cut Brown. An absolute favorite from the present era. So much of what he did don’t show up in the stats. He just won and was on teams that accomplished more than few other Pitt teams have. Still, these are players, not teams, and there are players that have just done more.
I’m really torn because I don’t think Page and Troutman make the cut together. I think it has to be one or the other. Right now, I’m leaning towards Page. What made Troutman great was the way he improved every year, and maximized his effort and potential. Unfortunately, that may not be enough. Troutman is roughly the equivalent of Bobby Martin by the numbers, and Martin falls short.
Porter was really close. One of only 3 players with 1000+ points and 600+ assists (Miller and Knight are the other 2). He was one of my favorites at Pitt when I was in school. He just didn’t have enough by comparison.
Jason Matthews was a hell of a shooter, but not much else. It’s hard to ignore those numbers, but here are the other career numbers 288 rebounds, 225 assists, 224 turnovers, 109 steals. His job was to be the marksman, and he was. Is that enough? Compared to others, it is not looking good.
I haven’t broken out the numbers for Greer, Cummings and McCullough. All 3 have fantastic numbers, but are almost hurt by how bad their teams were and how much of a load they carried. Do they have the numbers because no one else could? I have to look harder at those.
I’m willing to consider all arguments and anyone you think I am glaringly leaving off the list (Chad Varga and Darren Morningstar don’t count).
