NBA Draft: What Ashton Gibbs' Return Means For Pitt

So Ashton Gibbs is back and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Actually, it's more than that for me as I thought he would keep his name in the Draft. So it's really kind of like an unexpected gift.

The weekly Pitt feature over at SB Nation Pittsburgh is, of course, about Gibbs' decision. Here's a preview:

With the news that Ashton Gibbs is returning for his senior season, there was a collective sigh of relief in Oakland this weekend. What impact does his return have on next year's Pitt basketball team? Safe to say it's a pretty big one.

Despite all the talk about Brad Wanamaker's all-around game or Gilbert Brown's athleticism, there was no real debate that Ashton Gibbs was Pitt's best player last season. Despite shouldering the burden of running the offense at point guard, Gibbs was still the team's leading scorer at just under 17 points per game. The biggest thing, though, was that he improved dramatically from his sophomore season. He increased his scoring average playing fewer minutes per game and despite the fact that defenders focused in on him the entire year.

More impressive were the jumps in his shooting percentages. He increased his field goal percentage from under 40 percent to nearly 47 percent. The rise in his three-point percentage was even more astounding, rising a full 10 percent from 39 percent to 49 percent.

I go on to discuss what his return means for the team next season. Read the rest of the article here.