Panther of the Week: Lamar Patterson

For the past two weeks, Pitt has had two games per week. Each week, another player besides Lamar Patterson stepped up with a big performance and I thought that there was a chance they could claim our "Panther of the Week" award.. Last week, it was Cameron Wright coming close to a triple-double and this week it was Durand Johnson coming out with guns blazing against Maryland earlier this week. Patterson would have none of it either time, though. He used a solid effort against the Terps and then a dominating performance with Wake Forest Saturday to bring the Panthers to 15-1 on the year and win the award yet again.

Even with Johnson's 17-point performance, Lamar still outdid him and put up great numbers against Maryland in Pitt's 20-point win. During the win, Patterson put up a ho-hum 19 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. He also continued to amaze me by being so active while keeping his fouls and turnovers to a minimum. Against the Terps, it was a single turnover and the same can be said for personal fouls.

Patterson made sure Pitt stayed perfect in the ACC by leaving little question who the best player on the floor was yesterday during the Panthers' destruction of Wake Forest by 25 points. He dropped 27 points on the Demon Deacons and threw in six assists and five boards on the day. He also wanted to make sure he filled in every slot in the stat line and put up a block and a steal.

Can he continue his strong play? With two tough road games coming up, Patterson will have his work cut out for him, but is clearly the best player on the team at this point.

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter@PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt athletics. Follow the author and manager/editor of Cardiac Hill @BrunoPittsburgh