Panther of the Week: Michael Young

Due to the holidays, the Pitt basketball team had only one game last week. Therefore, my job is a little easier picking the Panther of the Week. This week’s winner is Michael Young. He is reclaiming this award after fellow senior Jamel Artis intervened for one week. Young was pretty dominant in picking up a double-double in last week’s 19 point victory over Omaha.

Young pulls out the award despite strong efforts from Artis, Cam Johnson, and Ryan Luther against the Mavericks last week. Young finished the contest with 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and one block. He didn’t have his strongest game, in regards to turnovers, but was blistering hot from all over the floor to help Pitt to a 10-2 start to the year.

Young finished the game 9 of 15 from the floor, three out of four from beyond the arc and was a perfect three for three at the charity stripe. The Panthers are going to be tough to handle if the senior continues to perform this way. His game was even more impressive considering he only logged 27 minutes.

Things will get testy quick for Young, as the ACC portion of the schedule looms large. Let’s hope he can keep these performances up on the season and maybe Pitt can make the experts, who picked them 12th in the conference, eat their words.

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