Panther of the Week: Jamel Artis

If you didn’t have high blood pressure before this week of games for Pitt, you probably do now. During Pitt’s come from ahead win over Marshall and then the heart breaking OT loss to ranked Notre Dame, seniors Jamel Artis and Michael Young played a game of whatever you can do, I can do better. We’ll also also give a special nod to Sheldon Jeter, as he poured in 21 points against Marshall and was a monster on the boards against both the Thundering Herd and the Irish. In the end, we went with Artis for Panther of the Week.

Artis isn’t always taking the point for Pitt, but he does end up with a lot of ball security responsibility for the Panthers. Also, his shooting percentage, overall, was better than Young’s this past week. This gave him the nod as he took care of the rock and shot better than Young. Both players had a week to remember and Artis’ numbers certainly didn’t suffer.

The Baltimore native started off with a 30-point performance against Marshall and also chipped in eight rebounds, three assists, one block and only two turnovers. His free throw shooting wasn’t the best in the world, but he also ended up 9 of 14 from the floor and all five misses were from beyond the arc. Despite those five misses, from long range, he still shot 38% from that range.

The 6’7” forward/point guard didn’t stop there as he frustrated Notre Dame all game with 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists, one steal, and only one turnover. That’s only three turnovers in two games for the senior, who has been taking better care of the ball lately. He was five for eight from long range, which included several clutch shots. Pitt was down by eight late in the second half, after a Notre Dame run, and an Artis three keyed the comeback to force overtime.

The Artis and Young show is a fun one to watch. Many of the fan base has been very vocal about how unhappy they are with the state of Pitt basketball. That’s a shame because both of these seniors are making it clear that they can do a lot of damage.

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