Panther of the Week: Mike Young

Senior Mike Young snags his second straight Panther of the Week honor this week, but it was not without competition. Sheldon Jeter had two solid outings getting a double-double in the win over Syracuse and dropping 17 points on Boston College. Cam Johnson poured in 22 points in the win over the Orange and Jamel Artis had a double-double of his own in Saturday’s win. However, Young is the one player that stood above them all in both games.

Young started his week at Boston College by looking like a man playing among boys. He finished with 30 points to go along with seven rebounds, two assists, one steal, and two blocks. The Duquesne native shot 11 of 19 from the floor and nailed six out of eight from the charity stripe. He followed that up with 21 points and nine rebounds and a nifty six assists on Saturday. To have a big man who can score and then throw off a defense with six assists, it becomes a headache for the defense. The senior finished the Cuse victory with seven out of thirteen shooting and also hit seven of nine from the line.

The lack of caring by Pitt over such a long ACC stretch could ultimately cost them a tournament spot in the end. However, watching Young, Artis, Jeter, Johnson, and others play up to their capability reminds you how much fun it is to watch Pitt hoops. It certainly beats what we were seeing and I’ll take it any day.

Young led the way for everyone and proved he doesn’t want to go out like that. The rest of the team got the message, too. Some of the previous weeks were absolutely painful to pick a Panther of the Week. The past two weeks featured one where Pitt went 0-2 and then reversed it the following one. Both weeks had one thing in common, though - it was a lot more fun picking a stand out player when they team plays well

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