Panther of the Week: Mike Young

Pitt dropped two more games to slide to 12-11 and 1-9 in the ACC. The two losses were on Tobacco Road with one at Chapel Hill and one to Duke. The Panthers at least gave a solid effort in both games and that includes big man Mike Young, who seems to be adjusting better and better to his mask. The senior is our Panther of the Week.

Fellow senior Jamel Artis had a strong week as well and Cam Johnson was on fire at North Carolina and actually had a very strong defensive effort Saturday at Duke. Unfortunately, Cam couldn’t muster more than three points against Duke and it hurt Pitt, in the end. Young was solid all around and was a beast that Duke just couldn’t handle very well.

Young started the week off with a double-double against the Tar Heels. The stat line was a full one with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and one steal. The Duquesne native finished the night connecting on seven of eleven shots. His game against Duke had the CBS announcers salivating and dropping all kinds of praise. The forward finished hitting 10 of 17 shots to drop 24 on the Blue Devils. He also chipped in four rebounds, two assists, one steal and also two blocks.

Look, they lost two more games this week, but I have to admit that it was fun remembering what it was like to watch a team that cared. They have to continue to bring this intensity into their games. They will not make the NCAA tournament this season but I think all Pitt fans will tell you that it’s much more fun watching them lose games like this to ranked teams rather than some of what we have witnessed over the last month.

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