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Unselfish nature Making others better makes Pitt's Knight Big East's bestPosted: Friday November 08, 2002 8:42 PMUpdated: Saturday November 09, 2002 9:27 PM
By Dave Hickman, Special to CNNSI.com The same qualities that a season ago made Brandin Knight the Big East Conference co-player of the year are -- and here's a real odd twist -- the same qualities that nearly relegated him to college basketball obscurity. In an age when scoring and making all the nightly highlight shows are the thing to most players, Knight came out of Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey 3 1/2 years ago as neither a scorer nor a human highlight reel. Come on, now, 12.5 points per game as a high school senior? No wonder his major suitors were Manhattan and Rice, folks like that. And even when Knight went to summer camps to strut his stuff, his stuff didn't exactly jump out and grab anyone. "I didn't do a lot of things that people thought were necessary when I went to camps. I did things like pass and play defense," Knight said. "This year we were trying to get a game with Stanford and [Pitt] coach [Ben] Howland asked [Stanford coach] Mike Montgomery how come he never recruited me. He said, 'Because, flat out, I didn't think he was going to ever shoot the ball.'" Well, Knight shoots the ball these days, and he does it pretty well, too. Oh, he's still not a scorer in the ultimate sense. After all, what is 15.6 points per game? But he did take over 100 more shots than any other Panther last season. Still, that's not Knight's game, just as it wasn't back in his high school days. Fifteen-point-per-game scorers don't get to be conference players of the year because of their scoring. Really, neither do players who failed to lead their league in any statistical category, as was the case with Knight. But throw together 15.6 points, 7.2 assists, 2.3 steals and the Big East's second-best assist-turnover ratio -- not to mention top 10s in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and 3-pointers made -- and what you have is a point guard who elevated his team to new heights.
"How he equates success is not his stats, it's the most important stat -- W's," said Howland, who rode his point guard to a 29-6 record, a West division title in the Big East and a run to the NCAA's Sweet 16. "You look at that kid and see he had three state championships (at Seton Hall Prep) in New Jersey. He's all about winning. And with winning comes all the other nice things." Those nice things now are trickling down to both Knight and the Panthers. For his part, Knight was chosen the preseason player of the year in the Big East heading into his senior season. For the Panthers, well, they're in virtually everyone's Top 10 now, and a lot of Top 5s. Not bad for a team picked to finish near the bottom of the league a year ago and a player who was once overlooked because he didn't have that scoring flair. "That's what they recruit for now. I think everyone feels like they can teach defense and they can teach sharing the ball, so they want shooters," Knight said. "When you're doing that stuff in high school, it doesn't attract much attention." Knight attracts the attention now, especially from his peers. In a league that had three point guards chosen to its six-member preseason all-conference team, he is the consummate point guard. "If I could take one thing from his game, it's poise," said Notre dame sophomore point guard Chris Thomas. "He didn't have 20 points and 10 assists every game. He just had a win in the column and a big part of that was because of his leadership. That's what matters most." "I don't think he has any weaknesses, other than his free-throw shooting," said Boston College point guard Troy Bell, himself a Big East co-player of the year two seasons ago. "And I'm sure he worked on that." Indeed, Knight's one weakness is baffling. Never a great free-throw shooter, that part of his game seems to get worse, not better. Knight shot a mind-boggling 44.2 percent from the line as a junior, a figure that was dangerously close to his 42.7 field goal norm, which was 10th in the league. He is also battling his way back from a knee injury he suffered in last Pitt's epic double-overtime loss to Connecticut in last season's Big East tournament championship game. Knight had arthroscopic surgery performed on the knee July 2, but is working his way back into shape. He and Howland both insist that Knight should be at 100 percent by the time the season starts, but he will take it easy nonetheless. And that could be the best thing to happen to Knight, regardless of his injured knee. A year ago he averaged 38.5 minutes in conference games, which wore him down by the end of the season. "Last year I had to play Brandin way too many minutes and it affected us down the stretch a little bit," Howland said. "This year we need him fresher in February and, hopefully, March." Howland worked with John Stockton at Gonzaga and Brian Shaw at UC-Santa Barbara, both in stints as an assistant coach. "He's definitely in that class, at this same stage, without question," Howland said of Knight. "Knowing how to play is so important, especially for a point guard. He really knows and understands how to play." Knight is certainly not the only point guard in the Big East who knows how to play. Other top Big East guards
Dave Hickman covers the Big East for the Charleston (WV) Gazette.
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