Slam Online has an excellent article today about Brandin Knight and his evolutionary effect on the Pitt basketball program. Although it will take some more postseason success for them to move into the next level of hoops powers, there's little doubt that Pitt right now is one of the top 10-15 basketball schools in the country. Ignoring head coaches, I'm curious how many other schools on that list have a person as directly tied to their success as Knight is to the Panthers.

Perhaps the most telling quote in the article comes from Knight himself, as he attempts to define the types of players he recruits.

“We look for kids who have an edge to them about certain things,” says BK. “Namely, caring about winning, willing to compete and willing to do what it takes to get better.”

Those words are fitting of course, because they defined Knight as a player, and because of his leadership and legacy, have come to define the Pitt program. As an assistant coach now, he is recruiting high school kids that fit the mold for success that he created.

My favorite Brandin Knight memory comes from the 2003 Big East Tournament title game, when Pitt finally broke through and beat UConn for the championship. In the closing minutes Pitt had pulled away big and the outcome was no longer in doubt. UConn, with desperate hopes of a comeback and facing light full court pressure from Pitt was rolling the ball to center court on in-bounds plays, trying to preserve precious seconds. The third or fourth time the Huskies did this, Brandin Knight had seen enough. As a UConn player casually rolled the in bounds pass, Knight, fighting a bad ankle, sprinted all the way down court, diving hard to the ground to cover up the ball and secure the steal.

I like to think about Knight's thought process in those closing minutes; watching the Huskies still trying to come back, knowing that as long as they were rolling the ball in they still had a flicker of hope they could win the game. The second time they do it, he calculates what it would take to make a play for the steal, where he'd have to position himself to look coy, but still be close enough to grab the ball. The third time they do it, he almost breaks, but thinks better of it at the last minute, playing it safe. The fourth time, Knight's seen enough. By then instinct just takes over. "No more of this," he says to himself. And with that, he makes his break up court, ankle aching, throwing himself on the floor to break the will of his opponent.

It's pretty cold-blooded really. Maybe there isn't a better trait for a signature player to distill onto a basketball program.