Back to School
June 11, 2005 03:30 PM | General
June 11, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University center Kevin Pittsnogle has decided to return to school for his senior season. Pittsnogle made the announcement during a Saturday afternoon teleconference.
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| Kevin Pittsnogle announced Saturday that he plans to withdraw from the NBA draft and play his senior season at West Virginia University.
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“I had a great month. It was a lot of fun being able to play against better players but it is great coming back to West Virginia and being with my teammates and getting the chemistry back. I’m anxious to get going again,” he said.
Pittsnogle’s coach John Beilein says he doesn’t have a feeling of relief, but he is happy to have one of the key ingredients to his team’s Elite Eight run in 2005 back in the fold.
“You have mixed emotions from the standpoint that some people kept saying we hope he plays bad or things like that. No, these kids get these opportunities now and then to do things like that and at the same time, we really like the personnel on this team for next year and this makes us feel good that obviously we have a very, very key component from our success last year returning again,” Beilein said.
“It feels good but at the same time if Kevin all of the sudden said the opposite because he had reason to believe that he would be a first-round draft choice I’d be extremely happy for he, Heather and their whole family,” Beilein said. “I am very happy, his teammates are happy, and we can move forward now with a small roster but a good roster.”
Pittsnogle declared his availability for the draft on May 3 with the intention of seeing if he could work his way into the first round. Under NCAA rules, Pittsnogle could retain his option of returning to school provided he did not hire an agent. The deadline for a player to pull his name out is June 21, one week prior to the draft.
“I found out that I wasn’t going to be drafted where I needed to be drafted to not go back to college and that was the main point for me,” Pittsnogle said. “There is no point trying to work my way into an NBA lineup from the second round when I could come back to college and play for another year and hopefully improve and get better at the things that I need to get better at to be able to get into the first round of the draft next year.”
Pittsnogle’s stock soared during the NCAA tournament when he helped West Virginia to its first Elite Eight berth in 46 years. The 6-foot-11-inch forward claimed a spot in the starting lineup during a home win against Pitt on Feb. 5 and scored a career-high 27 points. In his final 16 games of the season the Martinsburg native averaged 16.7 points and reached 20 points or more six times.
He finished the year averaging 11.9 points and 3.7 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per game. He shot 46.5 percent overall including 42.6 percent from three-point distance. Pittsnogle became the school’s 42nd player to reach the 1,000-point plateau and he made the Big East and Albuquerque Regional all-tournament teams.
It was his performance in NCAA tournament games against Creighton, Wake Forest, Texas Tech and Louisville that led to Pittsnogle’s decision to test the NBA waters and earn an invitation to play in the NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago.
“I always thought I had a chance but I had to go out and play real well in Chicago,” he said. “I didn’t play too well the first couple of games but I stepped up the last game and played well (16 points). I didn’t play to the potential that I had to play at to become a first-round draft pick. I know that and I was able to learn things that I need to do to get better and hopefully get back there next year.”
Pittsnogle admits there were no specific instructions on what he needed to do to improve his game, but he has a pretty good idea now after having played against some of the top college, high school and foreign players available for the draft.
“I didn’t find out exactly word for word what I needed to work on. I know I’ve got to work on my defense, mobility and get a little more athleticism in my game,” he said. “I’ve got to work hard in the weight room this summer, too.”
Pittsnogle says his wife Heather and his family were supportive of his decision to return to WVU.
“They knew what was best for me and they agreed that it would probably be best for me to play another year of college and do what I need to do to become a better basketball player,” he said,
To return to school Pittsnogle simply has to submit the necessary paper work to the NBA for removing his name from the draft.
“Kevin just needs to send in a letter to the NBA,” said Beilein. “This has only been going on for two or three years where kids can put their name in and bring it back out. I think this is probably the first time at West Virginia University that this type of thing has happened. With a lot of universities it’s the same thing. We’ll have to do what we need to do to make sure that compliance wise we’ve done the right things.”
The return of Pittsnogle gives West Virginia four of its starting five back from a team that finished the season 24-11 and was just a basket away from going to the Final Four.
“A bunch of the players were in the office and we’re all absolutely thrilled with Kevin’s decision that he’s going to return,” said Beilein. “As I’ve said before I’ve always thought this was a win-win situation. If he was a first-round draft pick it was going to be a great thing for him and if he returned he had great teammates waiting for him and obviously a very good team waiting for him. We’re pleased that we’ll all be together for one more year.”
Pittsnogle says he has enrolled for the second semester of summer school.
