FORT WORTH, Texas — Basketball scouts are busy hoping to find the next Jordan or LeBron, when what America equally craves is another Kevin Pittsnogle.
For the name, as much as that game.
If “Name, Image and Likeness” was around when the West Virginia forward was burying 3s against Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament more than a decade ago, he would have been able to parlay that effort into a nice wad of cash.
If future NCAA basketball players are smart, they would be wise to emulate what Pittsnogle was in Morgantown, and what current Baylor forward Matthew Mayer could do right now in Waco.
These are types of players who probably won’t make it as a pro, but could make some money in college.
Watching top-seeded Baylor easily kick around 16th-seed Norfolk State on Thursday at Dickies Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and it’s apparent the Baylor senior forward needs to return for one more year.
Mayer scored 22 points to go along with six rebounds in what may have been the best game of his career at Baylor.
“I think I’ve had some pretty good games,” he said afterward. “That was a pretty good one.”
The Bears’ 85-49 victory was such a blowout it’s not worth re-visiting, but the case of Matthew Mayer coming back to Baylor for one more season is worth a hard look.
By all accounts, he wanted to leave Baylor after it won the national title last season but was convinced to return.
Mayer is the closest thing we’ve seen to a Pittsnogle in years, and there is a demand for what they do.
They’re not clowns disguised as players.
They’re real players who just look funny.
Those are marketable qualities.
Mayer is a nice college player who stands out for his solid game as much as his rock-star style mullet, and truck stop-style goatee.
Pittsnogle was a 6-foot-10 forward who played at West Virginia from 2002 to 2006. He was your tall white dude with a bunch of tattoos on his arms, and a goatee on his face. The only basketball court he looked like he belonged on was a local YMCA with a bunch of middle-aged dudes.
Once you got past his appearance, Pittsnogle was a killer college basketball player. As a junior and a senior, he led West Virginia to the Elite Eight in 2005, and the Sweet 16 the following year.
In West Virginia’s Sweet 16 win over Texas Tech in 2005, he scored 22 points with eight rebounds, and became known on national level.
Pittsnogle was one of the rare college players this century you may actually remember. He finished his NCAA career as West Virginia’s sixth-leading scorer, and one of its best 3-point shooters. He played in college for four years, and both he and his team were good.
He went undrafted by the NBA, had a brief shot with the Boston Celtics that didn’t pan out, and he played for a few years in the NBA’s D League (now the G League).
He struggled with his weight, and the NBA never gave him another chance.
According to the West Virginia athletic department, Pittsnogle is currently an assistant principal at Berkeley Springs High School in West Virginia, which is located not too far from the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.
Mayer is not quite Pittsnogle’s junior by 20 years, and he’s not in Pittsnogle’s class as a scorer. As a senior, he’s averageing just under 10 points and five rebounds. Right now he would be a late second-round NBA Draft pick, at best.
Yet because of COVID-related NCAA rules that allow players to potentially return for a sixth year, Mayer could come back to Waco next season.
He should.
With another season he could elevate his draft profile for NBA scouts. Plus, with another season Matthew Mayer could make a little bit more NIL money.
It’s not every day we get another Kevin Pittsnogle.
