The Pitt men’s basketball team lost another game on Sunday, suffering a 13-point defeat to Florida State. But mixed in the rubble was a pretty meaningful statistic as freshman Parker Stewart set a new school record for made three-pointers by a freshman.
The feat was announced during the game and Pitt’s social media staff confirmed it:
Congrats to @_PSTEW on setting a Pitt freshman record for three-point field goals in a season.
— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) February 19, 2018
Currently 10th in the ACC in 3PT Pct. (.387).
Even better in league play - 3PT Pct. (5th - .432) and 3FG (4th - 2.73 3PG).#bALLtogether pic.twitter.com/xjYNQlnKf4
Stewart apparently broke the old record of 58 set by some guy named Sean Miller.
This has been a bad year. Actually, it’s been downright miserable. But one of the few bright spots has been the emergence of Stewart, who’s gone from a wildly inconsistent shooter to one of the team’s most reliable scorers, contributing at least ten points in ten of Pitt’s 15 ACC games. And as the tweet above points out, he’s been even better in league play than he was in the non-conference.
I’d also argue that his play has been the most surprising aspect of the team. He was desired by a good many schools, including Georgetown, Kansas State, Georgia Tech, LSU, NC State, Wisconsin, and several others, but he wasn’t a highly-touted recruit at all. To see him contributing this much is kind of surprising - particularly after the slow start he had.
Stewart also has three more regular season games, so he’ll have plenty of time to pad his totals even more. Given that the record stood for 30 years and that he has the chance to add significantly to that total, it could stand for a very long time.
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