Freshman shooting guard Parker Stewart has asked for his release from the Pitt basketball team.
Stewart, 19, was Pitt’s primary 3-point shooting threat in 2017-18. He played in all 32 contests and finished the season averaging 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game in 26.2 minutes.
The native of Union City, Tennessee, had a slow start to his first collegiate campaign, but heated up in conference play. He averaged 10.8 points per game in the ACC and made 71 3-pointers, second amongst conference freshmen.
He set the Pitt freshmen record for made 3-pointers in a season, passing Sean Miller’s mark that was set back in 1991. He also broke Miller’s Pitt freshman record for 3-pointers made in a game.
He came to Pitt after originally committing to Mississippi as part of the Class of 2017, but after the Rebels refused to commit to head coach Andy Kennedy, Stewart reopened his recruitment and chose Pitt. Kennedy was fired after the 2017-18 season. Stewart’s father, Anthony Stewart is the head coach at UT-Martin in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Stewart is the second player from Pitt’s projected 2018-19 team to request his release in the six days since head coach Kevin Stallings was fired. Class of 2019 point guard Danya Kingsby, a junior college transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, requested his release on Friday.
Stewart will likely have to sit out a year to transfer to another Division I school, but he can use his redshirt year and still have three seasons of eligibility. Just because a player asks for his release does not necessarily mean that he will not be returning to Pitt.
