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Pitt’s Greg Elliott Breaks Down Personal Role, Team Goals Heading into 2022-23 Season

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Pitt Basketball Roster Greg Elliott.

This offseason, one of the biggest priorities for the Pitt basketball staff was landing shooters.

Last season’s team shot just 31.39% from three-point range, which ranked 284th in the nation. Inside star John Hugley was often faced with fearless double teams, as the opponent oftentimes was not worried about who was on the outside. However, after landing Nelly Cummings early on in the transfer cycle, the Panthers staff added yet another sharp shooter from outside in mid-May, this time by the name of Greg Elliott.

Elliott, a 6-foot-3 graduate transfer from Marquette, has four years of high-major experience under his belt with the Golden Eagles. He is a career 41% three-point shooter, and has drained 94 triples across his collegiate career. Despite dealing with injuries at several points in his career, he carved out a role as a reliable off-ball guard for the Golden Eagles, and is looking to take his game to the next level at Pitt this season.

“I’m a guy who is going to bring a lot of energy, offensively and defensively,” Elliott said on Monday. “I can shoot the basketball. I’m not just a shooter, I can make plays in the ball screen. You take my shot away, I can get to a pull-up. It doesn’t just have to be me shooting, I can be a playmaker for others as well. So I just want people to get a chance to see that.”

Elliott and his fellow veteran guards — Cummings, Jamarius Burton, and Nike Sibande — have bonded throughout the team’s early season workouts and have grown accustomed to sharing a back court early on. Although the back court looks crowded on paper, Elliott knows that he will play a massive role for this team bringing that must-needed outside presence.

“Get John [Hugley] space,” Elliott said when asked about his role. “Make space for John. That’s really it, honestly. From film I’ve watched, it’s been, you throw the ball to John, there are at least six eyes on him, sometimes eight of them. You can’t do that if I am on the opposite side of him. You can if you want to, but like he just said, I shot 41 percent from three. Just knowing that I am on the other side should take at least another set of eyes off John.”

Elliott and the Panthers have two exhibition games on the schedule to start the year, as they will kick things off with a matchup against Clarion on Oct. 22. After one more exhibition against Edinboro (Nov. 2), the Panthers will head into regular season play at home against UT Martin on Nov. 7. Then, just four days later, Pitt will take on West Virginia — a team that beat it by 15 points last season — on Nov. 11.

Although Elliott and several of his teammates are new to the Pitt team this year, they are all combining their forces and past experiences to head into this season with confidence.

“It’s not a rebuild,” Elliott said on Monday. “We’re here to make something happen, and it won’t be a surprise to anybody, but the people that are on the outside looking in. We are just going to come in, and every day we are going to build it brick-by-brick, and that’s our goal, everyday, is to lay that brick. And if we don’t do that, then we lose. But I feel like with the team, and learning these guys, that’s what we are doing, building it brick by brick.”

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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