Jamarius Burton’s Senior Night: A Bittersweet Farewell in Front of Family and Fans

PITTSBURGH — It’s “Jamarius” to fans, “JB,” to those who are around him often, and “Jay” to some of his family members.

Whatever you call him and whatever your relationship is with him, Jamarius Burton — Pitt basketball’s leading scorer — is going to be consistent with you, is going to respect you, and is going to listen to you.

Burton has a routine before and after every game that is quite simple: he calls his family. They talk about basketball, faith, focus, and anything else that is on their mind. First, he calls his grandmother before the game for a peaceful conversation to get his mind right. Afterwards? Win or lose, it’s a free-for-all with his entire immediate family and anyone else who watched the game at the Burton household that night. The phone passes from person to person, supporter to supporter.

“My family, we’re not like a lot of people where they do a lot of handholding, petting, and all that kind of stuff,” Burton’s older sister Kimera Seward told PSN, laughing. “We’re very transparent.”

On each call, every family member offers advice and critiques his and his team’s performance. His mother Kimberly played hoops at Alabama A&M. Both of his sisters also played college hoops. Destani played at Paine College, while Kimera played for Fayetteville State. The Burton family knows ball.

“The thing about Jamarius calling us, he knows that we are going to shoot it to him straight,” Seward added. “Holistically. We will talk about the things that go well, the things that didn’t go well, the things that he could’ve done better, could’ve focused on, could have done differently. What he really needs to encourage his teammates, like, ‘Hey, you needed to be more vocal here, you need to amp things up a bit! If you’re down, you’ve got to turn it on!’ Just those things that make him him. When he’s not playing like him, we call him out on that.”

His family has watched him play throughout his entire basketball journey, one that began in Urbana Champaign, Illinois. They later moved to Charlotte, North Carolina where Burton ended up playing high-school hoops. After starting out on the “B” team of his travel program, Burton moved up the ranks, developing his game to an elite level by his junior season. However, his career took a turn when he tore his ACL that year.

Jamarius Burton as Pitt plays against North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023 in Chapel Hill. (Mitchell Northam / Pittsburgh Sports Now)

After recovering from the ACL tear through faith, focus, and leaning on his family, Burton climbed all the way back up the ranks. He started his college career at Wichita State, where he played two seasons and starred in his role as a lead guard for the Shockers. He then transferred up to Texas Tech, where he averaged a career-low 4.3 points per game. Then, in April 2021, Burton committed to Pitt to join a hopeful head coach and a program that had been near the bottom of college basketball for years.

“Winning, that is the most important thing,” Burton told PSN on the date of his commitment. “I look forward to winning with them.”

After finishing last season 11-21, things looked bleak around the Pitt basketball program heading into the spring. However, Pitt added fellow vets Nelly Cummings, Greg Elliott, and Blake Hinson, and the Panthers would also have Nike Sibande back from injury.

Fast forward to February, and the Panthers are in the midst of their first 20-win season since 2016 and are competing for an ACC title in the last three games of the year. Burton, along with the other veterans mentioned above, has cemented himself as a leader of one of the best teams in the ACC. Now, heading into his last game ever at the Petersen Events Center, his journey is coming full circle.

Saturday’s game against Syracuse will be a huge one, not just for Pitt, not just for Burton, but for Burton’s family as well.

26 of Burton’s close family members and friends have made the trip to Pittsburgh for Saturday’s game against Syracuse. His closest supporters — coming from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Illinois, Alabama, and Texas — will all be right there with him before his last ever home game in college ball. His immediate family has traveled to closer games such as North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Duke to watch him play this year, but there have never been this many watching him while at Pitt.

“It’s going to be amazing, honestly,” Seward said. “Some people haven’t been able to see him in person in a while. So just being able to all be in one place, really rooting him on, rooting the team on, is going to be something special. I know that means a lot to him, too. He’s not one to show a lot of emotion all the time, you see a little bit of passion every now and then, but he tries to be cool, calm, and collected. We’ve even seen him come out of that a couple times this season, which has been kind of funny. But I think it’s going to be special. Just the realization that this is legitimately his last collegiate season. Just having everybody here, and some couldn’t make it, it is just going to be a great opportunity to get all of us together and to do so by celebrating him and his accomplishment.”

Pitt’s matchup against Syracuse will tip off at 5 p.m. in front of a sold-out Petersen Events Center. Burton, Cummings, Elliott, Sibande, and Aidan Fisch will be honored for Senior Night before the game.

“Last one at the Pete,” Burton said on Instagram Friday night. “It’s truly been a blessing.”