Young named to All-ACC Third Team, Artis earns honorable mention

The Pitt men’s basketball team finished the regular season in next-to-last place out of 15 teams in the ACC, but the Panthers still had two players recognized as part of the All-ACC teams Sunday afternoon.

Senior forward Michael Young repeated as a member of the All-ACC Third Team, while senior point guard Jamel Artis earned All-ACC Honorable Mention status. Artis was a third-team All-ACC selection in 2014, and the duo made Pitt the only team in the conference with multiple All-ACC players going into the season.

The seniors had arguably their best individual seasons in 2016-17, taking turns at the top of the ACC in scoring for almost the entire season. But Pitt head coach Kevin Stallings benched them for the first 10 minutes of the regular season finale at Virginia, reportedly for being late to breakfast.

Young still finished the 67-42 loss with a team-high 14 points, but Duke guard Luke Kennard surpassed him for the ACC scoring title with 28 points in the Blue Devils’ regular season finale vs. North Carolina. Young finished second in the ACC with a career-high 19.9 points per game, while Artis finished in sixth place with a career-high average of 18.4 points per contest.

Artis led the team with 3.4 assists per game and also pulled down 4.8 rebounds per contest, while Young finished second on the team with 6.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. The two combined to form the ACC’s top-scoring duo with 38.3 points per game, making up 51.3 percent of the Panthers’ offensive output on the season.

Pitt will travel to Brooklyn, New York, to compete in the ACC Tournament at the Barclays Center beginning Tuesday, March 7. Tipoff for the Panthers’ first round matchup against the No. 11 seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is at 7 p.m.