Former star revives career as walk-on after giving up hoops

Just a little more than a month ago, Ryan Tiesi thought his basketball career was over.

He… Just a little more than a month ago, Ryan Tiesi thought his basketball career was over.

He sat in the stands at the Petersen Events Center with a few of his friends and watched the Pitt men’s basketball team play – just as a fan. More than six months removed from giving up his favorite sport and transferring to Pitt, Tiesi’s days of big-time competition had come screeching to a halt.

Then one day in late December, his phone rang.

It was Brian Regan, an assistant on Pitt’s coaching staff.

A few days later, Tiesi showed up at the Pete and began practicing with the men’s basketball team he’d watched from the stands just a month before.

Turns out his playing days weren’t over at all.

After graduating from North Allegheny High School in 2006, Tiesi headed to Division II Bellarmine University in Kentucky to play basketball and pursue a degree.

After realizing it wasn’t the place for him, he transferred back home to Pitt and decided to focus on academics. He hung up his sneakers and for the first time in his life was no longer a student-athlete.

But when a heavy list of injuries sliced Pitt’s roster paper-thin, the Panthers knew they needed some help.

That’s when Regan called Tiesi.

“He told me they had some injuries and needed some help,” Tiesi said. “He wanted to see if I’d join the team.”

A stack of paperwork, some scheduling changes and a series of workouts later, Tiesi became the newest member of the Pitt men’s basketball team.

“He’s done really well,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “And he’s making quite a sacrifice.”

Like most student athletes, Tiesi lost almost all the free time he had when he made the commitment to college athletics. But unlike the majority, he hardly had any free time before.

Along with a taking on a full slate of classes and practice nearly every day, Tiesi, an accounting major, is also interning 30 hours a week Downtown at PricewaterhouseCoopers – a tax and advising agency.

Since he can’t dress for games this year because of transfer rules, Tiesi is still able to work the number of hours PwC asks him to. While the rest of the Pitt team is traveling for games, he heads into work and knocks out as much time as he possibly can.

“I’ve got a pretty busy schedule,” he said, laughing.

Thirty hours a week would be a lot for any college student to put in at an internship, let alone a student playing basketball at a major Division I school with some of the country’s top athletes.

But Tiesi is used to being busy and has battled against some strong talent in the past.

In high school, Tiesi was one of the better guards in the Pittsburgh area. He led North Allegheny to a 17-7 record, while scoring a team-high 16.7 points per game and distributing an additional 4.3 assists.

At Bellarmine, he immediately impressed his coaches and went on to start 24 of 27 games. Although Division II, the Knights played matchups against two Big East schools – Notre Dame and Louisville. Against the Irish, Tiesi played a game-high 33 minutes, adding three steals to three points in one of his first college games ever. Against Louisville, he was given the assignment of covering All-Big East freshman performer Edgar Sosa.

But after taking so much time off of basketball since his freshman season ended, Tiesi has had to work hard the past month to be able to compete again at such a high level.

“I’ve really had to get back in shape,” he said. “I’m still in the process of doing that.”

Dixon said that despite having just a few weeks of practice, he’s already doing a great job running the plays and fitting in with his new teammates.

“He was running the plays in practice today,” Dixon said on Monday afternoon. “And he’s already getting nicknames.”

Nicknames or not, Tiesi is just happy to be back on the court again, competing and playing the game he loves. Whether he’s going to play again next year, when the Panthers return to full strength, is still unknown.

“It’s definitely a strong consideration,” he said. “Right now, I’m just living in the moment.”

Tiesi said that when the season is over and he gets some free time he’ll think about next year. But for the next few months he won’t know what free time is. And when he’s not at class or working Downtown, you can find Tiesi at the Pete running sprints and shooting 3-pointers in the gym – as a player, not a fan.