Amid all his coaches, Pitt’s Jamarius Burton still welcomes mom’s halftime texts
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Jeff Capel almost never sits down during games.
He’s always pacing the Pitt sideline, directing player traffic and, occasionally, pleading with officials.
Meanwhile, several of his assistants regularly are bouncing off their chairs, waving their arms and shouting instructions toward the court.
All that said, Pitt senior guard Jamarius Burton doesn’t need another coach. With his years of experience and age — he’ll be 23 next month — he coaches himself well enough.
But he wants to retain the one coach he hears from, remotely, at halftime of every game: his mom, Kim Seward.
Chances are good that if he checks his cellphone in the locker room Friday when Pitt and Iowa State go to halftime during their NCAA Tournament first-round game, there will be another text, critiquing and/or praising his efforts and telling him what to expect in the second half.
“It’s an ongoing thing,” Burton said Thursday before practice at Greensboro Coliseum. “She was my coach growing up until high school. We have a deep tie with that, and she’s continuing to pour into me.
“Off the court, we watch a lot of film. She’s always picking spots where I can be more effective, just catering more to my game.
“She played in the interior (at Alabama A&M), and I learned my interior skills first, and then learned it out. It’s been an accumulation of things that she’s taught me.”
Mom even guided her son on how to handle interviews with reporters.
“She used to take me through scenarios like this one when I was way younger,” he told a reporter. “It’s just been a blessing to have her. It pours into my leadership as well.”
All of that motherly guidance, plus the experience Burton has picked up in five seasons at Wichita State, Texas Tech and Pitt, has helped put the Panthers in this position.
A victory against No. 6-seeded Iowa State (19-13) would mark the first time since 2009 that Pitt (23-11) has won more than one game in the tournament.
The challenge for No. 11-seeded Pitt will be to handle the basketball with care. Iowa State plays with the same type of physicality that Pitt confronted against Mississippi State on Tuesday and West Virginia earlier in the season. Iowa State forces an average of 16.6 turnovers — second among Power 5, plus Big East, schools.
Iowa State has faced — and defeated — many of the best teams in college basketball, playing in the nation’s best conference, the Big 12. The Cyclones lost twice to West Virginia, but they defeated No. 1-seeded Kansas, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 Baylor (three times), No. 3 Kansas State and No. 6 TCU (twice).
The task of protecting the basketball falls to Burton’s running mate at guard, 24-year-old senior point guard Nelly Cummings, who scored 15 points in 40 minutes without committing a turnover against Mississippi State.
Overall, Pitt had seven turnovers in the highly charged atmosphere of the UD Arena in Dayton. In a game where every possession was precious, Pitt won by one point.
At Bowling Green, Colgate and Pitt, Cummings has molded a basketball IQ that allows him to run the offense in his first and only season at Pitt. Just as important is his signature toughness acquired from playing on the concrete courts of Midland against older kids, who were always trying to swat away the basketball from their younger opponent.
The intensity of the NCAA Tournament wasn’t too much for Cummings on Tuesday.
“I grew up that way,” he said. “Playing in the park, I played with the older kids, and they used to push me around. I’ve been that way all my life.
“I hold it with me on my chest everywhere I play, everywhere I go, just because that’s how I grew up. I feel like I’m representing more than just me when I’m out there playing.”