'Brutally honest,' Pitt's Ishmael Leggett's message may be what team needs

Most everyone playing major-college basketball can shoot reasonably well, and most have the requisite strength and size to compete for rebounds and loose balls.

And everyone on both sides wants to win.

So, what can set Pitt apart from its opponents, especially now in the final two weeks of the season when the next loss could be the arrow that ends all hope?

In this case, it might be honesty from leaders in the locker room and the willingness of others to hear and heed their words. Among those on Pitt’s roster, senior guard Ishmael Leggett may be best equipped to send that message to his teammates.

After all:

• At 6-foot-3, Leggett is Pitt’s second-leading scorer (16.2 points per game) and top rebounder (6.0) on a team with four regulars 6-10 or taller.

• Now that the team needs him most, he’s scored 21 and 19 points in the past two victories.

• He’s played 84.2% of the season’s 1,050 minutes, including 42 in each overtime game, while missing only one for a lower body injury (California on Jan. 1).

Coach Jeff Capel likes all of his veteran players to show leadership, but Leggett’s voice carries significant weight.

“That’s top dog,” leading scorer Jaland Lowe said. “When top dog talks, you listen. It means he has something to say. His word means a lot to everybody. When he says something, he means it for real. Things that he says, it helps empower everybody to lock in even more and do better.”

The best aspect of Pitt’s team may be, by all accounts, players’ ability to smother their egos.

“In order to play this game, you have to have tough skin,” Lowe said. “I grew up in a gym where you were told what you needed to do right then and there. Ish being brutally honest is fine. We have good team chemistry. We don’t have to worry about feelings being hurt. We all have the same goal in mind.”

Leggett, who’s in the final weeks of his five-season college career, senior Zack Austin, Lowe and others have learned the appropriate time to speak. Capel credited player-led motivation for Pitt’s rally from a 16-point deficit to defeat Syracuse on Tuesday.

“This year, I felt like I had to take on more of a vocal leadership role,” Leggett said. “My teammates have kind of helped me come out of my shell. We’re in that little stretch where nobody’s coming to save us. We have to get off the mat.”

Lowe said he also does his share of pushing teammates to give more.

“(Guillermo Diaz Graham) will tell you that for sure,” Lowe said. “I got to yell at G a lot just because I hold him to a high standard, and I need him to hold himself to that standard.”

Leggett said assistant coach Gilbert Brown joined the chorus.

“It’s something we need,” Leggett said. “We need to be kept on our toes. We need that intensity in practice to never go below the bar. If we do, it will translate to the game.

“Just put one foot in front of the other. We can’t change the past. The only thing we can do is focus on whatever is in front of us, and that’s the next opponent (Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind.).

“Losing isn’t fun. There can’t be any feelings involved. If I see something, I have to be able to (say) ‘Hey, JLowe, hey, Beebah (Brandin Cummings), hey, Amsal (Delalic)’ in a tone that they may not like. But it needs to be urgent. It needs to be on time. And it needs to get across.”

Note: Leggett is one of 193 student-athletes in 17 sports nationwide nominated for the inaugural Allstate Good Works Team in conjunction with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. They were chosen by administrators, conference office staff members and coaches for their leadership, service and character.