Inside The Panthers

Freshman Brandin Cummings Stars For Pitt

Freshman guard Brandin Cummings shined in the latest matchup for the Pitt Panthers.

Dominic Campbell

Dec 11, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Jeff Capel (left) embraces guard Brandin Cummings (3) against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels during the second half at the Petersen Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Dec 11, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Jeff Capel (left) embraces guard Brandin Cummings (3) against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels during the second half at the Petersen Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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PITTSBURGH -- Freshman guard Brandin "Beebah" Cummings played his best game yet for the Pitt Panthers in their blowout, 96-56 win over Eastern Kentucky at the Petersen Events Center.

Cummings finished with a career-high 30 points in the win. He shot 10-for-13, 76.9%, from the field and 6-for-8, 75%, from 3-point range, having an incredibly efficient night to help the Panthers get a good win at home.

He had to come on early, as sophomore guard Jaland Lowe picked up two fouls with a little more than two minutes played in the first half.

Cummings would score the first 12 points of the game and finished the first half with 17 points, breaking his career-high. He then added another 13 points in the second half, shooting 5-for-7 from the field and 3-for-4 from 3-point range, to have an outstanding night.

The performance for Cummings wasn't too much of a surprise for him. Once he started the game with a few baskets, it didn't take long for him to know that he was going to have a brilliant outing.

“Early, obviously," Cummings said on when he knew it was his game. "I think I got to the line early. I just felt good. As a scorer, you know whenever it’s your night and whenever I first touched the rock tonight, I knew it was my night.”

Cummings is just the fourth player to score 30 points as a freshman in Pitt history, joining Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens and Justin Champagnie, tying him for the third most points in a game for a freshman at Pitt.

He also scored 30 points in 30 minutes, giving him a point per minute, tying him for the sixth most efficient game for a Pitt player who scored 30 points or more in a game.

Cummings has worked incredibly hard this past summer and now into the season to gain the confidence he needs as a scorer at this level, which clearly helped in the win vs. the Colonels.

“Hours and hours and hours of work in the gym," Cummings said. "I’m always going to rely on my work and if I hit a few shots and feel good, you gon’ see me out there looking confident.”

Cummings excelled at nearby Lincoln Park in Midland, Pa., winning three WPIAL Titles, back-to-back PIAA Titles as a junior and senior and scored 2,222 points in his high school career.

Despite his success, he still has worked dilligently to transition from high school to one of the best conferences for college basketball in the ACC and what those teams bring in terms of talent and experience.

“Obviously, ACC basketball is a lot different from WPIAL basketball, but my coaches and my teammates, they done their best for the transition and I feel like I’ve been transitioning well and I can’t wait to take the next step forward, Cummings said. ”

Cummings was proud of his performance, but he gave all of the credit to his fellow teammates, who found him for great scoring opportunities throughout the contest.

“Yeah, I mean, my teammates did an amazing job of putting me in situations where they know I’m comfortable scoring the ball," Cummings said. "So it really made it easy on me to do that. All the credit really goes to them.”

He is also the brother of former Pitt player Nelly Cummings, who also played for Lincoln Park and his final season of college basketball in 2022-23 for Pitt, where he got the program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years.

Nelly Cummings also made his first appearance as a color commentator for the Eastern Kentucky game and got to see his brother excel in front of a home crowd and his family.

“I think he told me yesterday, maybe the day before, but to have him there was a great feeling," Cummings said. "To also have my family there, supporting me, it’s just something that I’ve always dreamt about since I was a kid. I always wanted to come to this school, play in this arena and it made me feel really at home to know that I have my brother doing what he’s doing and have my family there supporting me.”

Panthers redshirt senior forward Zack Austin, who scored a season-high 18 points vs. the Colonels, praised Cummings for his play and that he has had confidence in him for a long time now.

“On his visit, he had came, I ain’t know who Beebah was to be honest," Austin said. "I had just got here, so I didn’t know all the lore of Pittsburgh. So he had come on the visit and, like I said before the season started, he’s one of the best scorers I’ve played with. He was hitting some tough shots, but I was thinking in my head, “Like, bro, this is not his body.” I wasn’t thinking this was him and then shoot, we’re playing in the summer, he was still hitting them shots, I’m like, “Ah. That’s him?” Nothing you can do with him."

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel also had great things to say about Cummings and that the work that his freshman puts in every day is how he has played so well to start the season and how he'll continue to have more performances like the one he did against Eastern Kentucky.

"Beebah’s been confident since the first time I saw him," Capel said. "He’s a really, really confident kid and the confidence comes, I think, because of the work. He’s a gym rat, he’s one of the most low-maintenance guys that I’ve coached. He’s an unbelievable teammate and he’s a sponge, like, he wants to learn, he wants to be really good and he puts the time in."

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Dominic Campbell
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