STrib: Destiny Pitts-Fearlessness is in Her Nature

Ignatius L Hoops

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http://www.startribune.com/for-gophers-destiny-pitts-fearlessness-is-in-her-nature/506801592/

Kent Youngblood:

When Lindsay Whalen looks at Destiny Pitts, she thinks of Janel McCarville.

OK, yes, this might sound strange. Pitts is the University of Minnesota women’s basketball sophomore sharpshooter, a 5-10 wing with the longest of ranges. McCarville — who played with Whalen for the Gophers in the 2004 Final Four — was a slick-passing, bang-in-the-paint center.

So let Whalen explain.

The first-year Gophers coach, who leads her 20-win team into the Big Ten Conference tournament in Indianapolis on Thursday as the No. 7 seed vs. No. 10 seed Indiana, was trying to describe Pitts’ approach to the game. Whalen sees a player who never seems to panic, who always seems to be the one smiling at crunch time, who is never afraid — one who, as a sophomore, has a charisma that draws her teammates to her.

And she thinks: McCarville.

“They’re so similar,” Whalen said. “They come ready to go. Destiny has the same fearlessness as Janel.”

Pitts, who tends to laugh when people try to ask her how good she is, laughed.

There is a reason for this, she said. The youngest of Demetrus and Tonya Pitts’ four children, she grew up the daughter of a Detroit-area police officer in a rather difficult section of the city. The family eventually moved to the suburbs, but Pitts grew up watching her parents work for everything they had in an environment that wasn’t ideal.

...

This is no surprise to Demetrus Pitts.

No matter what sport Destiny tried as a young girl, she excelled. Baseball? She could hit for distance. In basketball, she played with older kids from the start.

“And she won at every level she played,” he said.

About to enter the ninth grade, she was part of an AAU team that won a national title at the Boo Williams complex in Virginia with a starting five that included current Penn State players Alisia Smith and Kamaria McDaniel, Michigan guard Deja Church and Temple forward Breanna Perry.

“That’s when I knew it,” Demetrus Pitts said. “When they won that title I knew she’d be a special player. She wasn’t afraid of any opponent, no matter who she played.”

Frank Orlando agreed. For nearly 40 years, Orlando has coached girls’ basketball at Detroit Country Day School, winning 13 state titles. He has sent scores of players to Division I, but Pitts remains one of his favorites.
 

Looking at the number of D1 recruits coming from Detroit Country Day School, Whalen needs to be attending many more games there in future years. And we have another already joining the team next year.
 

Looking at the number of D1 recruits coming from Detroit Country Day School, Whalen needs to be attending many more games there in future years. And we have another already joining the team next year.
Agreed gotta make Detroit Country Day Gopher country.

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