A glue guy is born: Zack Austin finds his niche, raises Pitt's ceiling

PITTSBURGH To the untrained eye, blocking a shot can be pretty easy as long as you're 6-foot-7 and supremely athletic.

It's why Pitt forward Zack Austin looks like he rarely even has to try when he's rejecting all varieties of shots in all manners.

His 197 (and counting) career rejections contain the multitudes loud slams against the backboard, tipped jump shots that start fast breaks and volleyball spikes into the crowd.

Each is a product of Austin's supreme athleticism, yes, but also his deep, intricate knowledge of basketball, angles and opponent tendencies.

Keith Gatlin, one of Austin's former coaches who recruited him to High Point University, saw through the goofy, fun-loving high school senior's outward personality and saw a serious basketball mind, one with a bright future.

"He's very knowledgable.

He's smarter than he leads on to be," Gatlin said.

"He likes to joke around, but he's very calculated in what he says and what he does.

...

You might not think he's paying attention, but he is.

He's smart as a fox." Zack Austin knows ball.

He eats, sleeps and breathes the game.

When he's not practicing or playing, he's watching the professionals on television, scouting opponents or giving his teammates hell in the video game "NBA 2K14." A borderline obsession with this sport has made him an immensely valuable asset for Pitt, which has climbed to a 9-2 record and as high as 18th in the Associated Press poll.

Austin's ability to swing between starter and reserve, star and role player throughout his career has made him a fit for multiple teams with multiple needs.

And as he's improved, the Panthers have raised their ceiling.

A glue guy is born Austin is an immensely gifted athlete, and especially in high school, that means he didn't have to be perfect for every second on the court.

He could make mistakes or take gambles, then recover in time to make the play if he needed to.

Those gifts are a blessing and a curse for a young player.

It allows you to make up for mistakes but makes you relax, as well.

"To try and correct his mind to get him to do things the right way was sometimes funny because you'd sometimes have to think outside of the box since he could do things athletically that the average player couldn't," Gatlin said.

Austin suffered a hand injury when he tried to dunk on an outdoor court while playing at home before his freshman year.

It forced Austin to take a redshirt year during his first collegiate season, but Gatlin believes it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

"I'm laughing because that's typical Zack," Gatlin said.

"Anyone asks him to go play, he'll play outside.

He'll play anywhere." For a year, Austin dominated scout teams and laid the groundwork for back-to-back All-Conference seasons.

He averaged 14.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game over two seasons for the High Point Panthers.

Gatlin was still ironically thankful for that initial preseason injury even after Austin's two outstanding years.

"Frankly, if he had played during his first year," Gatlin said, "we might not have been able to keep him because he was that talented." They weren't able to keep him after the second year, but Gatlin felt he was sending Austin off to a great situation.

Austin became a Pitt Panther in large part because Gatlin, a former high school coach in North Carolina, had connections to the Capel brothers, Jeff and Jason, who grew up in the area.

Austin arrived in Pittsburgh fresh off an All-Conference season at High Point but was stepping onto a team with a centerpiece already established in Blake Hinson and plenty more stars like Bub Carrington, Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett ready to emerge.

He wasn't going to be the same high-volume shooter and offensive engine he was for a Big South team.

If he wanted to play the sport at its highest level, Austin had to embrace a new role.

He had to be humble but hungry and remember this wasn't a step down but a step forward.

'Stuff's got to change' Austin had learned the ins and outs of college basketball once before how to eat, train and work as hard as necessary to make the leap from high school to Division I basketball but he had to learn it again once he got to Pitt.

"Sometimes when you're at a mid-major or in a smaller conference, you can get caught up in trying to do everything," Gatlin said.

"And I think that took a toll on Zack." He was pulled from the starting lineup for two games in mid-December of his first season at Pitt because coach Jeff Capel said he simply needed to "play better." More specifically, he needed to play harder.

He needed to be good all the time.

Everything gets harder again when you go from the Big South to the ACC.

Austin took the reduced role in stride because he's his own harshest critic.

When he's playing poorly, he knows it and would even tell Gatlin to sub him out so he could collect himself for a few minutes before asking to re-enter the game and improving immediately.

That kind of introspection made it possible for him to accept the coaching, not take it personally, and improve.

Two games later, Austin was back in the starting lineup.

His minutes began to increase, and Pitt started to win as he found his niche in a talented team.

But the Panthers' 2023-24 campaign fell just short of their ultimate goal the NCAA tournament.

Austin, ever introspective, knew he needed to get better.

Primarily, Austin's offensive game needed to level up.

And if you're playing for Capel and you're not 6-foot-10, you have to be able to shoot.

Austin made 129 3-pointers during his time at High Point but shot them at just a 32.7% clip not necessarily a torrid rate.

And during his first year at Pitt, even while playing around a wealth of shot creators, his efficiency from beyond the arc declined to a career-worst 29.5%.

So Austin got to work.

He lived in the gym over the summer, working on how to get his shot form perfected.

Then he repeated it over and over and over to reach the kind of consistency it needed to.

It all comes from his lower half getting his feet set quicker and using his legs to generate more power so the arms don't have to do all the work.

The results are a career-high 46% field goal percentage through 11 games, boosted by a 42.5% mark from 3-point range that is 9.2% higher than his previous lifetime best.

It's opened up a whole new world for Austin on the offensive end.

"If you can shoot the basketball, it opens up a lot of stuff.

That opens up drives because people have to get out to you.

Last year, people kind of left him and gave him shots.

He didn't want to be that guy this year," Capel said.

"So he really put a lot of time in and worked, and that's opened up a lot for him." Austin has meshed his remarkable defense with a growing offensive game.

He's posted a career-best offensive rating (134.2) and defensive rating (96.9) that rivals only his freshman season mark.

He's the only Panther to play more than 200 minutes this season and log an offensive rating above 125 and defensive rating below 100.

Austin's enjoyed some time in the spotlight this season, like when he scored 18 points, blocked three shots and led a dominant second-half effort in a blowout win over Eastern Kentucky this week or when he nailed the game-winning 3-pointer in a dramatic, come-from-behind victory at Ohio State.

"That's my first game winner ever," Austin said.

"I ain't ever even took one." But right now, Austin is not on pace to set any career highs.

He'll start as few games as he has and shoot less than he ever has in his career.

Still, he is as efficient as he's ever been, and his impact is as large, considering the leadership role he's taken on, as well.

Austin isn't the starter he once was but a star in his role instead.

"I think it's fun, honestly.

I like it," Austin said about coming off the bench.

"You get to see the game.

[Jason Capel] tells me before every game, every tip that when I get in, stuff's got to change." His success has been a long time coming, and his journey has changed Pitt for the better.

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