Justin James Pitts (born October 26, 1994) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for HLA Alicante of the Spanish

LEB Oro LEB or Leb may refer to: * Lausanne–Echallens–Bercher railway, Switzerland * Lebanon, UNDP country code * Lebanon Municipal Airport (New Hampshire) (FAA identifier) * Lexham English Bible * Life expectancy at birth * Liga Española de Balonce ...

. He played

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for the Northwest Missouri State University. A 5’10”

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

, Pitts was named the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

National Player of the Year for the 2016–17 season.

High school career

Pitts played at Blue Springs South High School in

Blue Springs, Missouri Blue Springs is a city located in the U.S. state of Missouri within Jackson County. Blue Springs is located east of downtown Kansas City and is the 9th largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population wa ...

, a suburb of

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

. Between his junior and senior seasons, Pitts’ father was transferred from his job to New Orleans. Pitts chose to remain in Blue Springs, moving in with family friends as his family relocated. The move allowed Northwest Missouri State coach

Ben McCollum Benjamin M. McCollum (born April 12, 1981) is the men's basketball head coach at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. McCollum was born in Iowa City, Iowa, and grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa, where he graduated from St. Mary ...

to scout and sign the local player, despite his small size.

College career

Pitts

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

the 2013–14 season, joining the

Bearcats the next year. He made an immediate impact in his freshman season, averaging 17.2 points per game and earning

Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level, headquartered ...

(MIAA) Freshman of the Year and first-team all-conference honors. As a sophomore, Pitts continued to improve. He averaged 21.7 points on the way to repeating as a first-team All-MIAA pick, earning conference Player of the Year honors and leading the team to an MIAA Tournament championship. In his junior season, Pitts became one of the top players in Division II nationally. He averaged 20.9 points and led the Bearcats to MIAA regular-season and tournament championships. At the conclusion of the season, he repeated as MIAA Player of the Year. He also gained national recognition, earning All-America honors from several agencies and was named the National Player of the Year by the

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, head men's basketball coach at the University o ...

and

Basketball Times ''Basketball Times'' was an American basketball magazine that was in circulation from 1978 to 2021, and was published by Akers Ink LLC. ''Basketball Times'' published monthly and mainly focused on college basketball. The headquarters was in Matthew ...

magazine, as well as the Bevo Francis Award for top small college player. On the season, Northwest Missouri State compiled a 35–1 record and claimed the school’s first national championship in the 2017 NCAA Division II Tournament. Pitts scored 23 points in the championship game, leading the Bearcats to a 71-61 victory over Fairmont State. In his senior season, Pitts became the Bearcats all-time leader in points and assists. He scored his 2,000th career point on November 18, 2017, becoming the first player in school history to achieve the feat. He was injured in March 2018 before the Bearcats Central Regional Tournament and missed the remainder of the season.

Professional career

Pitts signed his first professional contract with the PS Karlsruhe Lions of the German

ProA Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the do ...

. He left the team in the preseason, then signing with HLA Alicante of the Spanish

LEB Plata The LEB Plata is the third basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system and the second basketball division organized by the Spanish Basketball Federation. Since 2019, three teams are promoted to LEB Oro and six teams are relegated t ...

. Pitts was named

player of the week on October 20, 2020, after contributing 27 points and four assists in a victory over

Bàsquet Girona Club Bàsquet Girona 2014 is a Spanish basketball club based in Girona, Catalonia, that was founded in 2014 by NBA player Marc Gasol. History The club was founded in 2014 by NBA player Marc Gasol, who previously played in CB Girona between 2006 an ...

. He re-signed with the team on October 1, 2021.

References

External links

Northwest Missouri State Bearcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, Justin 1994 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Spain American men's basketball players Basketball players from Missouri Northwest Missouri State Bearcats men's basketball players People from Blue Springs, Missouri Point guards Sportspeople from the Kansas City metropolitan area