Sam Young of Pittsburgh is one reason the Panthers are playing today in the Elite 8 against Villanova. Young's relentless work ethic has pushed Pitt all year long. This article on espn.com tells the story of Young's passion and work ethic:Stories of Young's devotion to his craft are legendary around Pitt. People talk about the nights he slept on an air mattress in the gym after hours of shooting alone and how he would blow off social gatherings on weekends to find a pickup game on campus. That tunnel vision didn't just begin in college, either.
"This is a guy who'd be at school at 6:30 in the morning working out or at the gym," said close friend Chris Howard, Young's teammate at Friendly High School and now a guard at South Florida. "When he was at Hargrave, there'd be times we'd call each other and be on speakerphone while we were doing push-ups.
"He's not one of those guys you're going to see in the club. Sometimes he'll call me and say he's going to movies, and I'll joke around and say, 'Who are you going with? Who's the girl?' And he'll say, 'I'm going by myself.' That's the kind of focus you've got to have until you get to the place you want to be."
