Pitt transfer Jaland Lowe is a Kentucky Wildcat. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard announced the news Saturday morning, becoming the second incoming portal addition for Mark Pope so far this offseason.
After two seasons with the Panthers, Lowe is making the jump to a Blue Blood. He was named Third Team All-ACC this past season after a productive run with Pitt. Lowe averaged 16.8 points, 5.5 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 35.4 minutes per outing in 2024-25. On the surface, his shooting splits leave something to be desired, but there are proven stretches of excellent three-point shooting going back to his freshman campaign. Operating in an offense suited to his playstyle should spit out more efficient results.
But if you’re someone who is still hesitant about just how talented of a player Lowe is, allow some of the ACC’s best coaches to talk you into him. Pitt finished with a disappointing 17-15 record on the season, but opposing coaches feared Lowe when he was on the other side of the floor. Jon Scheyer (Duke) and Pat Kelsey (Louisville) both coached their teams to wins over Pitt in the regular season, but they had plenty of praise for the future Wildcat in the process.
Duke won this game in a blowout (as they did to most conference foes) by beating Pitt 76-47. Admittedly, Lowe didn’t have his best showing. But no one for the Panthers did. Going into the matchup, Scheyer pointed out Lowe as someone he and his staff were game-planning for heavily.
“Lowe’s a really good player,” Scheyer told George Michalowski of Pittsburgh Sports Now ahead of the game. “I mean, he just, he can score in a variety of ways, he can shoot the 3, he can attack the basket, he can create and he plays pretty much the whole game.
“So you have to, he’s not a guy that shies after missing a couple, right? He’s going to continue to shoot no matter what’s happening and he has great next-play mentality in that regard. So you have to continually stay in a stance on him and you have to make it as hard as possible. He’s going to score. You just don’t want him to get any easy ones whenever possible.”
Lowe’s final line: 8 points (3-12 FG; 2-4 3PT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers in 37 minutes
Louisville also beat Pitt (in both regular season games, actually), but Kelsey had plenty of positives to say about Lowe following the second win (79-68) in early March.
In the first matchup between Pitt and the Cardinals in January, an 82-78 defeat for the Panthers, Lowe went for 24 points, six assists, two rebounds, one steal, and four turnovers in 37 minutes. Lowe then dropped a double-double in the rematch a couple of months later.
“No. 15 is a dynamic guard,” Kelsey said of Lowe back on March 1. “He puts fouls on you. He’s as fast and quick twitch as any guard we’re going to play against. He’s got this uncanny knack when he gets to the rim and if you come over second row, like James [Scott] was coming over to try to block his shots. He’s got this ability, like, at the last second, to go whoop and fire that thing for threes.
“We call it matrix, right? So, you’ve seen the movie The Matrix, you know, like when the bullets are flying over the guy’s head, and they watch it. Well, [Lowe] throws these passes that, if you ball watch, he’s going to find that dude. They got too many open looks off of that. We actually got lucky a couple times that they missed some of those open looks. But we knew it was going to come to a one-on-one challenge, because [Lowe is] a terrific one-on-one player. He wants to go left, and you try everything in your power to keep him from going left, and he gets to his left somehow, some way.”
Lowe’s final stats: 16 points (6-18 FG; 1-8 3PT; 3-3 FT), 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers in 36 minutes
