College

‘That was what I dreamed of’: Nelly Cummings leaves legacy at Pitt, passes torch to brother Brandin

PITTSBURGH — Nelly and Brandin Cummings have a bond forged by brotherhood and basketball. In his final season, Nelly returned to Pitt vowing to put the Panthers back on the map — not only for his city and the team he grew up dreaming about playing on, but his younger brother, who will also get to live out that same dream.

“Growing up, we had a Nerf hoop in our in our bedroom,” said Nelly Cummings. “We always played with a little Pitt basketball.”

A little over a year ago, just feet from that same hoop, Pitt head coach Jeff Capel sat down in the Cummings’ family living room, recruiting not just Nelly, a grad transfer from Colgate, but his younger brother, Brandin, who was a sophomore at Lincoln Park High School at the time.

“As brothers, I mean, the game is going to end at some point for us,” said Nelly Cummings. “That’s a memory and a moment in time, where we’ll be able to look back to like, and always just remember how amazing that time was.”

After announcing his commitment, Nelly Cummings vowed to bring Pitt back into the national spotlight. Behind a 24-12 record, and Pitt’s first NCAA Tournament win in eight years, he did just that.

“He made a promise at the beginning of season that he’d get this team to where this team got to,” said Brandin Cummings. “He fulfilled that promise.”

“That was what I dreamed of right there,” said Nelly. “We did it.”

Now, Nelly gets to pass that torch along to his brother, a 6 feet 3 inches tall guard who verbally committed to Pitt in January.

“Just knowing that there was an opportunity for me to put my brother in a position to take something to the next level,” said Nelly Cummings. “I thought that would have been something that money couldn’t buy.”

The elder Cummings brother laid the foundation. Now, as the page turns for the Panthers to another chapter in the Jeff Capel era, Brandin Cummings will be part of the group that will look to carry on the winning culture.

“He’s really he’s given me the blueprint,” said Brandin Cummings.

“I would hope that he would like to follow in my footsteps in a way because if I didn’t lay the foundation right away, then what did I do as a big brother,” said Nelly Cummings.

The player who knows Brandin best offered the following scouting report:

“I think my brother has the potential to be one of the best players this program has ever seen,” said Nelly Cummings.

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