Dan Wolken

USA TODAY Sports

ORLANDO — No matter the odds of a college basketball player making the NBA or the value of completing an undergraduate degree, the term four-year player has almost become pejorative within the culture of the sport.

The rush to the draft is so prevalent, and the definition of "potential" so narrow, that sticking around a college program for four years from a professional standpoint is oddly interpreted as some sort of failure.

So what does that say about those who stay for five?

In an era where talented players rarely stay in college longer than they have to and the NCAA Tournament becomes an annual referendum on the value of so-called "one-and-dones," No. 9 seed Pittsburgh is the ultimate anomaly.

Among the Panthers' 10 rotation players are two fifth-year seniors and three others who started their Pitt careers with a redshirt season, a tactic common in college football but almost unheard of in hoops.

"Guys want to play right away," said third-year sophomore forward Durand Johnson, who was averaging nearly 9 points per game before suffering a season-ending knee injury in January. "It kind of hurts when you come in and your family wants to see you play, everyone's excited and you've got to answer phone calls and text messages: Why you on the bench? Why aren't you playing? That's the hardest part to deal with but once that year goes by, it can help a lot."

Though Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has had players talented enough to leave early for the NBA — just last year, center Steven Adams parlayed one year at Pitt into becoming a lottery pick — the program's long-term success has largely been built on four-year players. That often makes it difficult for freshmen to crack the rotation, especially playing the physical style that has become Pitt's trademark.

When guard Cameron Wright arrived on campus in 2010, the Panthers were so loaded on the wings with upperclassmen like Brad Wanamaker and Gilbert Brown, it became apparently quickly that he had little chance to play significant minutes. Still, for a player some scouting services had ranked among the top-100 recruits in the country, it was a bit shocking to think about sitting out for a year.

"Being so young, I had to pay my dues and realize who was in front of me," Wright said. "I feel like I could have contributed or helped the team out, but at the same time, realistically speaking, I wouldn't have been able to play that many minutes so it was probably best to reserve myself that year so I could play more the next."

Though that dynamic isn't unique in college basketball — the majority of freshmen don't come in ready to help an annual NCAA Tournament program like Pitt — it's unusual how often Dixon's players have bought into waiting their turn.

According to the NCAA, roughly 40% of men's basketball players who enter Division I directly out of high school transfer by the end of their sophomore year, with lack of early playing time often a factor in the decision to change schools.

Part of the issue, though, is the false expectation created during the recruiting process, as coaches will frequently oversell a player's ability to contribute as freshmen.

"Coming in from prep school, I'm thinking like, when I go there I'll play right away and get time and make a major impact," Johnson said. "But it wasn't the case."

Instead of transferring, though, Johnson looked at the track record of players like Levon Kendall, Tray Woodall and Brown, who used redshirt years to get stronger and develop their skills while doing everything else with the team including regular practice time and travel to road games.

While it isn't the most fun year, they said, it was a smart long-term investment.

"(I didn't like it) at first, but you just look at the track record of guys at Pitt and you understand maybe you weren't as ready as you thought you were," said reserve wing Chris Jones, who redshirted as a freshman last season. "Coming in like any other recruit, you expect to play but you have to do what coach thinks is best. We had a conversation about it, and there's a lot of guys before me that have done the same thing and turned out to be great players."

Though Dixon said he doesn't recruit players with the intention to redshirt them, sometimes circumstances dictate the decision. Senior Lamar Patterson, for instance, played in 10 games as a freshman in 2009-10 but struggled with an ankle injury to the point where he fell out of the rotation and wasn't going to contribute much, deciding instead to apply for a medical hardship.

Brown played three games as a freshman in 2006-07 but had missed so much preseason practice time, Dixon decided to redshirt him and he went on to become an elite role player in the Big East.

"He was in shock by that," Dixon said. "We're usually pretty solid all the way through, so if a guy misses 35 or 40 practices you're probably a little bit behind. We've had a few of those. Every situation is unique, but they usually figure it out, too, once they see how practices go."

Though Dixon said it was hard to draw a direct correlation between redshirting and the physical toughness his teams typically play with, there's little doubt age and development has often compensated for a lack of sheer talent at Pitt.

"I matured a lot that year personally, not so much in basketball but you do a lot of thinking," Wright said. "It instills determination. How bad do you really want it? Growing up, starting on every team you ever play for, coming into Division I basketball you kind of get put in your place and you learn you need to earn everything."