Oregon State transfer Damarco Minor answers Pitt's help-wanted call at point guard

The Pitt men’s basketball team needed a point guard after All-ACC third-teamer Jaland Lowe’s transfer to Kentucky. Damarco Minor was happy to answer the call.

A call in April, that is, from Pitt coach Jeff Capel that quickly convinced Minor to transfer in from Oregon State.

“I’ve been in this for a long time — this is my fourth year (in Division I) — so I know when something is real and something is fake,” Minor said.

It was a call that continued to resonate Thursday with the 6-foot, 190-pound Chicago native, who arrived in Oakland this week after spending last season at Oregon State in the Beavers’ first year in the West Coast Conference.

“You know when it’s different. When I got here, it just felt good,” said Minor, who last season averaged 9.8 points, 5.1 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. “I didn’t know what my situation was going to be at Oregon State. My plans changed real fast. I went into the portal and (said), ‘I just have to wait and give it to God and see what my dream is going to be.’ ”

He got his answer, referring simply to Capel’s call as “a blessing.”

“By the first couple of sentences,” Minor said, “I knew that he was about business. You know something when it’s real. That’s why I’m here.”

He’s likely to take over as Pitt’s floor general in the absence of Lowe, the team’s leading scorer (16.8 ppg) as a sophomore.

Before departing, Lowe joined Carl Krauser (2004-05) and Vonteego Cummings (1997-98) as the only Pitt players to average at least 16.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in a season.

“They expect me to fill a big role,” Minor said. “It’s surreal in a sense. I’m just taking it day-by-day and soaking up this blessing.”

Soon, though, the days will become shorter as another college basketball season approaches, and Minor’s thoughts will turn to business.

He knows, already, that Capel and Pitt are eyeing a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.

“I know we’ve got a lot of skill and experience. We’ve got everything we need,” Minor said. “It’s just more of maintaining everyone’s ego at an early stage. I feel like if we can get everybody to understand that we’re here to win no matter what your role is, as long as we tackle that early, we can be a good basketball team and get Pitt back to its winning ways, for sure.”

Senior forward Cameron Corhen (11.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg) is the Panthers’ leading returning scorer from a team that finished 17-15 (8-12 ACC). Former Lincoln Park star Brandin Cummings (6.3 ppg), a 6-3 sophomore guard, also is back.

“I don’t feel like there’s no egos. There’s nobody coming in there feeling they’re bigger than the locker room,” Minor said.

Capel has referred to Minor as “a throwback guard who plays with toughness and aggressiveness on both ends of the floor.”

Minor seems to have no intention, either, of disappointing his new coach and teammates.

“I trust my work,” he said.

Before Oregon State, Minor played two seasons at SIU-Edwardsville, combining to average 14.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals.

After two standout seasons at Thornton Township (Ill.) High School, Minor enrolled at Milwaukee Area Tech in 2020 but did not play for the junior college. He helped South Suburban College, 22 miles south of Chicago, to a Division II junior college championship in 2021-22.

“During the journey, it was tough, for sure,” he said. “But it was getting me prepared for this moment.”

He is the fourth incoming transfer at Pitt for the 2025-26 season in an era of the NCAA transfer portal, joining the Iowa State duo of 6-10 senior center Dishon Jackson and 6-4 sophomore guard Nojus Indrusaitis, and 6-6 senior guard Barry Dunning Jr. from South Alabama.

Coincidentally, while Minor left Oregon State to join Pitt, 6-11 senior forward Jorge Diaz Graham, one-half of the Diaz Graham twins at Pitt, decided to transfer to Oregon State. His brother Guillermo, meanwhile, is headed to San Francisco.