Pitt’s run to the top of the ACC has been sparked by several factors.

The shooting; that’s a big one. The Panthers were assembled, by design, to be a strong shooting team, and that has come to pass.

The development of Federiko Federiko; that’s huge, too. Pitt was going to rely on John Hugley as the centerpiece of the team, but in Hugley’s absence, Federiko has emerged as one of the best defensive centers in the ACC.

The leadership of Jamarius Burton; that one can’t be overlooked. Burton has turned from a quietly frustrated role-player on an 11-win team into a stoic leader on the top team in the conference.

And yet, somehow lost among the individual and team success Pitt has had this season, there’s Nelly Cummings, the Panthers’ transfer point guard from Colgate who has been as much of a catalyst for the winning as anyone else.

His leadership gets overshadowed by Burton and his shooting gets overshadowed by Blake Hinson and Greg Elliott, but his impact on the team has been undeniable.

In 15 conference games this season, Cummings is averaging 10.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists with a 2.24:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has scored the third-most baskets from the field and the third-most three-pointers since ACC play started, and when he’s on, as he was when he scored 21 in a win at North Carolina to start February, Pitt is almost unstoppable.

Cummings has scored in double figures 12 times this season, and the Panthers are 9-3 in those 12 games. He has hit 20 or more points three times and Pitt has won all three. He has recorded at least six assists in nine games, and the Panthers haven’t lost a single one.

The most recent such performance came Tuesday night when Cummings scored 11 points and handed out eight assists, tying his season high, to help Pitt blow out Boston College.

“I think we just played together,” he said after the game. “I think we’re at our best when we play together and I think the assist numbers show that we played together today. So it worked out for us.”

It worked out particularly well for Cummings, who was limited in last Saturday’s win at Florida State due to an ankle injury, according to Jeff Capel. The Pitt head coach said Monday that Cummings “certainly won’t be 100%.”

Nelly Cummings at less than 100% played 29 minutes, hit 5-of-9 from the floor and grabbed five rebounds.

Imagine if he had been closer to 100%.

“I’m all good, man,” Cummings said. “I’m a warrior, man. Nothing wrong with me. I’m good.”

“I’m not surprised by it,” Capel said after Tuesday night’s game. “He is a tough kid and he’s a fighter, and so, you know, there’s a difference between being hurt and being injured. He’s just hurt. He was hurting a little bit. He’s not injured, where he can’t play. And if Nelly’s able to play, he’s going to give it everything he has. I thought he did a really good job the past couple of days of getting a lot of treatment. I asked him in shoot-around today, he said it’s the best he’s felt in awhile, so that was good to hear. We have to keep him on that treatment plan.”

Keeping Cummings on the court is key for Pitt. Burton, Hinson, Elliott and Federiko combine with Cummings to form one of the best starting fives in the ACC, and Pitt is at its best when those five - or sixth man Nike Sibande - are on the court.

As the team’s point guard (in a role he occasionally shares with Burton), Cummings makes it go, and any perceived falloff is probably just that - perceived - because his Pitt teammates and coaches value his contributions.

“It makes my job very, very easy,” Hinson said Tuesday night. “It gets me to focus on what my job is. Great luxury to have this man right here.”

“Leadership, toughness, competitive spirit, great teammate, winner, all of those things,” Capel said when asked about Cummings’ intangibles. “And a really good player. I just think all of those things. He’s been an outstanding teammate to the rest of these guys and an example of what a good player, a winning player should look like.”