William Jeffress has always thrived playing the game of basketball. He found huge success at the high school level for McDowell High School in Erie, where he became one of the top prospects in the country.

It always came natural to him as well, and so Jeffress brought on a new challenge to himself in the past year. That was to reclassify into the class of 2020 and begin his college basketball career a year earlier than expected.

Jeffress is the youngest player in the ACC at 17 years of age. Sure, he was a top-100 caliber recruit, but it’s been a tough year on a lot of freshmen across college basketball, let alone for one that should still be in high school.

The Erie native hasn’t excelled on the court this year like he has throughout his life, but he’s starting to figure things out in real time during Pitt's stretch run. In Pitt’s 70-57 win over Wake Forest, the freshman played a season-high 37 minutes and earned his second career start. He scored a career-high 8 points and also had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.

The best game of Jeffress’ career came after a conversation he had with Jeff Capel. The Pitt coach referenced the conversation in his Monday conference call and following the game on Tuesday.

“I love talking to him because you can have deep conversations with him,” Capel said of his freshman forward. “And he said to me, and he was very honest like, ‘Coach, I don’t know how to work.’ And that’s something, it’s very rare to hear a kid take ownership like that.”

As for Jeffress, he wants to get better and play a bigger role and while it is late in the season, he’s starting to do just that. In addition to his performance against Wake Forest, he also logged 19 minutes in Pitt’s game with NC State on Sunday, and it appears like he will play a prominent role in the remainder of this season and certainly into next year.

“In my life a lot of things come easier to me in college basketball,” Jeffress admitted. “Usually my father would always set up my workouts and he'd always be there to push me and stuff like that, and when you get to college you become a little more independent. You have to find that drive and that push for yourself, and I knew I had it inside of me. I just didn't know how to act on it.”

Jeffress is finding that drive now late in the season. Listening to him talk, sometimes you can forget he is only 17. He carries himself like he is well beyond his years, and even for Capel it’s still something that still surprises him. The Pitt coach recounted an even earlier talk he had with Jeffress. He expected Jeffress to come to him to perhaps talk or complain about his role earlier in the year, but that’s not how it went down.

“He comes into my office and the very first thing he says, he comes and sits down and says, ‘Coach, before we get into anything, how are you doing? How are you holding up?’ And I was shocked,” Capel laughed a bit. “I don’t know the last time I’ve been asked that…by anybody. Hell my wife doesn’t ask me that, and so it’s just refreshing.”

Jeffress looks like he’s taking the necessary steps to become a key contributor next season and grow into the role of one of the leaders of the program as well. His teammates certainly see it.

“They play huge,” Pitt guard Nike Sibande said of the Pitt freshmen. “William, he’s stepping up and he’s going to be a real huge piece here.”

Jeffress and the Panthers still have one more regular season game on Saturday with Clemson before the ACC Tournament next week. The program has had a rough patch in the past week seeing two starters transfer suddenly, but in the aftermath, the 17-year old freshmen stood tall at the podium on Tuesday and looked to take as much ownership of the future as he can.

“One thing I know about Pittsburgh basketball is we’ll never give up and we’ll never lose our fight,’ he said.

There is a long way to go in the career of William Jeffress, and most of the story has yet to be written. For Capel, he’s looking forward to the ride.

“I’m excited about who he is going to become as a player and I’m excited to be on the journey with him,” he said.