NCAA Basketball: Top 10 players to wear jersey No. 33 in 2023-24 season
By Joey Loose
10. Federiko Federiko (Pittsburgh)
A lanky center originally from Finland, Federiko played high school ball in Pennsylvania before finding his first collegiate home at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa. It didn’t take long for Federiko to catch other attention and he found a spot at Pittsburgh two offseasons ago. These last two years saw him start to develop his game as a frontcourt weapon for the Panthers.
The program was less successful in his second season, though Federiko still managed 4.7 points and 5.2 rebounds a game as a starter for the Panthers. He made 64% of his field goal attempts and continued his efforts as a solid rebounder and shot blocker in the ACC. Pittsburgh won 22 games and finished 4th in the league, though fell short of a return trip to the Big Dance in a season featuring a slight step back.
Federiko still managed some standout moments for the Panthers, most of which came early in the year. On opening night he had 13 points and 10 rebounds in a win over North Carolina A&T and had 10 points against Oregon State in a holiday tournament two weeks later. The numbers didn’t really standout during league play, though Federiko was a solid contributor in this frontcourt; we’ll see how he fares next year at Texas Tech.