The leap from McCaskey to the highest level of high school basketball was a big, tough one for Lamar Patterson.

The leap to the highest level of college basketball figures to be even higher and tougher.

Paterson, from Lancaster, is finding his way as a freshman small forward at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Everything's good; I feel like I'm at home," Patterson said by telephone from Pittsburgh last week.

"It's a whole different speed of basketball from high school, though."

And that's big-time high school. Patterson, who helped McCaskey to three straight Lancaster-Lebanon League titles as a freshman, sophomore and junior, had already verbally committed to Pitt by December 2007, his junior year.

By the summer of 2008, though, he had the feeling he wasn't ready for the Big East Conference. A scrimmage with the team at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J., confirmed that feeling.

Patterson was so winded part-way through the scrimmage he had to quit. For the day. Not for the long haul.

He enrolled at St. Benedict's, a high-powered program run by former Seton Hall point guard Danny Hurley. Patterson averaged 10 points and 8.5 rebounds last year for the Gray Bees, who went 24-3 and finished with a No. 4 final national ranking.

(Patterson and Austin Alecxih, who transferred from Penn Manor High to Oak Hill Academy, did go head-to-head last year when St. Benedict's played Oak Hill. Patterson scored 12 points, but Oak Hill won the game, 74-66.).

Pitt has been built into one of the country's top programs by coach Ben Howland and then by Jamie Dixon, the current coach, who moved up from assistant when Howland went to UCLA.

The Panthers have gone 220-56 over the last eight seasons, including 31-5, and a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament, last year.

It's going to be hard to match those numbers this season. Last year's team sent two players (DeJuan Blair and Sam Young) to the NBA.

Four of the five starters are gone and the fifth, senior guard Jermaine Dixon, is still recovering from a broken foot.

"The last group [of seniors] was our most productive class," Dixon said last week. "This incoming class, if you combine them all, has the best potential of any we've had."

Patterson is up to about 6-6 now. He'll be a small forward, a position where Dixon said, "We have a need, so one freshman is going to play big minutes."

It hasn't been Patterson to this point. He played eight minutes, shot 0-for-3 from the field and had three rebounds in a 75-64 defeat of Slippery Rock in an exhibition.

In Monday's 83-40 blowout of Coker in another exhibition, Patterson played 14 minutes and had five points and five rebounds.

In Friday's regular-season opener, a 63-60 win over Wofford, Patterson played seven minutes, didn't attempt a shot, but had one assist.

"I think his conditioning has gotten better," Dixon said. "He has to get a little lighter, but he was a young high school kid — young for his high school class.

Indeed, Patterson just turned 18 in August.

"It's always an adjustment from high school to our level and our program, but he's tough," Dixon said.

"He's not soft. He has a great feel for the game, good versatility. He's shot the ball really well, and he's a very good passer."

Patterson surprised a lot of people, and angered some, when he left McCaskey. This, of course, is why he did what he did. The payoff is close at hand.

"I think it's a good fit," he said. "The style of play fits my game, and we all get along. The older guys are real close to the young guys.

"It was hard leaving my friends. But I knew leaving McCaskey would help me in the long run."