Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Noted for his physical basketball play, Troutman is intrigued with taking a shot at the NFL as well as the NBA. Click photo for larger image. Up close Name: Chevon Troutman Age: 23 Home: Williamsport, Pa. Year: Senior Height/weight: 6-7, 240 Upcoming: Needs 48 points to become the 32nd player to reach 1,000 points in school history.

With his 86-inch wingspan and sculpted tree-trunk arms, Chevon Troutman's tattoos are hard to miss. They are not decoration, nor were they done on a whim. Troutman designed his bodywork, and they hold special meaning.

The first one, needled onto his left arm, is a cross with the words "Only the strong survive." The second, on his other arm, reads: "God knows my destiny."

A 6-foot-7 senior forward on the Pitt basketball team, Troutman has looked to those words for inspiration over his five years at Pitt. There were times, especially early on, when he had his doubts about making it here.

"I was kind of lost," Troutman explained. "I didn't know anyone. I didn't have a cell phone. I didn't have money to buy a calling card to call home. It was just hard relating to a new lifestyle.

"When I first got here, I wanted to go home bad. I knew that I needed something to help me through this. I was stressing with school at the time. I was frustrated. I knew I was going to have to sit behind some people and not play.

"So I got the cross and the words when I was a freshman. Every time I got down, I looked at it. It inspired me to get through that day. If I was having a bad day, I'd look at it and go back to work."

Only the strong survive

Going home to Williamsport, Pa., never was an option. Life there was troublesome. His mother and father spent time in jail when he was growing up. Gayann Troutman spent 13 years in prison before she was released a few years ago. His father, Steve, was locked up when Chevon was younger.

His father knew trouble awaited Chevy in Williamsport and encouraged him to stay in Pittsburgh as much as possible. To this day, Troutman rarely goes back. When Pitt played at Penn State over the weekend, it was one of his few trips back to the central part of the state.

"I really didn't have terrible circumstances growing up," he said. "It was just all the stuff that was around me. There were a lot of drugs and not a lot of money. But we had a house and stuff. We didn't do a lot of normal family things.

"I had to sit at home and wait until my sister or my dad got home before I could go to practice. If they didn't come home, I didn't go to practice. I had a lot of responsibility. When I was younger, I basically raised one of my brothers and one of my sisters."

Basketball was his way out of Williamsport. Some big-time schools wanted Troutman, including perennial power Cincinnati, but Troutman was destined to become a Panthers player.

It was on his way back from a recruiting trip at Cincinnati that Troutman discovered Pittsburgh almost by accident. Troutman, a cousin and aunt were driving back from an unofficial visit with Bearcats coach Bob Huggins. They drove through Pittsburgh on the way back to Williamsport.

"We came through the tunnels," Troutman remembered. "When we got to the other side, it was all lit up. I was like, 'Damn, that's hot.' It was pretty sweet."

Today, Troutman is part of the Pittsburgh sporting landscape and will go down as one of the best basketball players in Pitt's recent history.

Troutman, who earned an undergraduate degree in communication rhetoric in the spring, will leave the program as one of Pitt's most accomplished forwards.

He needs 48 points to become the 32nd player in Pitt's history to score 1,000. He can finish his career as the all-time leader in field-goal percentage. He is shooting 65.5 percent from the field, far ahead of Ontario Lett (58.9 percent).

This season, Troutman, who was not voted to any of the Big East Conference's three preseason teams, leads Pitt in scoring (16.0 ppg), rebounding (8.4 rpg) and blocks (15). He is second in steals with 12, one behind guard Carl Krauser. What can't be readily shown by statistics is his defensive ability.

Troutman made a name for himself last season by shutting down Connecticut's Emeka Okafor, the second player selected in the 2004 NBA draft, and Syracuse's Hakim Warrick, a national player of the year candidate this season.

"He's as valuable as anyone we've had here over the last five years," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "His contributions here go well beyond what the numbers say. He has had a tremendous impact on this university."

Williamsport athletic director Sean McCann has known Troutman since he was a teenager. He said Troutman is a source of inspiration for Williamsport students today.

"He's done a tremendous job to overcome some of the obstacles he had," McCann said. "He's a role model for everyone here. A week won't go by without me or one of our coaches mentioning Chevy and what he has accomplished at Pitt."

Troutman would like to play professional basketball, but he might have a better shot at moving into the NFL than the NBA. Last year, a representative of the Atlanta Falcons handed Troutman a card and told him that if basketball didn't work out to give him a call.

The thought of playing professional football intrigues him. He played against San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates in the NCAA tournament when Gates played for the Kent State team that eliminated the Panthers in overtime from the NCAA tournament in 2002. Gates, who didn't play football in college, is one of the top receiving tight ends in the NFL.

Other basketball players have made the transition to the NFL.

Sam Clancy, who played forward at Pitt from 1977-81 and is the Panthers' all-time leading rebounder, went from basketball star to NFL player with the Cleveland Browns in the 1980s.

"It's something I always thought about doing, but I just never took the initiative to do it," Troutman said. "It's not an option that is far-fetched. I'm 250 [pounds] right now."

Troutman played one season of high school football. He played his junior year at Williamsport and was the talk of the central part of the state.

"He had a phenomenal year the year he came out," McCann said. "You could see with his body and size if he would have stuck with it that he could have been very good at football. I remember George Curry from Berwick saying he had NFL potential. He could tell just by watching him run and the way he moved."

Troutman decided not play football his senior year.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do," Troutman said. "I was tired of getting dirty. I really didn't even care."

Former Pitt football coach Walt Harris tried on numerous occasions to persuade Troutman into coming out for the Panthers' football team. But Troutman was never so moved.

Basketball always has been his No. 1 priority and will continue to be for the next four months. After that, Troutman doesn't know what the future holds. But he knows where to look for inspiration.

Only God knows my destiny

"I know whatever it is, it's going to be all right," Troutman said.

"He has a plan for me. I'm ready for it. I'm just going to take it a day at a time. He has a plan and I'll follow it."