There are any number of compliments to pay Marcedes Walker. My favorite? Walker is to Pitt women's basketball what Pete Gonzalez was to Pitt football and Brandin Knight was to Pitt basketball, rare athletes who resurrected their programs from the dead. Pitt women's coach Agnus Berenato has a different top choice. "My youngest daughter, Chrissie, is getting confirmed next month. Do you know what she picked for her confirmation name?" Berenato asked. Gee, let me guess. Marcedes? "You got it," Berenato said. "What a role model that young lady is for the girls of our area. Everybody wants to be like the big girl."

As compliments go, it's hard to imagine two any better.

When Berenato was recruiting Walker out of a tough West Philadelphia neighborhood in 2003-04, Pitt was a joke in women's basketball. It was Berenato's first season, and the Panthers would go 6-20. They couldn't draw flies to the Petersen Events Center.

Not many star players were eager to sign on.

Walker was the exception.

It wasn't as if she didn't have options. Perennial power Rutgers wanted her.

"I promised her the sun and the moon," Berenato said, "and she truly believed she could reach up and grab them."

Tonight, Pitt will play Stanford in Spokane, Wash., in the Round of 16 of the NCAA women's tournament.

It is the deepest Pitt has gone in the tournament.

That's some reach Walker has.

"From the beginning, she was like, 'Hey, give me the ball. I'm going to make a difference,' " Berenato said.

Like Gonzalez did with the Pitt football program after buying what Walt Harris was selling.

Like Knight did for the basketball program after becoming a Ben Howland disciple.

"Absolutely, positively, unequivocally yes," Berenato said.

"There's not much room for misinterpretation there, is there?

"Marcedes has done a phenomenal job of being the foundation of this program. She always wanted to be the big girl on campus. She thrives on that. She relishes it."

That alone makes it a terrific story. But there's so much more to Walker. Yes, she dates Levance Fields, the star point guard on the Pitt men's team. But that's not what I'm talking about.

It's hard for most of us to fully appreciate the brutal Philly neighborhood from which Walker came. "A different world," Berenato called it.

Twice during Walker's time at Pitt, Berenato had to accompany her back to Philadelphia to help her deal with a family tragedy. A brother, Shannon, was shot and killed during her freshman year. Another brother, Shawn, was shot and paralyzed last season.

"It was tough," Walker said of those times, fully realizing that she, too, could have been a victim of the mind-numbing violence.

"Marcedes had a temper and got into some trouble growing up," Berenato said. "But she was smart enough to realize she had to get out of that environment."

Smart enough to get the rest of her family out, as well.

Walker's mother Marcella, sister Markel and brother Marquise moved to Pittsburgh last summer to be with her. Markel, a junior at Schenley High School, already has accepted a scholarship to play at Pitt, turning down an offer from another of the women's powers, Maryland.

That's a tribute to Berenato and the work she has done with Marcedes Walker -- on and off the court.

"The other night after we beat Baylor, we're on the bus going to a restaurant, and everyone is pretty excited," Berenato said. "Suddenly, we hear Marcedes yelling from the back, 'Coach B, Coach B, I just talked to my grandma, and she said to tell you congratulations and to thank you for bringing me to Pitt.' I just smiled. 'Thanks for coming, Marcedes,' I said."

It's worked out wonderfully for everyone involved.

The Walker-Berenato relationship might continue next season. Walker, whom Berenato says will be drafted by a pro team in the WNBA, hopes to be a graduate assistant coach on the Pitt staff.

"I'd like to find a place for her," Berenato said.

That would add to their shared memories.

Berenato said her season highlight wasn't the win against Baylor, the biggest women's win in Pitt history. It was Senior Night at the Petersen Events Center March 3 when Walker's mother and maternal grandmother Florence Martin, who raised her and still lives in Philadelphia, walked Walker to center court to be honored.

"They hire us and judge us as coaches on how many games we win and lose," Berenato said. "But that moment, to me, is why I became a coach and an educator."

An even more special moment is coming next month. Berenato said Walker will graduate with a degree in administration of justice, the degree that Berenato promised to her grandmother, along with the sun and the moon. Walker will become the first college graduate in her family.

Said the forceful Berenato, in a rare quiet moment for her, "Marcedes didn't come to Pitt as a role model, but she sure is leaving as one."