Dexter Pittman/AP

By Elizabeth McGarr

Ever notice a quick big man coming off the Texas bench?  Junior center Dexter Pittman committed to Texas at more than 370 pounds and way too slow for Division I ball.  Now down to less than 300 pounds, he's becoming a big factor for the Longhorns.

So how did Pittman slim down?  He told us about his Biggest Loser-like adventure that got him to the front of the Longhorns' bench:

1.  Summer boot camps

When he was in high school in Rosenberg, Texas, Pittman didn't see his weight as a problem. "Shaq was so huge and massive," he says. "I was like, Ok. I'm going to be like Shaq. I thought I was always going to keep the weight." But when he committed to play for the Longhorns, Texas coach Rick Barnes spoke to Pittman about losing the weight. His mom, Selma Harris, took Pittman to the YMCA after basketball practice during his senior year and would sometimes even do the treadmill or the bike with him.  The summer before his freshman year, he lost the first 45 pounds, motivating him to keep at it sophomore year too. "I was in the gym all the time," laughs Pittman. "I was the first one here and the last one to finish. Those were the dues I had to pay to get where I wanted to be."

Those dues included 5:30 a.m. workouts for around two hours, more training in the afternoon for around 1.5 hours and then time on the court with his teammates five days a week.  At first, the morning workouts included 30-second sprints on the stationary bike, lunges and squats without weights, and throwing the medicine ball. Once Pittman started dropping the weight, Wright began running him on the treadmill, working him on a stair-stepper and increasing the speed of his lunges and movements with the medicine ball. He also worked with Pittman on his jumping and pivoting, trying to mirror the moves his pupil would need on the basketball court. Concerned that Pittman might injure himself because of the new demands on his body, Wright used a heart-rate monitor (as he frequently does with players) to determine when Pittman should slow down and begin stretching.

2.  Keeping the weight off

Once basketball season began each year, Pittman put in some workout time before and after games.  His freshman year, before Texas played St. John's at Madison Square Garden, Pittman asked Wright to help him find a stationary bike. "He actually pedaled for an hour and 15 minutes before the game even started," recalls Wright. "He was soaked to the bone before we even went out on the floor." Pittman only averaged 5.3 minutes per game that first year and 6.8 the next, so the pre and post-game workouts were key. "When we traveled his freshman year, after shoot-arounds, we would go back in [to the locker room] and do half an hour on the treadmill."

3.  From the gym to the court

When he first got to Texas, Pittman didn't have the stamina to make it through parts of practice, let alone contribute long stretches of minutes in games. "During his freshman year, making it through practice was a chore," recalls Texas assistant coach Rodney Terry. By the end of last year, Pittman was contributing closer to 10 minutes and received praise for his physical play against Stanford center Brook Lopez in the Sweet 16.  This season he's averaging 13.4 minutes, and he lasted a career-high 23 minutes in Wednesday's loss to Missouri.

There's some good-natured teasing among the Longhorns, including from Kevin Durant, who returned to campus this past summer to train with his former teammates. "Whenever I talk to Kevin," says Pittman, "he'll be like, 'What up Fat Boy?' I'll say, 'What up, Skinny Man?' I know it's all support. They're proud of me."