SLIPPERY ROCK — All is well with Nate Snodgrass these days.

That’s one of the biggest reasons the future looks bright for the Pitt-Johnstown men’s basketball program.

Snodgrass, a Butler graduate and the Mountain Cats’ sophomore point guard, leads the team in numerous categories as it battles for a PSAC playoff berth. UPJ is 12-10 overall, 5-7 in conference play.

“It’s us, California and Seton Hill fighting for the last two spots,” UPJ coach Bob Rukavina said. “One of us is going to be left out.

“Nate has been everything we’ve expected and then some. We’d be a different team without him.”

The 5-foot-11 Snodgrass leads the team in average minutes played per game at 31.8, 60 free throws made, 89 assists and 21 steals. He is averaging 8.6 points per game and is sinking 87 percent of his free throws.

“If anything, we’d like him to shoot the ball a bit more,” Rukavina said. “But that will come.”

Snodgrass admits he needs to do a better job of setting up his own shot.

“I probably pass on my shot more than I should,” he said. “But the offense is clicking and that’s the main thing.”

Snodgrass has turned the ball over only 42 times — giving himself a better than 2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio — and UPJ ranks third in the PSAC in scoring at 77 points per game.

The team only has 10 players on its active roster — including two senior starters — and will return seven of the 10 next season.

“We’ve got four other players red-shirting this year, so we should be that much stronger,” Snodgrass said. “It takes a while to get acclimated to each other.

“During the preseason, a bunch of us got on the court and played together, just to get familiar with each other, It took a couple of months before we really started to click as a unit.”

Snodgrass had six points, two assists and no turnovers in an 88-77 loss at Slippery Rock Saturday.

He had 16 points and five assists against Clarion, 13 points and eight assists against Edinboro in the two games before that. Snodgrass has had as many as 25 points and 12 assists in a game this season.

“He’s a heady player who sees the court well,” SRU coach Kevin Reynolds said.”We tried to get him to come here twice. He’s got a good feel for the game and he’s a nice kid.”

Reynolds said The Rock pursued Snodgrass when he left the Naval Academy and again when he left Northern Kentucky.

“We were always aware of Nate Snodgrass,” Reynolds said.”I used to coach with (Navy coach) Ed DeChellis at Penn State. He asked me about any potential recruits for him up this way and I told him about Nate and Shawn Anderson at New Castle.”

Snodgrass doesn’t see himself making any more changes in address.

“I made the right choice, finally,” he said. “We’re looking to play a little more up-tempo than we’ve been. There is a lot of athleticism in this league and it’s tough to run a half-court offense against that.

“When you’re running, you get more gaps and you’re playing in space a lot more. The options open up and you have to read them on the fly.”

Snodgrass is good at that. And Rukavina, author of 405 wins in 25 years at UPJ, feels good about him.

“He’s already a qualiity point guard for us and he’s only a sophomore,” the coach said. “Looking down the road, I see plenty of excitement.”