One place we rarely see the Pitt Panthers basketball team is on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
But after Tuesday’s loss to Virginia Tech, the Panthers are going to need to put a couple of quality wins on their resume the rest of the way, just to become a bubble team come March.
They can start that this Saturday against Notre Dame, but that is easier said than done with this young Pitt team.
At 13-8 on the season, this Panthers team doesn’t have a quality win on their resume to date. For Jamie Dixon’s team to make another NCAA Tournament, they are going to have to find a way to beat some good teams down the stretch.
However even that may not be enough for the Panthers, barring a lengthy run in the ACC Tournament, to go dancing in March.
The problem is that even though the ACC is widely considered one of the top, if not the top, conference in the nation, they likely won’t get more than six teams into the tournament. If they get lucky they will get seven, but no more.
Virginia, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Duke and Louisville are locks come March, but the major issue the ACC faces is that the conference is so top heavy, followed by a ton of mediocre teams.
Those five teams have lost a total of seven conference games to date, however mostly all of them have been to each other. Only Miami and North Carolina State currently holds a victory over the top five teams in the conference, both beating Duke.
Miami would likely be in the tournament right now, but that could change down the stretch, especially since the Hurricanes just got crushed by Georgia Tech.
The same could be said for the Wolfpack, who are doing more to play themselves out of consideration, dropping four of their last five since beating Duke. One of those is a terrible loss to Clemson.
Up next on the list is likely Syracuse, who has also dropped three of their last five.
That brings me back to the Panthers, who if they are to get in, likely has to do enough the rest of the way to leapfrog Miami, NC State and Syracuse. That’s not an impossible task on paper, but their overall resume to date isn’t doing them any favors.
Pitt has a non-conference strength of schedule rank of only 149 and that includes a very bad loss to Hawaii. Their overall strength of schedule ranks only No. 87 right now and they are void of quality wins.
The Panthers come in at only No. 89 in the RPI and haven’t fared very well against the teams above them. They are 0-4 overall against the RPI Top 50 and just 2-6 on the season against the RPI Top 100.
The good news is that Pitt still has games upcoming against the Irish, Louisville, North Carolina, Virginia and Miami. They almost need to go 3-2 against those teams to have a chance at getting in.
There is also a pair of games remaining against Syracuse that could help them sneak in if they can handle their business against the ACC’s best.
Judging by the eye test though, that is going to be an awfully tough task to accomplish.
The bottom line is that Pitt has to start winning some big games and doing so rather quickly.
If they don’t, they won’t have to worry about making the big dance for only the second time in Dixon’s career.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
