With March quickly approaching, and the regular season coming to an end, Pitt is limping to the finish line.
After getting off to a fantastic start of 18-2, with the only losses coming to now #7 Cincinnati in Madison Square Garden and now #1 Syracuse, they looked to knock off then #17 Duke at the Peterson Events Center.
Well, whatever Duke did that night, it has had a lasting impact on Pitt; a very negative one.
In front of a national TV audience, Pitt was run out of their own building, losing 80-65. Duke pulled away after the midway part of the second half, when Pitt trailed by 1.
Pitt got out-muscled, out-rebounded, and out-willed in the latter part of the game. That has continued ever since.
They followed that up with a crushing loss to Virginia via a buzzer-beater. This was the first time since the infamous CBI championship year of 2012 for Pitt to lose twice in a row at home; in that 2011-2012 season, they lost eight games in a row at one point.
Following that loss, Pitt then went on to win two overtime “thrillers” against lackluster ACC opponents in Miami(FL) and Virginia Tech. Even these games were, for the most part, difficult to watch for most Pitt fans. They played much like they did against Duke; sub-par defensively, surprisingly awful rebounding, and a non-existing offensive attack.
As if that was bad enough, Pitt fans’ hopes and dreams of salvaging a Top 25 ranking were swiftly stomped on when then undefeated #1 Syracuse came to the Pete. After trailing for most of the game, Freshman PG Tyler Ennis buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Syracuse a 58-56 victory.
Since then, Pitt has lost two more games in a row to North Carolina and Florida State, leaving four games until the end of the season. They have a record of 2-5 since the Duke loss.
So, was Pitt just overachieving until Duke brought them back down to earth, or was it a clever use of lackluster non-conference opponents coming back to bite them?
Actually, it is neither.
Coming into the season, there was a reason experts picked Pitt to come in 8th overall in the ACC; they lost Steven Adams, J.J. Moore, and Trey Zeigler, and the freshmen coming in were a long way off from contributing.
To put the idea of them being a good team to bed, their record against top 50 opponents is a whopping 3-7, while they are 19-0 against teams ranked 51 and over.
Although they probably will still make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, expecting a deep run would be extremely optimistic and ignorant. They have lost to every “good” team and beaten most “bad” teams, their signature win coming against un-ranked Stanford back on November 26.
Pitt’s worst loss came recently at home against Florida State, further putting the myth of the Peterson Events Center’s invincibility to bed.
Yes, their non-conference schedule was not very strong, but according to ESPN.com, they are 47th in the nation in SOS (strength of schedule), and 18th in BPI (basketball power index).
