Pitt's loss at North Carolina on Saturday was the latest disappointment in a season with plenty of them for the Panthers. What happened in Chapel Hill? And why has this team struggled as much as it has? All that and more on today's Morning Pitt.

In this week's Morning Pitt Mailbag: Which program is closer to success - Pitt football or Pitt basketball? Plus questions on running backs, Amsal Delalic, contracts and a lot more.

SMU crushed Pitt 83-63 on Tuesday night at Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs improved to 19-5 (10-3) on the year, and continue to make a march towards making the NCAA Tournament in their first year as members of the ACC. Four SMU players finished with double figures Samet Yigitoglu and Kario Oquendo each totaling 17 points in the victory.

As for the Panthers, the loss extended their losing streak to four games. Pitt is now 14-10 overall this season with a 5-8 mark in conference play. Jeff Capel’s club is now 2-8 over its last ten games.

The game for Pitt followed a similar theme as other recent losses, with the Panthers falling behind double digits early and having a tough time trying to climb out of a hole. SMU took a 23-13 lead at the 11:59 mark of the first half, and the advantage stayed above double digits for the remainder of the game.

The Panthers were led by Guillermo Diaz Graham, who topped the team with 15 points and eight rebounds in 32 minutes, before fouling out at the end of the game. Brandin Cummings added 12 off the bench, while Ishmael Leggett also notched double figures with 10 points.

Pitt trailed by 43-27 at the break, and the Panthers largely stayed within that number for much of the second half. While Pitt showed fight, the Mustangs largely kept them at arm’s length anyway. SMU entered the game as the ACC’s top scoring and three-point shooting team, and connected on shots when needed. The Mustangs were 10-of-20 from deep for the game.

Double-digits
Over this ten-game downward spiral, Pitt has managed to find itself trailing by double digits in six of those games…in the first half. It is becoming an all too comfortable trend for this team to simply fall behind so big, so early. In some games, Pitt has the ability to find its footing, but on Tuesday SMU did just enough, and the Panthers’ own mistakes, were plenty to keep this one over 10 points for most of the game.

Out-muscled
Another trend in this recent stretch of games is Pitt constantly getting out-rebounded. It happened again, as SMU won that battle 40-35. This is now the seventh time over the past 10 games Pitt has lost in that department. It was not as pronounced as other games, and actually Pitt led 21-20 at halftime, but still managed to come out on the wrong end.

Pitt was bullied inside offensively, however. The Mustangs outscored Pitt 38-18 with points in the paint, as SMU leaned on Yigitoglu at times, with Pitt not having much answer for the 7’2” freshman.

Down goes Lowe
Lowe essentially took a pretty significant blow to the jaw it appeared. He collided with SMU’s Boopie Miller on the sideline, and looked like he was going to try to play through it, but checked out of the game at the 11:40 mark and never returned. Lowe finished with only nine points, five assists, and five turnovers as his personal on-court struggles continued.

Leggett’s struggles continue
For the most part, Ishmael Leggett has maintained his individual production this year, but for the fourth time in five games, he shot below 33%. SMU bottled up Leggett and held him to 5-of-17 from the field. The Panthers’ senior guard missed all eight of his three-point attempts as well. This follows a 3-10 game against North Carolina on Saturday. He still got to double figures, but he missed more shots than he had points…

‘New’ look lineup
Pitt returned to the starting five that featured Lowe, Leggett, Zack Austin, Guillermo Diaz Graham, and Cam Corhen. That of course was in response to Damian Dunn’s injury. The Panthers played a month without Dunn previously, so it was nothing new. No Dunn, and some early foul trouble, and then the injury to Lowe forced Capel into his bench early and often. Papa Amadou Kante, Brandin Cummings, Jorge Diaz Graham, and Amsel Delalic all got on the floor in this one. Cummings made the most of his minutes with 12 points.

The reality of the situation
The numbers and metrics suggested Tuesday’s game between SMU and Pitt was a bubble game, but we’re to the point where NCAA Tournament conversations are no longer relevant for the Panthers. This team has flushed that opportunity away at this stage. Pitt will be favored and will win a couple games down the stretch, but any path towards making the Big Dance now simply has to be winning the ACC Tournament. The bubble has burst, so to speak.

What’s next
Pitt will be back home on Saturday to host Miami for a noon tip at the Petersen Events Center. The game will be carried on ESPN2. The Hurricanes are 6-18 on the season and just 2-11 in the ACC, but did defeat Syracuse 91-84 on Tuesday.

Jeff Capel, Ishmael Leggett and Zack Austin met the media after Pitt's win over Syracuse on Tuesday night. Here's video of what they said.

Turn it on if you want to watch good college basketball.

Pitt's loss at SMU last night was more of the same - poor defense, inefficient offense, subpar rebounding - and it led to the Panthers' eighth loss in the last 10 games. What is there to say after a 20-point blowout? We have more than a few comments for today's Morning Pitt.

That's a new one for me, my favorite team being in a First 10 out list.

Regardless if Pitt loses to UNC Saturday they probably won't even be in that list anymore.

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Comcast finally added FS2 after its launch with FS1 5 years ago or so. There's still not much on it. Bundesliga soccer, UFC, Big East basketball pretty much.

- Merrimack moving up from D2 to join the NEC next year giving the league its first school from Massachusetts (which surprised me). Pre-emptive move in case RMU takes their new arena to the MAAC, CAA, Horizon, or OVC?

- Liberty and North Alabama joined the A-Sun this year, replacing USC-Upstate. The Big South kicked Liberty out with their move to D1 football.

- These I found the most interesting: Savannah State moving back to D2 next year and Indiana-Purdue-Fort Waybe (aka known as IUPUFW, IPFW, or Fort Wayne) is now Purdue-Fort Wayne as IU and Purdue have divorced. There's now and IU-Fort Wayne and a Purdue-Fort Wayne with Purdue-Fort Wayne inheriting the athletics program.

We've got a special Thursday morning edition of the LIVE Panther-Lair Show today. We'll get started at 10:30 and talk about Pitt's NCAA Tournament chances and a lot more.


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Heather extended HCJC through 29-30.