I am still reeling from the abrupt end to this Pitt season.
Truth is it was a great season, started awesome with the triple double, had a couple of rough patches and finished strong with a couple of memorable victories...
Obviously we all know about our OOC SOS and the 5 bid stealers (technically for Pitt it was 6 since Ind St was ranked ahead of us and Drake probably wouldn't have been). If there was 0 (like last year) or 2 (like it was projected ahead of tournament week) Pitt would have been in.
That being said what is sticking with me right now is that at the end of the day we finished 1 win short of getting in.
I am 100% sure that if we turn any of our L into a W we are in the field:
-The L against Mizzou is by far our worse loss. We would still have the Q3 L at home against Syracuse, but Syracuse being close to the cutoff it would not have been regarded in the same way, especially being the only outlier. That resume would have been clean and with only 1L (in Q1) in Non Con, everyone would have add Pitt in.
-Some of the same applies if the W was against Florida instead. Sure the Mizzou loss would still be bad but an additional Non Con Q1 win would make a huge impact. Also would have meant we played Baylor instead of Oregon St, which would have improved our OOC SOS. I also think the fact Virginia beat Florida was a huge in the committee picking UVA over Pitt. If we both beat Florida, our H2H win would have mattered more.
-Any added win in ACC play would have been huge as well, because you either remove a Q3 loss (SYR @ home) or you add a win away from home (would have made Pitt one of the best in the country) or you add a win against a top tournament team (Duke, UNC, Clemson). On top of that we would have been tied for 3rd in the ACC, I think that was a huge reason why UVA was picked over us as well, in a scenario where we are tied the H2H would have counted more IMO.
-Finally if we beat UNC it would have been hard to keep us out unless NC State destroyed us. But that is probably the shakiest scenario as the committee confirmed that New Mexico would not have made it. I just think (hope) the media pressure would have been too strong, especially considering people already didn't want to see UVA at that point it was an easy swap to make.
All of that to say that I am glad I watched every single game because they all mattered, and at the end of the day we can rightfully complain about the committee but admit that we did put ourselves in this situation and that we needed to be slightly more consistent. Just gotta win more...
What do you guys think did we fall 1 win short or we needed more to get in?
Truth is it was a great season, started awesome with the triple double, had a couple of rough patches and finished strong with a couple of memorable victories...
Obviously we all know about our OOC SOS and the 5 bid stealers (technically for Pitt it was 6 since Ind St was ranked ahead of us and Drake probably wouldn't have been). If there was 0 (like last year) or 2 (like it was projected ahead of tournament week) Pitt would have been in.
That being said what is sticking with me right now is that at the end of the day we finished 1 win short of getting in.
I am 100% sure that if we turn any of our L into a W we are in the field:
-The L against Mizzou is by far our worse loss. We would still have the Q3 L at home against Syracuse, but Syracuse being close to the cutoff it would not have been regarded in the same way, especially being the only outlier. That resume would have been clean and with only 1L (in Q1) in Non Con, everyone would have add Pitt in.
-Some of the same applies if the W was against Florida instead. Sure the Mizzou loss would still be bad but an additional Non Con Q1 win would make a huge impact. Also would have meant we played Baylor instead of Oregon St, which would have improved our OOC SOS. I also think the fact Virginia beat Florida was a huge in the committee picking UVA over Pitt. If we both beat Florida, our H2H win would have mattered more.
-Any added win in ACC play would have been huge as well, because you either remove a Q3 loss (SYR @ home) or you add a win away from home (would have made Pitt one of the best in the country) or you add a win against a top tournament team (Duke, UNC, Clemson). On top of that we would have been tied for 3rd in the ACC, I think that was a huge reason why UVA was picked over us as well, in a scenario where we are tied the H2H would have counted more IMO.
-Finally if we beat UNC it would have been hard to keep us out unless NC State destroyed us. But that is probably the shakiest scenario as the committee confirmed that New Mexico would not have made it. I just think (hope) the media pressure would have been too strong, especially considering people already didn't want to see UVA at that point it was an easy swap to make.
All of that to say that I am glad I watched every single game because they all mattered, and at the end of the day we can rightfully complain about the committee but admit that we did put ourselves in this situation and that we needed to be slightly more consistent. Just gotta win more...
What do you guys think did we fall 1 win short or we needed more to get in?
