Goals readjusted

[Sean Miller Fan]

I think if you gave most Pitt fans this choice before the season:

a) First Four
b) Play out the season and maybe you do better, maybe you do worse

Most would have chosen "a." I would have. I was confident about this season because I liked the new additions but not enough to give up a guaranteed First Four spot.

This team still has not beaten a really good team. Davidson is probably more like a 7-11, 6-12 team in the ACC, who will go 12-6 in the A10 and make the NCAAT. But the margin of victory in these games against half-decent teams (Dav, Duq, EWU) is astounding. The offense is as good as I've ever seen from this program. We have 2 elite scorers, an elite shooter, and a PG playing the best ball in his life by far.

I said I thought this team reminded me a lot of last year's ND team. I think we are good enough to challenge for the ACC title and get a protected seed in the NCAAT. Right now, I think we are the 2nd best team in the ACC behind UNC.

 

[NTOP]

I think if you gave most Pitt fans this choice before the season:

a) First Four
b) Play out the season and maybe you do better, maybe you do worse

Most would have chosen "a." I would have. I was confident about this season because I liked the new additions but not enough to give up a guaranteed First Four spot.

This team still has not beaten a really good team. Davidson is probably more like a 7-11, 6-12 team in the ACC, who will go 12-6 in the A10 and make the NCAAT. But the margin of victory in these games against half-decent teams (Dav, Duq, EWU) is astounding. The offense is as good as I've ever seen from this program. We have 2 elite scorers, an elite shooter, and a PG playing the best ball in his life by far.

I said I thought this team reminded me a lot of last year's ND team. I think we are good enough to challenge for the ACC title and get a protected seed in the NCAAT. Right now, I think we are the 2nd best team in the ACC behind UNC.

Not me. I knew we'd be good.

 

[whirlybird optio]

I think if you gave most Pitt fans this choice before the season:

a) First Four
b) Play out the season and maybe you do better, maybe you do worse

Most would have chosen "a." I would have. I was confident about this season because I liked the new additions but not enough to give up a guaranteed First Four spot.

This team still has not beaten a really good team. Davidson is probably more like a 7-11, 6-12 team in the ACC, who will go 12-6 in the A10 and make the NCAAT. But the margin of victory in these games against half-decent teams (Dav, Duq, EWU) is astounding. The offense is as good as I've ever seen from this program. We have 2 elite scorers, an elite shooter, and a PG playing the best ball in his life by far.

I said I thought this team reminded me a lot of last year's ND team. I think we are good enough to challenge for the ACC title and get a protected seed in the NCAAT. Right now, I think we are the 2nd best team in the ACC behind UNC.

Given our RPI, I guess you would almost have to turn down the first four. Assuming we best the two lowlifes left on our OOC, we could probably go 9-9 in the ACC and still probably miss the first 4.

I don't know where we are in the ACC right now. Duke right now, without Jefferson, is probably like 5th best.

I still respect UVA, their wins over WVU and nova are miles better than anything we have.

Lville is similar to us, except they have truly played no one.

Miami is decent, I think ND will get better.

I'd probably have us 4th right now, behind UNC-UVA-lville, I think we have another level though, if only because I think Artis can play a Lot better. I still don't have a strong feeling for how good we are, other than we can absolutely destroy A-10 teams that like to shoot a ton of 3s.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I think if you gave most Pitt fans this choice before the season:

a) First Four
b) Play out the season and maybe you do better, maybe you do worse

Most would have chosen "a." I would have. I was confident about this season because I liked the new additions but not enough to give up a guaranteed First Four spot.

This team still has not beaten a really good team. Davidson is probably more like a 7-11, 6-12 team in the ACC, who will go 12-6 in the A10 and make the NCAAT. But the margin of victory in these games against half-decent teams (Dav, Duq, EWU) is astounding. The offense is as good as I've ever seen from this program. We have 2 elite scorers, an elite shooter, and a PG playing the best ball in his life by far.

I said I thought this team reminded me a lot of last year's ND team. I think we are good enough to challenge for the ACC title and get a protected seed in the NCAAT. Right now, I think we are the 2nd best team in the ACC behind UNC.

I am not quite as optimistic. I think we are among the top 6 teams in the ACC (all among the nation's top 25) with UNC, Duke, UVA, Louisville and Miami. I am not convinced we are #2 in that group. I feel like we are right there with Miami at #5 or #6. However, I do think we are good enough, especially at home, to have a good chance to beat any of the 4-5 above us and good enough that we could, with a little luck, win the ACC tourney like ND did last year.

 

[Jeffburgh]

I thought with the additions of Maia, ANO and Smith, and if Young and Artis made the junior year bump, they could be a top 5 ACC team.

This seems to be the way it might play out.

JD deservedly got a lot of heat for his weak recruiting since getting Young and Artis,.and last year was a disaster with preps, Wilson aside.

But, he did what he had to do at the 24th hour getting those three - who fill in the gaps between Young, Artis and JROB, and put Jones where he is best suited as a seventh guy.

Getting those three gave him a chance to have a MUCH needed season where he does some damage and gets the brand reset a bit.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I thought with the additions of Maia, ANO and Smith, and if Young and Artis made the junior year bump, they could be a top 5 ACC team.

This seems to be the way it might play out.

JD deservedly got a lot of heat for his weak recruiting since getting Young and Artis,.and last year was a disaster with preps, Wilson aside.

But, he did what he had to do at the 24th hour getting those three - who fill in the gaps between Young, Artis and JROB, and put Jones where he is best suited as a seventh guy.

Getting those three gave him a chance to have a MUCH needed season where he does some damage and gets the brand reset a bit.

Yep--100% agree!

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Given our RPI, I guess you would almost have to turn down the first four. Assuming we best the two lowlifes left on our OOC, we could probably go 9-9 in the ACC and still probably miss the first 4.

Our RPI is 6 right now. Realistically, we can probably go 8-10 in the ACC and still make it if Davidson stays good and at least 3 other wins are inside the Top 50.

I think 13-5 is a realistic goal which would get us a 3 seed most likely.

 

[mo cheeks]

The new additions made it impossible to predict this team.

We still have a lot to learn about this team.

2 weeks ago, I said Pitt would make the sweet 16 and would be the favorite in the round of 32.

I stand by that. They could possibly be the favorite in the sweet 16

 

[Monroevillefan]

The new additions made it impossible to predict this team.

We still have a lot to learn about this team.

2 weeks ago, I said Pitt would make the sweet 16 and would be the favorite in the round of 32.

I stand by that. They could possibly be the favorite in the sweet 16

The new additions made it impossible to predict this team.

We still have a lot to learn about this team.

2 weeks ago, I said Pitt would make the sweet 16 and would be the favorite in the round of 32.

I stand by that. They could possibly be the favorite in the sweet 16

I agree with you.
We can beat weaker teams this year. I think we can play with better teams but can we beat them.
Still don't know. We will definitely struggle against teams with a dominant big man.
I think we we may be better playing Young at the five for stretches and go smaller ala Golden State.

If we can get improvement from Jeter, Johnson and Jones we can get better. We have four good players with Smith.
Way better than last year.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Our upside is entirely based on how well our defensive efficiency improves from last year.

We can score.. but, you can't be hot every night, and have to be able to win ugly..and that means get stops.

If Pitt even becomes Above Average defensively, sky is the limit.

 

[PHATWOOD]

Yep. Pitt's perimeter defense against Purdue was atrocious and will be again vs. some teams in the ACC. Still not sold that Jamie can convince this team to show up and hit the boards every night. Davidson posed no problem there, they weren't big enough.

On the flip side, here's hoping that these guys are finally understanding that if they hit the boards and D up the offensive reins seem to be completely off. Jamie has shown this year that he's going to let them go to the hoop in transition. And the new rules have helped him stop calling fifteen timeouts each half.

 

[Zaratoughda]

If I had a choice I would prefer the 5 seed in the ACC Tourney as the double bye has been particularly unkind to Dixon. Has he EVER won his game when getting the double bye?

On another subject... I would not underestimate Miami. Larranaga has won the ACC before and if you give him some players... the guy knows how to coach. They were supposed to be better this year but not as good as they have been showing and that is a reflection on Larranaga.

In Pomeroy... the five teams ahead of us (we are now up to #20), all in the top 12, are UVA, Ville, UNC, Duke and Miami. I don't see any weakness there other than Duke having lost Jefferson for a month. We get Ville, UVA and Duke at home so those are going to be critical games for us... if we want to compete for the top.

The teams behind us right now are ND, FSU and Cuse. We play ND, FSU and one of the games against Cuse all on the road so those are gonna be tough games for us as well.

I wonder what it is gonna take to get us in the top 25. Blow Cuse off the court? Not sure that would do it. Yeah, just win your games and when the teams above you lose, you go up.