Pittsburgh [17-4 (6-3), RPI: 29, SOS: 77] Few coaches more ably game the RPI formula than Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, whose team seems to almost entirely avoid quality nonconference opponents. Instead, the Panthers tweak their schedule just so, and play almost entirely winnable games that won't hurt their eventual RPI number too much, and it works. To wit: Purdue is the only good nonconference team on this ledger and that game was mandated by the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Pitt's next-best noncon fixtures? Davidson, Duquesne and Kent State. True story. Yet the Panthers have a top-30 RPI and a borderline top-150 noncon strength of schedule. It's impressive stuff. We also have no idea how good Pitt really is (though we suspect it remains slightly underrated). Saturday brings Virginia to town, followed by trips to Miami and North Carolina. Let's figure these dudes out, shall we?
Pitt capsule on ESPN Bubble Watch
- Thread starter JD1976
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Maybe the author is right. He could have mentioned Dixon scheduled Gozaga. He chose not to.
No mention that Pitt has beaten Syracuse and Notre Dame.
I think if Pitt can upset Virginia then the national media will take notice and send some plaudits their way
No mention that Pitt has beaten Syracuse and Notre Dame.
I think if Pitt can upset Virginia then the national media will take notice and send some plaudits their way
Like it or not, Dixon paves his way to the tournament solely on conference performance. As the author says, the OOC is always good enough to not be an impediment, but rarely if ever something that puts us over the top. Like last year, if Pitt misses the dance, it will be because they choked in ACC games, not because of who they did or did not play in November.
If Pitt can't scrounge together 4+ more wins this year to seal the deal, they don't really deserve to make it anyway.
Not could have, should have...if you are going to bemoan scheduling you cannot ignore who was actually scheduled....
Clemson was not a bad loss. I can live with that. NC ST at home is bad, ND and FSU on the road are good. I have us as +1.
I agree. Clemson has beaten plenty of good teams. You only get 18 chances, though, so you have to beat someone.
In fairness to the author, it isn't truly apparent or asterisked in RPI engines that Pitt had Gonzaga scheduled and it was canceled. You'd hope the media would have it scribbled in a notebook somewhere, but they probably use the same tools you or I would to evaluate a non-conf schedule.
Author neglects that we scheduled preseason 9th-ranked Gonzaga and were leading them at halftime.
It's not Dixon's fault that the game was cancelled.
I argue the conference schedule makes or breaks Pitt's NCAA seed and selection almost regardless of their OOC. Even if they schedule like 4 top 50 OOC games and split them-- they'd almost assuredly still have to go 10-8 in conference to feel good about their NCAA resume and seed. Perhaps a great OOC allows you to go 9-9 in conference and still get in. If that's the value of a great OOC schedule vs Pitt's OOC (the entertainment value not withstanding), then why schedule a tough OOC?
Yes they would. The writers have been hard on Jamie (or have a hard on) for his scheduling. It is why we are 37th in the writers poll and on the fringe in the coaches poll.
The writers don't seed you in the tournament, so I really don't care what they think.
The writers are in a bad mood since they couldn't vote for Duke this week.
They did actually schedule Gonzaga on their own however. I guess Jamie decided to break the air conditioner at the gym to prevent Pitt from losing. Surprised this writer didn't mention that.
Actually, the guy's post is dead on, although he could've mentioned that Gonzaga was on the schedule and that last year Pitt played in Maui. Jamie is quite adept at playing the RPI game in scheduling and most Pitt fans don't really know how good (or bad) the team is just yet. I suspect Pitt is pretty much what we've seen since ACC play started, a team that will have some nice wins and several nasty losses. Still hoping for 11-7, but it's probably a tall order.
Pitt could play 100 games and our fans would still claim, "we don't know anything about this team yet." They've played 9 conference games, for crying out loud. We know exactly what they are, a bubble team +/- 2 wins.
Not knowing anything about your team after 9 conference games is probably the best definition of a bubble team anyone could give.
Agreed. And I'm willing to wager that if Pitt's performance over the rest of the season will have nothing to do with the strength or weakness of the OOC schedule. And if they stink over the next nine games, they could have beaten golden state or the spurs in the OOC schedule and it wouldn't matter anyways..
That's not true at all. It means you know you are a bubble team. Being a bubble team means you don't know what tourney you may eventually be in, but it doesn't mean you don't know the team. Going to the tourney or not could be determined by one really good win or one really bad loss. But not knowing what games you will win or lose has nothing to do with knowing what your team is. We are a team with decent offense, good foul shooting, below normal rebounding, streaky 3 point shooting and generally poor defense. That is who we are.
We are a team with the aforementioned strengths and weaknesses that possibly could be on the bubble depending on the outcomes of games. Knowing the team and knowing the outcome of the season are different things. Fin.
um good insight I guess??...... but considering a large amount of teams are in this situation this season, and the NCAA tourney is a fabric of the American culture, wouldn't that be an indictment of our entire American society?
I'll put it to you this way KIWI, you can analyze whatever you want, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!!!
#HAILtoPITT
I'll put it to you this way KIWI, you can analyze whatever you want, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!!!
#HAILtoPITT
I think we will know how good (or bad) the team is after the next three games.
IMO the UVA game is almost a 'must win' game.... given the next two games, @Miami and @UNC.
As I see it the game @Miami is winnable but very difficult... and it might be one of those 'we are overmatched' games.
@UNC.... more of the same except worse.
Get the W against UVA.... which is not gonna be easy... and then see if we can steal one of the next two.
That would get us close to being one of the top teams in the ACC.... which is where we were in the OBE but haven't seen that yet in the ACC.
IMO the UVA game is almost a 'must win' game.... given the next two games, @Miami and @UNC.
As I see it the game @Miami is winnable but very difficult... and it might be one of those 'we are overmatched' games.
@UNC.... more of the same except worse.
Get the W against UVA.... which is not gonna be easy... and then see if we can steal one of the next two.
That would get us close to being one of the top teams in the ACC.... which is where we were in the OBE but haven't seen that yet in the ACC.
Pitt was 5th and lost in the semis just two years ago. That team was a lot better than this year. Finishing 5th this year would be pretty impressive considering all of our defensive faults.
This team could be better. Artis and Young are far better players today than they were 2 years ago.
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