Teams we could beat in ACC play?

[Pitt2006]

Though my method is beyond flawed, it is great to feel excited about PITT basketball again! My thoughts on conference play as it would not shock me anymore to go 9-9/10-8 with our schedule.

Unlikely at all, but hopefully keep it close:
@Duke
Virginia
FSU

Tough possible upsets; also could be blown out due to talent of these teams:
UNC - extra motivation to get the ACC monkey off their back at home to open conference play?
Louisville (x2): We have to break through eventually against these guys?

Toss-Up/Losses:
VT: Only 4 players scored last night?
@NC State
Clemson (x2): Not as good as pre-season ranking; hopefully we split
@GT

Toss-Up/Winnable:
Syracuse (x2): Lost to Uconn and Oregon who both got beat worse than us by Iowa
ND - If Duquesne and Illinois can hang with them, we can as well
BC (x2): Lost to IUPI
@Miami: Lost to Seton Hall who lost to St. Louis who we beat
@Wake

 

[CaptainMurphy]

I look at the list and conservatively see 6 or 7 wins, which I'd gladly take.

 

[pittzap]

Though my method is beyond flawed, it is great to feel excited about PITT basketball again! My thoughts on conference play as it would not shock me anymore to go 9-9/10-8 with our schedule.

Unlikely at all, but hopefully keep it close:
@Duke
Virginia
FSU

Tough possible upsets; also could be blown out due to talent of these teams:
UNC - extra motivation to get the ACC monkey off their back at home to open conference play?
Louisville (x2): We have to break through eventually against these guys?

Toss-Up/Losses:
VT: Only 4 players scored last night?
@NC State
Clemson (x2): Not as good as pre-season ranking; hopefully we split
@GT

Toss-Up/Winnable:
Syracuse (x2): Lost to Uconn and Oregon who both got beat worse than us by Iowa
ND - If Duquesne and Illinois can hang with them, we can as well
BC (x2): Lost to IUPI
@Miami: Lost to Seton Hall who lost to St. Louis who we beat
@Wake

I think we can beat Ga Tech, Va Tech, BC, Wake, NC State, and ND. I need to see more from Cuse, Clemson, and Miami before I feel like we can beat them.

 

[Pitt2006]

I think we can beat Ga Tech, Va Tech, BC, Wake, NC State, and ND. I need to see more from Cuse, Clemson, and Miami before I feel like we can beat them.

Agreed. I am just excited to think those thoughts with the expectations and unknowns we had going into the season.

 

[IamHeisenberg]

ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DT_PITT]

Though my method is beyond flawed, it is great to feel excited about PITT basketball again! My thoughts on conference play as it would not shock me anymore to go 9-9/10-8 with our schedule.

Unlikely at all, but hopefully keep it close:
@Duke
Virginia
FSU

Tough possible upsets; also could be blown out due to talent of these teams:
UNC - extra motivation to get the ACC monkey off their back at home to open conference play?
Louisville (x2): We have to break through eventually against these guys?

Toss-Up/Losses:
VT: Only 4 players scored last night?
@NC State
Clemson (x2): Not as good as pre-season ranking; hopefully we split
@GT

Toss-Up/Winnable:
Syracuse (x2): Lost to Uconn and Oregon who both got beat worse than us by Iowa
ND - If Duquesne and Illinois can hang with them, we can as well
BC (x2): Lost to IUPI
@Miami: Lost to Seton Hall who lost to St. Louis who we beat
@Wake

Good topic. It just so hard for me to know now, but I can at least say that where I was previously thinking we'd win 2-3 ACC games max, I can easily see us winning twice that.

 

[plcp]

Hopefully we play the elites in the first half because i can see this team learning and being pretty good in the 2nd half of conference play. Boy, i wish we had just one good big.

Isnt akok enrolling soon somewhere?

 

[ScrantonicityIII]

Hopefully we play the elites in the first half because i can see this team learning and being pretty good in the 2nd half of conference play. Boy, i wish we had just one good big.

Isnt akok enrolling soon somewhere?

I think our bigs generally played pretty well last night, all things considered.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Though my method is beyond flawed, it is great to feel excited about PITT basketball again! My thoughts on conference play as it would not shock me anymore to go 9-9/10-8 with our schedule.

Unlikely at all, but hopefully keep it close:
@Duke
Virginia
FSU

Tough possible upsets; also could be blown out due to talent of these teams:
UNC - extra motivation to get the ACC monkey off their back at home to open conference play?
Louisville (x2): We have to break through eventually against these guys?

Toss-Up/Losses:
VT: Only 4 players scored last night?
@NC State
Clemson (x2): Not as good as pre-season ranking; hopefully we split
@GT

Toss-Up/Winnable:
Syracuse (x2): Lost to Uconn and Oregon who both got beat worse than us by Iowa
ND - If Duquesne and Illinois can hang with them, we can as well
BC (x2): Lost to IUPI
@Miami: Lost to Seton Hall who lost to St. Louis who we beat
@Wake

Prior to any changes based on last night's games Sagarin's computer's "recent" rating had us over the following:

Louisville by +4
Syracuse by +1
@Wake Forest by +1.5
NC State by +1.5
Clemson by +3
N. Dame by +0.5

Also close losses as follows:

Fla St lose by 2
@Louisville lose by 3
@Clemson lose by 3
@GA Tech lose by 2

That looks a lot like about 6 wins--lose 2 of the 6 slightly + games and win 2 of the slightly - games would give 6 wins.

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

We can beat just about any of the teams at home with the exception of Duke and probably UNC. Louisville looks much better than I expected also.

However, we can beat NC St, Clemson, ND, FSU, VT and SU at home. We probably won't get all of them, but I think we can get 4 or 5.

As far as away games, we can beat WF, BC and GT and have a shot at a few more. I say we can get 3-4 here.

Overall, 7-9 possible for me.

 

[Pittx9]

Teams like duke, UNC, and Louisville are gonna be way too much for Pitt this season. The middle of the pack to even upper middle class of teams I think pitt can compete against almost all of them.

Pitt’s guard play will win them some games against quality opponents and their lack of bigs will probably cost them a few. I think we’ll be an NIT team though, possibly on the NCAA bubble if we avoid any losing streaks.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I think it will take 19 wins (11-2 OOC & 8-10 ACC) to be on the "bubble," IMO. I don't see it. I believe the ceiling is 17-15 (11-2 OOC & 6-12 ACC) with an outside shot at 18-14 (7 ACC wins).

 

[Chescat]

I think our bigs generally played pretty well last night, all things considered.

What Capel and his coaches are accomplishing with our BIGS is amazing IMO.
Seeing what we all saw last year, I would never have expected this kind of
progress.
Brown.....He is at least playing with more energy, and the improvement while not
earth shattering is at least on an upward curve. Capel has also made
it clear to him....don't hustle, and you'll sit. We've seen that a few times
already this season.

Chuka..... His improvement IS "earth shattering" IMO. What we saw last year was
a guy who hung around on the outside and threw up threes (most of
em were misses). He's a natural forward IMO, yet here he is this year
hustling, fighting inside, hitting the boards, and only an occasional
three (which he now hits once in a while). We play a 4-1 alignment.
and he's holding up his own as the 1, and improving game to game.
You can count me as not only surprised by all of this, but also VERY IMPRESSED !

 

[wbrpanther]

I look at the list and conservatively see 6 or 7 wins, which I'd gladly take.

I can agree with that with maybe a couple more thrown in for good measure. I really believe after watching these kids for a few games that Pitt is NIT material this year and if we get a couple of bigs? Dancing next year.

 

[PittMBA]

Though my method is beyond flawed, it is great to feel excited about PITT basketball again! My thoughts on conference play as it would not shock me anymore to go 9-9/10-8 with our schedule.

Unlikely at all, but hopefully keep it close:
@Duke
Virginia
FSU

Tough possible upsets; also could be blown out due to talent of these teams:
UNC - extra motivation to get the ACC monkey off their back at home to open conference play?
Louisville (x2): We have to break through eventually against these guys?

Toss-Up/Losses:
VT: Only 4 players scored last night?
@NC State
Clemson (x2): Not as good as pre-season ranking; hopefully we split
@GT

Toss-Up/Winnable:
Syracuse (x2): Lost to Uconn and Oregon who both got beat worse than us by Iowa
ND - If Duquesne and Illinois can hang with them, we can as well
BC (x2): Lost to IUPI
@Miami: Lost to Seton Hall who lost to St. Louis who we beat
@Wake

I think the other consideration is the way the schedule is built. The back 1/2 is considerably lighter than the first 1/2. Most of our best possible wins are in the final 9 games.

Some combo of early home upsets (ie Louisville, FSU, Cuse) and a couple of road wins (ie NC State, Clemson) in the first 9 games might tell the story of conference play.

You really don’t want to see losses piling up and shades of last season creeping into the teams psyche. The first 9 are just really tough- home games against really good teams and road games with some possible wins— but it’s so hard to win on the road .

 

[Pitt2006]

Bumping this thread back up. I will gladly eat crow about my FSU loss prediction - I think I based it on their early non-conference performance including a solid win over Florida. UNC did blow us out. We took the first from Louisville and hoping they don't get revenge (they are very talented). @NC State did seem like a toss-up. I would probably move @Syracuse to a Toss-up loss given their recent surge, but we get through this stretch and hopefully in good shape.