Bubble Watch now doing live updates. Pitt now Should Be In.
Pittsburgh (22-10, 14-6; NET: 57, SOS: 91): The Panthers are probably OK now. Wednesday’s 2:30 p.m. second-round tip against No. 13 seed Georgia Tech probably wasn’t as straightforward as anyone in white would have liked; Georgia Tech scored 81 points in 68 possessions and defied what felt like a dozen Pitt attempts to put it finally away. But the ACC’s second-best per-possession offense still had plenty to get by. (Jamarius Burton, in particular, was spectacular, shooting 10-of-15 from the field with eight assists and converting basically every big isolation bucket Pitt’s coaching staff asked of him.) If you can look past the metrics and a couple of bad league losses, this feels like a solid-enough bubble resume relative to the competition, particularly as it includes a quality true road nonconference win over Northwestern as one of its Quadrant 1 features. Having avoided what would have been a disastrous defeat — and Pitt’s third loss in a row, beginning with March 1’s loss at NET No. 184 Notre Dame — and with their next game against Duke, we think Pitt is likely to get in, though with the Panthers still in spitting distance of the bubble in most projections, it wouldn’t hurt to beat the Blue Devils just to be safe.
Pittsburgh (22-10, 14-6; NET: 57, SOS: 91): The Panthers are probably OK now. Wednesday’s 2:30 p.m. second-round tip against No. 13 seed Georgia Tech probably wasn’t as straightforward as anyone in white would have liked; Georgia Tech scored 81 points in 68 possessions and defied what felt like a dozen Pitt attempts to put it finally away. But the ACC’s second-best per-possession offense still had plenty to get by. (Jamarius Burton, in particular, was spectacular, shooting 10-of-15 from the field with eight assists and converting basically every big isolation bucket Pitt’s coaching staff asked of him.) If you can look past the metrics and a couple of bad league losses, this feels like a solid-enough bubble resume relative to the competition, particularly as it includes a quality true road nonconference win over Northwestern as one of its Quadrant 1 features. Having avoided what would have been a disastrous defeat — and Pitt’s third loss in a row, beginning with March 1’s loss at NET No. 184 Notre Dame — and with their next game against Duke, we think Pitt is likely to get in, though with the Panthers still in spitting distance of the bubble in most projections, it wouldn’t hurt to beat the Blue Devils just to be safe.
