One of the things that I've heard this season is that in this past off-season, the ACC had discussions with ESPN to, for lack of a better term, help the national narrative towards the ACC. I've heard several coaches allude to that. Lunardi is trying to single-hanedly wish Pitt not making it into existence but beyond him, how was Bilas and the crew tonight? You know the committee was watching. They are human and subject to being influenced which is why I want to jump through the TV when I hear Lunardi giving us his Fox News/CNN/MSNBC style half-truths slanted to his liking
What was Bilas/ESPN saying about Pitt on the broadcast?
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
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Very positive. Said PITT is definitely a tourney team in his mind. Schulman agreed as well.
Funny that herr fuhrer Lunardi has two Big East teams on the last four in and two ACC teams (and a Big East team) as the last 4 out. Virginia and Pitt out??? Are you nuts???
The big 12 has embarrassed itself in the tourney the last 2 years. No way they should get 9. No way the Mountain freakin west should have more than the acc. Neither should the BE. Something is wrong here.
The big 12 has embarrassed itself in the tourney the last 2 years. No way they should get 9. No way the Mountain freakin west should have more than the acc. Neither should the BE. Something is wrong here.
Everybody on ESPN with the exception of Joey Bitch Brackets said Pitt belongs in the tournament. Bilas really seemed sold on Pitt based on how the game with UNC went last night. Jerry Palm on CBS currently has Pitt as his last team in the field over Virginia and compared the two resumes and said it’s not even close. Really need Colorado to beat Oregon and UNC to beat NC State tonight and for FAU not to lose their game to Temple so there is not a two bid team from the American. Three things you wanna keep an eye on Saturday that mostly impact Pitt those are it.
You know Lunardi & Bilas work for the same network.
Bilas and Schulman are professionals. They didn't spend much time at all talking about hypotheticals or brackets, seeding etc. They mostly just called the action in front of them. It was a highly entertaining night. When he did mention it, he said he thought Pitt was definitely a NCAA Tournament team in his mind, but then threw in some subtle qualifier that indicated he wasn't sure things were going to go Pitt's way on Sunday.
They didn't call the game from a Pitt may need a win for a NCAA bid or UNC needs a win for a #1 seed angle. Maybe a passing mention, but for the most part, it was all focused on UNC-PITT-NCSU-UVA all playing for an ACC Championship.
FWIW, Shulman asked Bilas if UVA was still in the tournament after the NCSU loss and Bilas said, "Yes. Without question."
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Didn't a B12 team win it all two years ago? So embarrassing to win it all. Other than Miami, didn't every ACC team get bounced before the second weekend last year while the B12 had two E8 teams? Including Dook by 20 to Tennessee in the second round. I agree Pitt should be a lock though.
Yeah the narrative on the ACC is their own doing. If you remember, before we entered we all thought it was a UNC/Duke league. Perception improved with legendary coaches like Jimmy B, UVA on the rise, Louisville. Then Louisville starts to suck, Jimmy B goes downhill and retires and the nation has UVA fatigue. Hard to fight the narrative when the necessary teams to be good suck and no one else has stepped up permanently (hopefully Pitt has). And 100 percent agreed. We should be talking about Pitt wearing white unis on day 1, not whether or not we might be in Dayton
Yeah and when the committee watches other games on other networks, they hear the broadcast team schilling for the teams they are covering and their conferences to get additional bids. It’s what they do and any intelligent committee member isn’t going to be influenced in any way. Of course assuming the committee members are all intelligent when Scott Barnes sits on is a reach.
Every broadcast team doing games that involve bubble teams has said that the bubble team(s) involved in the game they're currently doing deserves to be in. You guys take that way too seriously. "Oh, Jay Bilas said this!" Yeah, so did the guys doing the A&M, Providence, Virginia, Ohio State, etc., etc., etc. games yesterday. So what?
You need to look at seeding too. The ACC outplayed their seeding in the tourney. The Big 12 got favorable matchups in every game and completely wet the bed. They had a 1 seed lose to an 8 seed. A 2 seed lose to a 10 seed. A 3 seed lose to a 9 seed. A 3 seed lose to a 6 seed. And a 6 seed lose to an 11 seed. That’s horrible.
