The Pitt Panthers needed a few things to happen for them on Saturday and fortunately for them, all of those things did happen.
The Panthers entered Saturday on the tournament bubble, therefore the thing that could’ve killed Pitt was Cinderella teams that unexpectedly won their conference tournament and stole a bid.
Ohio State, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, Tulane and UAB were all still in position to be win their conference tournament, which would’ve hurt Pitt’s chances, however, all of those teams lost.
Now, Pitt’s fate is now in the hands of the tournament committee, who will examine the resumes of all the teams that they have on the bubble.
Going by every bracketology expert in the country, PSN has concluded that Pitt has four teams to be worried about that could steal their tournament spot.
While PSN believes that Pitt will hear its name called on CBS, these teams could knock them out: NC State, Nevada, Clemson and Arizona State.
Here’s a look at their resumes:
NC State (23-10)
NET Ranking: No. 45
KenPom Ranking: No. 55
Quality Wins: Dayton, Vanderbilt, Duke, Miami
Bad Losses: Syracuse, North Carolina
*Pitt beat NC State in lone head-to-head game this season.
Nevada (21-10)
NET Ranking: No. 37
KenPom Ranking: No. 41
Quality Wins: Boise State, Utah State, San Diego State
Bad Losses: Loyola Marymount, Oregon, UNLV (twice), Wyoming and San Jose State.
Clemson (23-10)
NET Ranking:Â No. 60
KenPom Ranking: No. 64
Quality Wins: Pitt, Penn State, NC State (3 times) and Duke.
Bad Losses: South Carolina, Loyola Chicago, Boston College, North Carolina, Louisville
*Clemson beat Pitt in lone head-to-head game this season.
Arizona State (22-12)
NET Ranking:Â No. 66
KenPom Ranking: No. 68
Quality Wins: VCU, Creighton, Arizona, USC
Bad Losses: Texas Southern, San Francisco, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado
PITT (22-11)
NET Ranking: No. 67
KenPom Ranking: No. 78
Quality Wins: Northwestern, NC State, Virginia, North Carolina (twice), Miami
Bad Losses: Michigan, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame
This will no doubt be a nerve wracking next 8 hours because Pitt is clearly not in a comfortable position and could easily be left out, here’s something to consider: Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, EVERY ACC team that won 70% of its conference games during the regular season qualified for the NCAA tournament. EVERY SINGLE ONE.
If that statistic holds true today, Pitt will hear their name called.
