Fox National Analyst Releases First Bracketology, Includes Pitt

On Friday, Fox Sports bracketologist Mike DeCourcy released his first bracket prediction of the year and included Pitt in the NCAA Tournament field.

The first bracket forecast from @tsnmike is HERE! 🙌

What do you think? pic.twitter.com/6mkcTBVrws

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) December 27, 2024

DeCourcy included the Panthers as a No. 5 seed in this year’s tournament field. He has them in the East Region playing against 12-seed Arkansas State. He also included four ACC teams in the field of 68: Duke (2 seed), Pitt (5 seed), Clemson (8 seed), and SMU (9 seed). He has Pitt opponents Mississippi State (2 seed), West Virginia (10 seed), Wisconsin (8 seed), and Ohio State (9 seed) in the field so far.

Pitt is currently 10-2 on the season and 1-0 in ACC play with a road victory over Virginia Tech. Pitt’s two losses have come to No. 19 Mississippi State (11-1 on the year) and Wisconsin, who received nine votes in this week’s AP Poll. The Panthers are ranked No. 11 in the NCAA NET Rankings. The following teams have at least three losses and are ranked in the AP Top 25 this week: UConn (10-3), Gonzaga (9-3), Houston (8-3), Purdue (8-4), Illinois (8-3), and Baylor (7-3).

Pitt has the entire week off, and will play next on Jan. 1 against California at 1 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.

Pitt guard Brandin Cummings celebrates during a game against Sam Houston on Dec. 21, 2024 — Pitt Athletics

Pitt hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since the 2022-23 season, in which it went all the way from the First Four to the Round of 32.

This offseason, the NCAA added two new metrics to consideration for the NCAA Tournament field.

The two metrics — Bart Torvik’s “T-Rank” and Wins Above Bubble — will be considered when the committee is weighing prospective NCAA Tournament teams.

“The committee has always valued different data points and metrics to assist with its evaluation process, and these two metrics have increasingly been referenced by members in recent years,” NCAA Senior VP of Basketball Dan Gavitt said in a press release. “Adding them to the team sheet ensures that all 12 members easily have access to this data. The Torvik rankings, along with BPI and KenPom, give the committee three predictive ratings, while the WAB, Strength of Record and KPI give them three results-based metrics, all of which, in addition to the NET, will be beneficial to the team evaluation process.”

The NCAA announced this addition to the selection committee’s team sheet at its summer meetings. It also announced that the 2026 Division II and III men’s basketball championships and the NIT semifinals and finals will take place in Indianapolis the same weekend as the Division I Final Four. Here is more information on the new metrics in consideration.

“The committee has always valued different data points and metrics to assist with its evaluation process, and these two metrics have increasingly been referenced by members in recent years,” Gavitt added. “Adding them to the team sheet ensures that all 12 members easily have access to this data. The Torvik rankings, along with BPI and KenPom, give the committee three predictive ratings, while the WAB, Strength of Record and KPI give them three results-based metrics, all of which, in addition to the NET, will be beneficial to the team evaluation process.”

For reference, Pitt’s 2022-23 team rated significantly lower than the average NCAA Tournament team in T-Rank, coming in at No. 72 in the country. However, the 2023-24 team — the one that did not make the tournament — finished the season at No. 30 overall. Saint John’s (No. 16), Pitt (No. 30), Villanova (No. 31), Wake Forest (No. 35), Seton Hall (No. 38), and Utah (No. 40) were the highest-ranked Torvik teams that did not earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

“The core of T-Rank is calculating offensive and defensive efficiency: points scored and points allowed per possession (“PPP” = points per possession, often rendered as points per 100 possessions),” Torvik said in a blog post explaining the stat. “Although coaches like Dean Smith and Bo Ryan have long relied on PPP, it really hit the big time when Ken Pomeroy popularized it about a decade ago.”

Follow DeCourcy’s work here and at The Sporting News here.