We now what time our Panthers play on Thursday and we’ve managed to escape one of the daytime slots that cause tons of know what people to miss watching it.
Update: This is 8:30 central time. It is a 9:30-ish start on the east coast.
Cinderellas (13 seed or worse that are capable of an upset)
Wright State (vs. Pitt) – The Raiders finished the season 23-9, but they started 3-5 as they adjusted to new coach Brad Brownell. Since Christmas, this has been one of the hottest teams in the country. Wright State finished by winning 12 of its final 13 games, including two over Butler, and both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. This team is much better than a No. 14 seed.
Got to beat WS first.
Thanks for the info Carmen.
Wright State’s tallest player is 6’8 and second tallest is 6’6. Pitt should DOMINATE up front and on the boards.
Wright State did just lose to Youngstown State by 15 a few weeks ago.
Bring on the Dukies!!! McRoberts scares the hell out of me, especially with Gray struggling against other legit big men.
Sure, it’ll be a disaster if we lose, but I’m not going to sit here and tempt fate by saying bring on Duke.
And on a semi-related note, is anyone like me and praying that Duke beats VCU? VCU has hyper-athletic guards, and we all know how we play against teams with quick, slashing guards. Against Duke, Gray – even at his plodding pace – would crush McRoberts, and Paulus is anything but athletic. McRoberts is like a Kendall kind of player; every now and then, he’ll put up 10 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists. But for the most part, McRoberts is an inconsistent “potential” guy – I’ve seen plenty of Duke games where the guy is just invisible, especially if Duke gets shot-happy. I feel 100 times more comfortable in a matchup against Duke. If not for those reasons, for the “Bradley factor”, Pitt looking past a mid-major team. Wouldn’t be the first time that’s ever happened.
Speaking of OOC, check out Wright State’s sked. It’s pretty easy to say that we’re the best team they’ve played this year, by far. A lot of people are raving about how they beat Butler twice – but check it out. They won on their home court by 5 and 12 points against an overrated team (in my book). When Wright played their one game at Butler, they lost by 31 points (interesting, since it will be a virtual road game for WSU.) Also, Wright has lost 4 games this year to teams ranked under 212 in the RPI. That’s pretty lousy, I don’t care who you beat. Their best win outside of their two Ws vs. Butler was Miami (OH), by one.
Just some interesting factoids to ponder.
I’m pretty sure that going 6-4 against RPI 200+ teams (as I mentioned above) is a good way to get bumped to a 14 seed.
You have to drop to the 140s to find the next team with that many bad losses.
Either way, Pitt still needs to focus. I’m so pumped for these games.
Against the top 50:
Stanford 4-8
NM St. 3-3
Winthrop 2-4
GW 1-3
LBSU 2-2
WrightSt 2-2
The only team of those other five that has a 200+ loss is LBSU.
It’s an interesting comparison to make, for sure.
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