Getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament is great. It is recongnition of a fantastic season by Pitt. It is also a sign of respect by the basketball powers that Pitt is not only given a #1 seed after failing in the BET badly, but just how many pundits seem to be putting Pitt in at least the Final Four.
It’s also a little unnerving. To some degree, Pitt fans like the team almost seem to prefer the “no respect” and “no one believes in us” chip. That is not the case. Not by a longshot. Pitt is a favorite.
We can complain and be annoyed when it is brought up yet again how Pitt has never made it past the Sweet Sixteen in the modern Tourney and never won more than two games in any format of the NCAA Tournament. There is nothing to do about that. It’s a huge glaring detail about Pitt basketball. It can’t be ignored. The only way it can be excised is to make it past the Sweet Sixteen.
That is up to the team. No fan is seriously worried about the first round foe. It’s that looming second round game that is the first unnerving thing.
First, since it is an 8/9 game, it is a pick-em. I have no sense of who will win. They are close by every measure. In RPI Tennessee is 18 and Oklahoma State is 20. In Pythag winning % they are 32 and 33 and nearly identical in offensive and defensive efficiency. There’s a slight difference in pace, but not significant.
I doubt the coaches are sure, so that presents a problem just in game planning ahead of time
Tennessee likes to press, but they are a spotty/streaky shooting team that makes it difficult for them to do it consistently. The lack of a good point guard also can bog them down many times. In general, their guard play is spotty, but they throw a lot of them at you. They are reliant on their front court with Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith.
Oklahoma State, by contrast is guard oriented. They have four guards — James Anderson, Byron Eaton, Terrel Harris and Obi Muonelo — that play 30+ minutes a game. They also like to press, as Coach Travis Ford is a Pitino disciple.
The second round game is not any tougher than any other #1 seed faces. It is the match-up that makes me nervous.
There is no doubt, as Coach Dixon has said, this team has a chance to do/be something special. That is the thing. They have to do it. Literally, one game, one half, one possession at a time.
As soon as I saw the bracket, I was far more worried about two power conference teams that are extremely inconsistent (meaning capable of playing well above their heads) in the second round than I was of FSU or Xavier in the sweet 16.
Don’t worry about RPI, S Curve, PQRTY LMNO LOL ROFL BET or what have you. Worry about ETSU. Win that game. Then worry about the 8-9. Then worry about which of the next four we could get. Then the next 8 from the bottom. Every pundit on ESPN’s show had us into the Elite 8, with only Hubert Davis NOT advancing us to the Final Four. It will be a HUGE story if we lose before a potential matchup with Duke/Nova/whomever, irrespective of the fact that FSU is a popular pick right now, and some of these other teams are troublesome. Always remember that RPI is ONE factor in evaluating a team. There are a lot of other ways to do it, too. KenPom.com, for example, does a pretty impressive analysis. He’s got Tennessee 32 and Oklahoma State 33. That would make them an 8 and a 9. (Of course, he has Washington State 31, Florida State 35, and Notre Dame 37. And he is well-respected. There are just too many ways to analyze it. Get your tickets to Dayton, get out to that hellhole of a town, and get us two wins.
HAIL!
