Pitt Moves Up New NCAA Tournament Predictions
PITTSBURGH -- New NCAA Tournament projections are coming fast and furious as college basketball's regular season nears it's close and after an up-and-down week, the Pitt Panthers find themselves moving up those
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has given Pitt a marginal lift, elevating it from the last team on the bubble to the third-to-last team on the bubble. Fox Sports' Mike DeCourcy took it one step further, listing Pitt alongside Utah, Villanova and Colorado as his First Four Out. The Panthers were among his Next Four Out last week.
The Panthers appear to be one of the few ACC teams with a realistic chance of earning another at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Lunardi currently has five ACC teams - North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Wake Forest and Virginia - in the field as it stands, with the Cavaliers and Demon Deacons just on the right side of the bubble.
Lunardi says Miami must beat North Carolina this week to even get back into the conversation for an at-large bid. He has nine teams - Cincinnati, Iowa, Kansas State, Ole Miss, Colorado, Utah, Villanova, and Texas A&M standing in between the Panthers and a Last Four In spot.
DeCourcy has the same five teams from Pitt's home conference in the field as Lunardi does and in much of the same order. North Carolina and Duke lead the pack as No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively. He pegs Clemson as a No. 5 seed and Wake Forest and Virginia as two No. 11 seeds that would play in the First Four in Dayton.
The Panthers can give their resume a massive boost if they take down Clemson on the road this week and pick up another Quad 1 win on the road.
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