Rothstein: Pitt Potential NCAA Tournament Bid Stealer

The Pitt Panthers are a threat to win the ACC Tournament and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

WASHINGTON, DC -- While the Pitt Panthers remain on the NCAA Tournament bubble as of right now, they are a threat to run the table in the ACC Tournament and earn an automatic bid into the Big Dance. 

College Hoops Today's Jon Rothstein put together a list of nine teams whom he believes are dark horses to win their conference tournaments, including Pitt among them. 

"The Panthers have quietly won 21 games and returned to national relevance under Jeff Capel, who led this program to two NCAA Tournament victories a year ago," Rothstein wrote. "Pitt has a star in Blake Hinson (18.8 points, 4.6 rebounds), a burgeoning freshman in Carlton Carrington (13.6 points), and the necessary post depth to win multiple games in multiple days. Monitor this team closely over the next few days in Washington D.C."

Memphis, Loyola Chicago, Kansas State, Butler, Ohio State, UNLV, USC and Texas A&M were the other teams Rothstein mentioned within his list. 

ESPN's Joe Lunardi's latest projections ranked the Panthers as one of his Next Four Out while CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has them as his first team out of the tournament field. 

At a minimum, Pitt likely needs to defeat its first opponent in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, whether that be Wake Forest or Notre Dame, in order to keep its at-large hopes alive. A second win in the semifinals, potentially against North Carolina, would go a long way towards locking in a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the program. 

The Panthers, however, have set themselves up nicely for a run at the program's first conference tournament victory since 2008 that would remove any doubt about their postseason status. 

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