Clear-thinking assessment: Pitt is #1 in ACC

[bballbeadle]

Ok, this article really fried me:

By Ron Cook / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Syracuse is 18-0 and has been ranked No. 2 in America since Dec. 9, but it is not the favorite to win the ACC championship.

Pitt is.

I'm serious.

That is not a giddy overreaction to Pitt's ridiculously easy 76-43 win against Clemson Tuesday night at Petersen Events Center. It is merely a clear-thinking assessment of the way Pitt is playing, its 5-1 league record, the quality of the other ACC teams and the remaining schedule.

All signs point to Pitt.

It is much more fun to think about how Pitt can win the ACC in its first season in the conference. It's not a stretch to suggest it should be in first place now instead of Syracuse. It lost at Syracuse, 59-54, Saturday in a game that left the players and coaching staff angry because they felt they should have won."

Okay, it's one thing to believe that you are a quality ACC team. No one would argue with that in regards to Pitt. But because they "should have won," they feel they ARE the best??

 

[omniorange]

I do agree with one point - their remaining schedule gives them the inside track at winning the ACC. All of their tough games remaining (us, Duke, UVa, and FSU) are at home while we still have Duke at home and then Pitt, Duke, UVa, and FSU on the road.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[PeteCalvin]

That entire city must have an inferiority complex because Dixon can't make a Final Four.

Circle our game @ Pitt, ladies and gents. It is going to be a downright fist fight. Look for Dixon's patented moving screens to be on full display, the refs will be, almost assuredly, blind, and Dixon will be running around complaining about the no calls on ticky tack stuff...all the while our boys will have bloodied lips from the no calls on the elbows and forearms.

I hope we blast them by ten down there.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Who cares? We'll see what happens when we go to Pittsburgh. Maybe this will be extra motivation for our guys to rebound better in Pittsburgh and take it to them.

I was impressed with them. I was thinking about it. Three guys made HUGE improvements on their team. Two in particular. Patterson and Zanna. You have Patterson who would be my clear choice for ACC POY although Hood and Ennis are up there, too. Zanna was making shots and playing great in the high post. Then you have Robinson who looks like he at least belongs now. Last year he was not good despite being pretty hyped coming in.

 

[RaleighSUfan]

I do agree with one point - their remaining schedule gives them the inside track at winning the ACC. All of their tough games remaining (us, Duke, UVa, and FSU) are at home while we still have Duke at home and then Pitt, Duke, UVa, and FSU on the road.

Cheers,
Neil

I also agree that Pitt's schedule is much more favorable than ours. Fortunately, we can end their hopes on our trip to the Peterson Events Center.

 

[KelVarnson]

Ignores the fact that Pitt were about to get their doors blown off before Patterson went Peja Stojakovic on us for about 3 minutes.

 

[thebigeast44]

Who cares? We'll see what happens when we go to Pittsburgh. Maybe this will be extra motivation for our guys to rebound better in Pittsburgh and take it to them.

I was impressed with them. I was thinking about it. Three guys made HUGE improvements on their team. Two in particular. Patterson and Zanna. You have Patterson who would be my clear choice for ACC POY although Hood and Ennis are up there, too. Zanna was making shots and playing great in the high post. Then you have Robinson who looks like he at least belongs now. Last year he was not good despite being pretty hyped coming in.

Robinson leads the nation in assist to turnover ratio - I'd say he belongs and IMHO is the most important player on their team as Ennis is on ours.

 

[Libero2]

If he made the right argument, remaining schedule, nobody would argue. In actuality the game at Pitt might well be for regular season ACC honors. If we can win that game... I really do think we would be the #1 team in the country.

 

[General20]

You know the ACC is bad when Pitt has zero quality wins and legitimately thinks they can win the conference.

Their loss at Syracuse was massive because it was their one and only chance to get a quality road win this year. They don't have another road game against a team with a chance to make the tournament, much less a top 25 team.

If Syracuse beat's them again, Pitt has a very realistic chance of going the whole year without a quality win, and while I'm sure their record will be good, if they end up at the bottom part of the top 25 and lack a single quality win they are going to be sweating when selection time comes.

 

[edowd26]

Ill just say I understand Pitt thinks they should have won. Any close game every loser thinks they should have one. But they didn't. If we could have rebounded properly that 10 point lead could have ballooned to 15. If patterson didn't hit three straight 3s from east bum we could have torn it wide open. Only reason they think they should have won was due to poor execution on our part. There style is bush. And regardless if they win the ACC or not an elite eight will/ would be the pinnacle for them.

Btw beating them made me feel like this.

 

[Lawrinson14]

Pitt is the guy who holds the door for you while you are still 50 feet away.

 

[bballbeadle]

You know the ACC is bad when Pitt has zero quality wins and legitimately thinks they can win the conference.

Yes! This is what sticks in my craw. Now, you gentlemen (& ladies) know that I am not an irritable or hostile person by nature. But this really got to me. The leap in logic from "we should have won so therefore we are the best and it's not even close" is a line of thinking I can't relate to.

 

[CorduroyG]

You know the ACC is bad when Pitt has zero quality wins and legitimately thinks they can win the conference.

Their loss at Syracuse was massive because it was their one and only chance to get a quality road win this year. They don't have another road game against a team with a chance to make the tournament, much less a top 25 team.

If Syracuse beat's them again, Pitt has a very realistic chance of going the whole year without a quality win, and while I'm sure their record will be good, if they end up at the bottom part of the top 25 and lack a single quality win they are going to be sweating when selection time comes.[/quote]


does that mean you think they might be a bubble team?? no chance.

 

[OrangeDW]

Ok, this article really fried me:

By Ron Cook / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Syracuse is 18-0 and has been ranked No. 2 in America since Dec. 9, but it is not the favorite to win the ACC championship.

Pitt is.

I'm serious.

That is not a giddy overreaction to Pitt's ridiculously easy 76-43 win against Clemson Tuesday night at Petersen Events Center. It is merely a clear-thinking assessment of the way Pitt is playing, its 5-1 league record, the quality of the other ACC teams and the remaining schedule.

All signs point to Pitt.

It is much more fun to think about how Pitt can win the ACC in its first season in the conference. It's not a stretch to suggest it should be in first place now instead of Syracuse. It lost at Syracuse, 59-54, Saturday in a game that left the players and coaching staff angry because they felt they should have won."

Okay, it's one thing to believe that you are a quality ACC team. No one would argue with that in regards to Pitt. But because they "should have won," they feel they ARE the best??

That guy probably has a mullet and puts French fries on his burgers.

Well, I do that too....but I don't have a mullet.

 

[SU2NASA]

Pitt is the guy who holds the door for you while you are still 50 feet away.

Losers whine about their best, winners go home and f**k the prom queen.

 

[omniorange]

You know the ACC is bad when Pitt has zero quality wins and legitimately thinks they can win the conference.

Their loss at Syracuse was massive because it was their one and only chance to get a quality road win this year. They don't have another road game against a team with a chance to make the tournament, much less a top 25 team.

If Syracuse beat's them again, Pitt has a very realistic chance of going the whole year without a quality win, and while I'm sure their record will be good, if they end up at the bottom part of the top 25 and lack a single quality win they are going to be sweating when selection time comes.

Sweating it in terms of seeding, right? Not in terms of actually making the tourney.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[General20]

Sweating it in terms of seeding, right? Not in terms of actually making the tourney.

Cheers,
Neil

Obviously their record gives them the inside track on making the tournament, but they are not a lock, and they still have a lot of work to do. Their games against Syracuse, Duke, and Virginia are huge. If they lose those (and a couple more) they could miss the tournament with well over twenty wins.

I personally think they will make it, but be very disappointment with their seed unless they beat SU and then do something in the ACC tournament.

 

[Knicks411]

Yeah they will be fine to make the tournament. They also have road games vs Clemson and UNC; UNC probably won't make it but Clemson has a chance to. And home shots vs Duke, UVA, us, and FSU. They'll get some good wins.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Ok, this article really fried me:

By Ron Cook / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
" It's not a stretch to suggest it should be in first place now instead of Syracuse. It lost at Syracuse, 59-54, Saturday in a game that left the players and coaching staff angry because they felt they should have won."

Isn't it funny how those "shoulda won" games (of which we've had a few) always seem to stay in the "Loss" column?

Look...Pitt is a very good team.
Top 10 for sure.
BUT...Pitt LOST.
So...until we meet again...please shut up.

Between the two teams we're going to clean up the old ACC.
We should just refer to the other schools as The Big East Southern Division - Second Tier.

 

[JohnCuse44]

Don't we get to decide this on the court again in a few weeks?

If we beat them twice and win one of the Duke games we finish #1 in the ACC.

 

[omniorange]

Don't we get to decide this on the court again in a few weeks?

If we beat them twice and win one of the Duke games we finish #1 in the ACC.

There is an outside possibility that even if we win at Pitt, they win all of their other ACC games and finish 16-2. Meanwhile we could lose @Duke, @UVa, and @FSU and finish 15-3. Pitt wins the regular season title even though they lost twice to us.

I think we still would be the much higher seed though, unless they won the ACCT as well.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[rottweiler44]

They are really stretching the "we should have won" concept….whatever it takes for them to motivate I guess

 

[RF2044]

The rationalization in that article is, at best, delusional. And at worst, the most overt case of sour grapes imaginable.

If the queen had balls, she'd be the king. But she doesn't. And they may feel like they "should" have won, but they didn't make the plays necessary down the stretch to win--the better team [i.e., us] did.

And whether they beat us down there is irrelevant; it doesn't change the fact that what we needed was to get a SPLIT with them in order to put us in the drivers seat. Mission accomplished last Saturday.

15-3 wins the conference.

 

[Samspann20]

Ok, this article really fried me:

It is much more fun to think about how Pitt can win the ACC in its first season in the conference. It's not a stretch to suggest it should be in first place now instead of Syracuse. It lost at Syracuse, 59-54, Saturday in a game that left the players and coaching staff angry because they felt they should have won."

I don't know what the problem with this is. It's still my belief that we actually did make the Final Four in 2012, because the Ohio State game left the players and coaching staff (and fans) angry because we all felt they should have won. And obviously we also have 2 national titles now, because we should've won in 1987.

 

[Knicks411]

They do have an easier schedule down the stretch than us, but the win over them was huge.
Pomeroy is projecting each team for 15-3. Do we know the tiebreaker after head to head? How you did against thrd place?