Drawing Pitt is actually our best scenario

[benjams77]

I understand our Pitt history and cringe every time we have to play them...As a hoops coach myself I watch Dixon's usually good coaching against our zone...That being said from an RPI standpoint a win vs Pitt in the first game helps us most due to them being decent RPI and Vatech is in 80's...Also Pitt is faltering like us and very vulnerable...Vatech is one of those teams that really has zero to lose and is playing loose and well...Lastly a lose hurts us the least to Pitt due to there RPI also...so I see it being the best of our situation

Someone else here said its very difficult to beat a team 3 times and I agree...For as long as I remember back to early 90's when Conference tourney starts you can get a real good gauge on the Orange postseason hopes right from the tip in the first game...games we have lots of energy in that game and pull out win we usually continue fairly well in conf tourney and NCAA tourney...give or take a couple years...Opening Games we have no energy in conf tourney we usually miss NCAA or go out 1st round of NCAA.

But for whatever reason we limp into the Conf tourney almost every year and it SUCKS!

 

[jncuse]

You raise some good points, but I would rather have had Virginia Tech

It is true that:
1. Beating Pitt vs Beating Virginia Tech is better for our resume (But IMO it only raised our chances of getting in from 80-90% to about 100%)
2. Losing to Pitt is better than Losing to Virginia Tech, in terms of having a chance to get in (maybe increases our chance by 10%, but it it stilll well below 50%)

I would rather have had the scenario of taking care of VTech and risk the slight chance that everything breaks good for others around us.

 

[benjams77]

I like that we really hold our own destiny against PITT...If we played Vatech and won there is still the chance that if others won around us we would then have to beat UNC...I fully believe in this scenario if we win then PITT is out and that slot is filled ...There resume is weaker other than beating us twice and Duke at home...I believe their Non Conf was terrible...Win and we are in vs Pitt is my belief

 

[Briancuse]

Beating Pitt helps our resume, but I don't have any confidence in beating them.

 

[jdubs30]

You can think of it this way too -- if we don't beat Pitt we absolutely don't deserve a bid. You can't let a another fringe/.bubble team beat you 3 times in 1 year.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

It's a virtual play in game.

 

[Knicks411]

I think drawing Pitt would be better for us in this situation
1) we were further from the cut line (and thus needed a quality win more than really just any kind of win to maintain position
2) it wasn't Pitt.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Drawing Pitt is never good for us. We have a better chance of beating UNC.

 

[Marsh01]

We dont need a resume building win We just need A win. And a game against Pitt is not good for getting A win Its armaggeddon as far as i am concerned

 

[NineOneSeven]

We dont need a resume building win We just need A win. And a game against Pitt is not good for getting A win Its armaggeddon as far as i am concerned

Agree completely. Horrible draw

 

[hoopsupstate]

The fact that we're a 9 seed tells me we shouldn't be in the NCAA's. It's embarrassing. We're accepting less and less every year. Pitt's out of conference schedule is awful. VT is the same, but if they win 2 ACC games, it will give them 12 ACC wins.

 

[Madbiker]

I'd prefer to be playing Boston College.

 

[TheCusian]

The fact that we're a 9 seed tells me we shouldn't be in the NCAA's. It's embarrassing. We're accepting less and less every year. Pitt's out of conference schedule is awful. VT is the same, but if they win 2 ACC games, it will give them 12 ACC wins.

Who's accepting it?! There's lots of unhappiness about the last two seasons. It is what it is.

 

[rrlbees]

Doesn't bother me who we're playing. We're an up and down team, so it's more about us and not who our opponent is. Other than BC and the top few teams, everyone else is the same. If we play well, we will win. If we don't we won't. Doesn't matter if it was Pitt, VT, Clemson GT, etc.

 

[hoopsupstate]

I just see a bad trend. We've even lost to 4/5 Big EAst teams we've played (Villanova, GT and SJU twice). The last two lousy teams. We imploded in the last minute against Villanova last year. How many games In a row have we lost to PITT? We've lost our edge. I think we'd be struggling in the Big East too. We beat a Duke team that is having a down year. We haven't been competitive with Virginia, lost to MIami twice and UNC tosses us around like a rag doll. We've lost our last two games to Clemson. Who can we beat in the upper echelon of the ACC? Even after we started 25-0 two years ago, we crashed and burned down the stretch. It's starting to look more like a trend than just a bad stretch. We've become a stale program. I'm hooping next year changes the direction we're going. I'm worried because we still won't have a point guard. You can't win without someone controlling the game at the point. I hope we beat Pitt, but they pretty much do whatever they want against us and I doubt SU will make any adjustments. I'm tired of hearing, this is who we are. It's no longer good enough.

 

[sabach]

The fact that we're a 9 seed tells me we shouldn't be in the NCAA's. It's embarrassing. We're accepting less and less every year. Pitt's out of conference schedule is awful. VT is the same, but if they win 2 ACC games, it will give them 12 ACC wins.

We actually finished 10th.

 

[Bayside44]

If we play our A game we can beat them.

People need to come back from the ledge, the last 2 seasons have been marked by probation, JB our 9 games, 3 early entries (with a season ending injury to 1) and missing on 3 recruits. And we're still pushing 40 wins.

The program snaps back into place next season.

 

[hoopsupstate]

By the way, there will be no better feeling than beating Pitt on Wednesday and knocking them out of the tournament. I just hope I don't have to throw anything through my TV.

 

[jdubs30]

By the way, there will be no better feeling than beating Pitt on Wednesday and knocking them out of the tournament. I just hope I don't have to throw anything through my TV.

This is the first time I've felt good all year about playing Pitt. Truthfully I hated the draw yesterday, but for some reason on a neutral court in a tournament setting I feel confident.

Also, didn't someone on here post about having a dream or something a week ago where we lost to Pitt in the ACCT because Cooney missed 2 FTs than some dude Pitt nailed both of his and we lost by 2?

 

[orangenirvana]

I just see a bad trend. We've even lost to 4/5 Big EAst teams we've played (Villanova, GT and SJU twice). The last two lousy teams. We imploded in the last minute against Villanova last year. How many games In a row have we lost to PITT? We've lost our edge. I think we'd be struggling in the Big East too. We beat a Duke team that is having a down year. We haven't been competitive with Virginia, lost to MIami twice and UNC tosses us around like a rag doll. We've lost our last two games to Clemson. Who can we beat in the upper echelon of the ACC? Even after we started 25-0 two years ago, we crashed and burned down the stretch. It's starting to look more like a trend than just a bad stretch. We've become a stale program. I'm hooping next year changes the direction we're going. I'm worried because we still won't have a point guard. You can't win without someone controlling the game at the point. I hope we beat Pitt, but they pretty much do whatever they want against us and I doubt SU will make any adjustments. I'm tired of hearing, this is who we are. It's no longer good enough.

The fact that we're a 9 seed tells me we shouldn't be in the NCAA's. It's embarrassing. We're accepting less and less every year. Pitt's out of conference schedule is awful. VT is the same, but if they win 2 ACC games, it will give them 12 ACC wins.

 

[RICuse44]

We dont need a resume building win We just need A win. And a game against Pitt is not good for getting A win Its armaggeddon as far as i am concerned

If we can't beat Pitt we don't belong in either tournament.

 

[DonLightfoot]

I just see a bad trend. We've even lost to 4/5 Big EAst teams we've played (Villanova, GT and SJU twice). The last two lousy teams. We imploded in the last minute against Villanova last year. How many games In a row have we lost to PITT? We've lost our edge. I think we'd be struggling in the Big East too. We beat a Duke team that is having a down year. We haven't been competitive with Virginia, lost to MIami twice and UNC tosses us around like a rag doll. We've lost our last two games to Clemson. Who can we beat in the upper echelon of the ACC? Even after we started 25-0 two years ago, we crashed and burned down the stretch. It's starting to look more like a trend than just a bad stretch. We've become a stale program. I'm hooping next year changes the direction we're going. I'm worried because we still won't have a point guard. You can't win without someone controlling the game at the point. I hope we beat Pitt, but they pretty much do whatever they want against us and I doubt SU will make any adjustments. I'm tired of hearing, this is who we are. It's no longer good enough.

This is an excellent post.

 

[hoopsupstate]

WOW! This is exactly like a feel!

 

[orangecuse]

We better win, otherwise we'll still have a big 'ol goose egg in conference tournament games after 3 years in the ACC. Yeah, we missed last year because of the ban, however, we were a significant bubble team last year too and no sure thing to get that first W then either.

 

[FrancoPizza]

If we play our A game we can beat them.

The problem is other mediocre teams don't need their A game to beat Pitt.