PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Hearing from experts in college basketball, the reason Pitt is still not a lock for the NCAA Tournament or a better seed than expected, starts with non-conference play.
CBS Sports Jeff Palm told The PM Team it's not a vendetta against the Panthers or their season. It's about being in what is judged a weak conference and a non-conference schedule that gives them little help.
"The schedule is soft," Palm told Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller on 93.7 The Fan. "Most of their losses have come against teams that might not be in the NCAA Tournament. In fact, only one of their losses has come to a team that is definitely going to the NCAA Tournament, that's Duke. There are a few others that could still play their way in. It's a Quad-4 heavy schedule."
What might drive Pitt fans crazy is they are ranked 53rd in NET rankings leading the ACC with 21 wins while West Virginia is 23rd with 17 wins.
Comparing the schedules
West Virginia v Pitt losses
· WVU worst ranked loss is to number 65 Oklahoma
· Pitt worst ranked loss is to number 218 Florida State
Number of top 100 NET wins
· WVU-9
· Pitt-6
Non-conference win rankings
· WVU-Pitt (53), UAB (57), UF (59), Penn (141), Navy (168), Buf (181), More St (220), Port St (255), MtStM (278), Stony Brook (334)
· Pitt-Northwestern (47), NF (230), Tenn-Martin (246), FDU (306), W&M (315), Sacred Heart (331), Ala St (347)
When presented the Panthers quality wins (NC State, Virginia, UNC), Palm said 'that's nice'. Then pointed out.
"The strength of schedule isn't very good," Palm said. "The quality of the losses isn't very good. The teams that they are competing with, especially Big 10, Big 12 and SEC teams, have all played better schedules because the ACC is not that good this year."
"The ACC is not what the ACC usually is. There are those that would argue that the ACC is not as good as the Mountain West. There are some computers and people that say that, I don't."
Palm doesn't buy into the argument that the ACC won the ACC-Big 10 Challenge saying it's a number of preset games before the season begins. He calls them a one-off and to truly measure who is the better conference, you would have to play a lot more games.
He believes Big 12 is far-and-away the best conference in college basketball and could make an argument for all of their teams to get in the NCAA Tournament, but notes that's not likely to happen.
There is a piece of good news for Pitt fans-Palm believes with a win against Notre Dame on Wednesday, it would make them a lock to get into the tournament. That's as much for Pitt having 22 wins as other teams just running out of time to catch them.
How you can really judge who is the better conference will always be up for debate. One expert will say a conference leader having a tight game with a lower team proves the strength of the conference, while another will say it proves the conference leader isn't that good.
We're getting close to selection Sunday and while not having a message many Pitt fans like, the long-team CBS bracketologist did offer this.
"Sorry I don't have better news, but glad to see Pitt back in tournament contention."
