PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s knowing how to play the game. Not the one on the court, but the one that paves a road for the NCAA Tournament.
Pitt head coach Jeff Capel believes he has one of the top 68 teams in the nation, but the Panthers hopes are hanging by a string. Maybe not even that optimistic playing at Boston College Saturday at 6p on 93.7 The Fan.
Currently, CBS Sports Bracketologist Jerry Palm has only two ACC schools as locks for the NCAA Tournament. Say it with me, Duke and North Carolina. Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said other conferences have found a way to work the system in their favor. He believes the current formula places too high a value on margin of victory. Capel could see it as the Panthers soared in the NET Rankings, a big determiner of NCAA bids, after double-digit wins over Louisville and Virginia Tech.
So you could play bad teams in the preseason, win by a lot and set your league up with a conference slate full of of Quad 1 or at lowest Quad 2 games.
“We have to be smarter,” Capel said. “We have to be calculating. There is no way our league shouldn’t get more teams in the NCAA Tournament. There is no way.”
“Clemson won 14 games in the league last year and didn’t make it in. That’s ridiculous.”
Most think Clemson will get in this season, but the Tigers thought so last year. You would think any human element would give a nudge to Clemson because of last season’s snub. Virginia is dropping off a little bit lately, Wake Forest beat Pitt and Duke, but lost to Notre Dame. The Panthers lost to Wake and a close one at Clemson.
Why is the ACC all of a sudden not getting many teams in the NCAA? They’ve done respectively well in conference-versus-conference matchups. Maybe it’s that they don’t have sexy players of the year recently—Isaiah Wong (Miami), Alondes Williams (Wake Forest), Moses Wright (Georgia Tech) are the last three. It’s not the national recognition of a Zion Williamson, Marvin Bagley, JJ Redick, Tim Duncan, Christian Laettner, Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson of the past.
Maybe it’s because they’ve lost three Hall of Fame coaches in the last couple of years in Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim.
“At times it does seem personal and I’ve wondered why,” Capel said. “I know when I was in the Big 12, there was a feeling in that league that there was an East Coast bias. That everything went to the East Coast to the ACC and the Big East. I don’t know if that Coach (Krzyzewski) is gone, Coach Williams is gone that people feel like they can take shots at our league now.”
“Look, everyone is tired of the (Kansas City) Chiefs now, people got tired of the (New England) Patriots. Duke was the darling in the ‘80s, after they won back-to-back, they became the villains.”
“The ACC has been the best conference-historically, numbers-wise, everything. Sometimes maybe people get tired of that and you put this narrative out that is not true about our league. When you look at what we’ve done when we make it to the tournament-multiple teams in the Final Four, multiple teams winning national championships, multiple teams to the Sweet 16, Elite 8. You can take it with draft picks.”
“All of the things, these other leagues pale in comparison to the history of our league. Maybe that’s why that narrative is being created. Bottom line is we need to get more teams in the tournament, that’s the bottom line.”
To Capel’s point about the Final 4, the ACC was the only Power 5 conference represented in 2023. ACC was the only conference with two teams in 2022. No ACC teams in 2021 with the Big 12 and PAC 12 with reps. Virginia won the NCAA Tournament in 2019. The Pitt head coach said the ACC has done a good job in trying to get information to the national media, but he’s not sure what more can be done.
“I wish there was an eye test of watching,” Capel said. “I think we are one of the best 68 teams right now. That doesn’t matter. What matters are the numbers and how you look at all of these different things.”
Those people and metrics that look at those things don’t like the ACC. Wonder why?